Total input freeze but music plays normally in the background

General Help
1

Hi everyone.
I'm quite new to Zorin, been using it for less than a year, on my computer with a dual boot Zorin / Win 10.
I've been frequently (once every week or so) getting total input freezes (mouse, keyboard, power button) that I can only solve by forcing the shutdown.
It always happens right after I click on something when the system is dealing with a laggy program.

Ex : Steam is not responding, so I open the system monitor to end the process. I try a first time, it doesn't work, and the second time I click on the "end the process" button, everything freezes with my mouse right on the button. If there's music in the background, it continues playing normally, the next song also plays correctly, which probably means that the system is working fine in the background.

What I already tried :
Alt + Sysreq + F --> no effect on freeze
Ctrl + Alt + F3 --> no effect on freeze
Trying to power off normally with the power button --> no effect on freeze
Trying to power off the screen to see if this is a display bug --> no effect on freeze

One forum post suggested to use the following command : journalctl -p err -b
I tried it a couple times after a freeze and the result looks always the same :
kernel: x86/cpu: VMX (outside TXT) disabled by BIOS
kernel: x86/cpu: SGX disabled by BIOS.
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: ima: Error Communicating to TPM chip
kernel: usb 1-2: device not accepting address 3, error -71
kernel: ACPI Error: Needed [Buffer/String/Package], found [Integer] 000000006e524c33 (20230628/exresop-557)
kernel: ACPI Error: AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE, While resolving operands for [Index] (20230628/dswexec-433)
kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.WMIV.WVPO due to previous error (AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE) (20230628/psparse-529)
kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.WMIV.WMPV due to previous error (AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE) (20230628/psparse-529)
kernel: ACPI Error: Needed [Buffer/String/Package], found [Integer] 00000000ca98a433 (20230628/exresop-557)
kernel: ACPI Error: AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE, While resolving operands for [Index] (20230628/dswexec-433)
kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.WMIV.WVPO due to previous error (AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE) (20230628/psparse-529)
kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.WMIV.WMPV due to previous error (AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE) (20230628/psparse-529)
kernel: ACPI Error: Needed [Buffer/String/Package], found [Integer] 0000000002206eb1 (20230628/exresop-557)
kernel: ACPI Error: AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE, While resolving operands for [Index] (20230628/dswexec-433)
kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.WMIV.WVPO due to previous error (AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE) (20230628/psparse-529)
kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.WMIV.WMPV due to previous error (AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE) (20230628/psparse-529)
kernel: ACPI Error: Needed [Buffer/String/Package], found [Integer] 00000000b04bc038 (20230628/exresop-557)
kernel: ACPI Error: AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE, While resolving operands for [Index] (20230628/dswexec-433)
kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.WMIV.WVPO due to previous error (AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE) (20230628/psparse-529)

However I don't seem to find any useful information about these errors on the Internet

My system spec are :
HP HP ProDesk 400 G3 MT with 8 GiB Memory (I had 16 GiB before but one chip somehow died, didn't seem to change the frequency of freezes)
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz × 8
Graphics Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2)
OS Zorin OS 17.3 Core 64 bits

One last thing : when I installed Zorin a couple months ago, I made it so I could hibernate my computer and I usually don't restart often. I don't know if that could explain anything.

Does someone have an idea of what could be the cause of these freezes ?
Thanks in advance !
Hugues

2

Turn off secure boot and fast boot in your BIOS while using Linux and also fast startup in Windows.

Because you have an error with TPM also look how TPM is set in your BIOS and turn it on or off.

Then you could try to switch to Xorg if you use Wayland. Logout and then on your loginscreen click on your username. Then a gear icon appears on the screen where you can set "Zorin desktop on Xorg".

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3

Thanks for the reply !

Secure boot could interfere with an already-running system ? I'm not very knowledgeable about operating systems, and I thought this was just a "booting" feature.

Anyway, I'll try your suggestions one at a time to see if there's any difference.
I'll come back here if there's change, or if nothing worked.
Thanks again

4

Hi and welcome.

Also see if this assists with TPM issue:

1 Like
5

Just as others said, disabling secure boot should fix this. Usually it causes problems to other users during installation or live-booting, but as it worked for you nevertheless, but those issues seem to be arising now.

1 Like
6

Yes, due to what being able to initialize at boot affecting what is running on the system.

7

Hey !
Turns out my secure boot was already disabled, I may have already done it when I installed my dual boot (I followed a guide, so I could have done it without remembering it)
I also disabled legacy support, I'll come back here in a couple days to tell if there's been any change.
Thanks again

8

Please search for TPM in your BIOS. It should be at security tab. It is not the same as CSM (legacy support).

