After upgrading from Zorin OS 17.2 Pro to Zorin OS 18 Pro, the wayland session occasionally crashes when unlocking the screen after it has been automatically locked due to inactivity. The session ends abruptly, forcing a full re-login and restart of all applications. This issue does not occur when manually locking the screen.
Steps to Reproduce:
Upgrade from Zorin OS 17.2 Pro to Zorin OS 18 Pro.
Allow the screen to lock automatically due to inactivity.
Attempt to unlock the screen by entering the password.
Observe that the session crashes and returns to the login screen.
Expected Behavior: The screen should unlock successfully and return to the active session without crashing.
Actual Behavior: The session ends unexpectedly after entering the password, requiring a full re-login and restart of all applications.
Frequency:
Occurs intermittently, but only when the screen locks automatically due to inactivity.
Does not seem to occur when manually locking the screen.
Additional Notes:
The issue started immediately after upgrading to Zorin OS 18 Pro.
No error messages or logs are visible at the time of the crash.
Same issue here, on wayland. If I suspend the session then come back, everything is closed. If I just lock my pc and wait like an hour and come back, I have to log in twice again and everything is closed.
Edit - Yes it's also intermittent for me, either suspend or just locked. After getting past the first sign-in the screen will go black, and then I'll have to sign in twice and the desktop is fresh.
" GNOME 46 on Wayland crashes after auto screen lock has been reported by multiple users, particularly on Fedora 40 and other distributions using recent GNOME and kernel versions. The issue often manifests as a blank screen or complete session freeze after the screen locks due to inactivity, requiring a hard reboot to recover.
Root Causes and Workarounds
GNOME Shell Extensions : Several users have identified conflicting extensions as the culprit. Disabling extensions like "Lock Screen Background" or "TopIcons Plus" resolves the crash. These extensions may interfere with Wayland’s screen lock mechanism during session transitions.
Kernel Issues : A known fix involves kernel version instability. One user reported that the issue was resolved after upgrading to Kernel 6.11.3 , while earlier versions (e.g., 6.10.9) caused or worsened the problem. Rolling back to 6.10.8 also worked for some, suggesting a regression in kernel patches.
System Resource Limits : A workaround involving prlimit was reported to help:
This increases real-time scheduling limits for GNOME Shell, potentially preventing crashes during lock events.
Recommended Steps
Disable all GNOME Shell extensions temporarily to test if the issue persists.
Update to the latest kernel (e.g., 6.11.3 or newer) and ensure your system is fully updated.
Check system logs using journalctl -u gdm or journalctl -b for errors related to gnome-shell , wayland , or session .
If the problem remains, consider reporting the issue to the GNOME GitLab issue tracker with logs and system details.
The issue appears to be resolvable in recent updates, especially with newer kernels and updated GNOME 46 versions, but may still affect older or improperly configured systems.
I wanted to "me too" this issue because its painfully inconvinient, and it happens to me quite frequently.
Things I've confirmed:
Doesn't matter if manual lock or auto lock, I've had the crash session with both
Doesn't matter if x11 or wayland, I've had the crash with both
Hardware nonspecific; I've had this happen with Intel graphics, AMD, Nvidia and with both AMD/Intel CPUs.
Doesn't matter if in place upgrade from 17.x to 18.x; I had this crash with both fresh installs and upgrades.
I hate quoting AI answers but this seems like the only culprit right now:
Per swarfendor437
GNOME 46 on Wayland crashes after auto screen lock has been reported by multiple users, particularly on Fedora 40 and other distributions using recent GNOME and kernel versions.