1 Like
9

Alright I just searched. Is there anything specific I should note ?
TPM Embedded Security
TPM Specification Version : 1.2
TPM Device : available
TPM state : unchecked
Clear TPM : no
TPM activation policy : Allow user to reject

10

I am at a loss at the moment, perhaps someone other knows. It seems as TPM is disabled. And you write secure boot is also disabled. I thought it could be a problem if secure boot is on and TPM off, but when they are both turned off I don't know what the problem is. Linux doesn't need them. Or do you use encryption or bitlocker or so?

1 Like
11

Thank you again for your help !
My main disk is not encrypted, as far as I know.

12

You can try and look what happens when you turn TPM on.

1 Like
13

Alright, I'll try that !

14

Maybe I missed it on this thread, but have you switched from Wayland to Xorg?

That music still plays shows that the Kernel is Still Active. THis means that it is not crashing, you are getting an input stack or a graphics stack wedge.
Intel HD Graphics 530 is stable on X11 (Xorg), but Wayland support (especially under load) is still problematic and weakly supported.

Your ACPI errors are usually harmless; these deal with the kernel not recognizing some entries in Windows OS only ACPI tables. Still, I recommend upgrading your BIOS Firmware if an Update is available.
Using Hibernate frequently can create instability with USB I/O, GPU and ACPI; which you are showing and your kernel is awake and active.
So, I would test using Hibernate Disabled for a bit to see if the I/O freezing stops if upgrading the BIOS firmware does not help.
For USB I/O, you might try the grub parameter usbcore.autosuspend=-1

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15

You can use suspend instead of hibernate. Hibernate is often disabled in Linux distributions because it makes much more problems.
But for your computer it is better to shutdown completely now and then.
I searched for TPM communication problems as yours and found it can be caused when TPM is set to "inactive" in BIOS instead of "disabled". If you have such settings in your BIOS you could also try this.

What you could check is whether the problem also occurs after a complete shutdown of the computer or only after standby. Often such freezes only occur after standby (suspend or hibernate).

What you could also check is whether it is related to the automatic standby. Does it also occur when you manually switch to suspend/hibernate mode via a button in the start menu or a keyboard shortcut (and if you are using a laptop, do not use closing the laptop lid to switch to suspend/hibernate). In XFCE desktop environment I use, this is a problem for some machines. You could give it a try to see if it makes a difference for you.

1 Like
16

What are the specs of your computer?Brand, model...

If you often get the message that are apps not responding you can increase the time until this messages pop up with this command (or you can install dconf editor to set it there):

"gsettings set org.gnome.mutter check-alive-timeout 60000"

60000 is the time in miliseconds, also now it is set to 60 seconds. By default it is set to 5000 miliseconds = 5 seconds. You can choose a value you want.

1 Like
17

Thanks for all these replies, that make me realize that I don't shutdown my computer that often. The fact that the freeze almost never happens twice on the same day could mean that it has something to do with hibernation.
For a couple days now I've tried to shutdown my computer at least once every other day, and so far no sign of freeze. I'll try updating my BIOS in the meantime, and if that still doesn't help, I'll try switching to Xorg
In any case I'll come back to tell you what worked
Thanks again

1 Like
18

Hi again !
After around 2 weeks without total input freeze and without using hibernation (not disabled, just not using it), I just got one freeze a few minutes after booting (one software was not responding, I clicked repeatedly on "wait", knowing it would probably cause a freeze, and it did)
I'm now trying to switch to Xorg, and in the meantime I remembered that Windows was sometimes very buggy with my monitor (deconnecting and reconnecting multiple times in a row) so maybe that's a cause.

About my specs :
My computer is a HP 400 G3 MT i7-6700 4GHz 16Go
My monitor is an Acer p206hv bmd

We'll see if that helps !
I'll come back here to tell the tale.
Thanks again
Hugues

1 Like
19

Hi guys !
Since I've switched to Xorg, I got a new type of freeze I didn't have before (not sure if related)
Sometimes when I have a few processes running (a steam game, music, a browser, a messaging app ...) and I try to alt+tab out of the game, if I try to click on a task manager "icon", the computer freezes.
But this time the game still moves in the background, I can also still move the mouse, and I can lock the session with ctrl alt F1. The music still plays but I can't stop it or turn the volume up and down with my keyboard buttons. The music plays normally and the next song also plays.
Ctrl shift escape, alt sysreq f, ctrl alt suppr, nothing I tried worked except for ctrl alt F1. I also tried to shutdown the screen, to unplug it from the computer ... doesn't seem to have an effect.
When the session is locked, I can't suspend the computer, and I didn't try to restart or shut it down from the session menu.
That seems a bit similar to the previous freeze.
Could that be related to monitor drivers ?

Thanks again
Hugues

20

If you're on Xorg, try restarting the session with Alt + F2, then at the prompt enter R. I have no idea what effect this will have in your case, but it should preserve all opened windows and running programs.

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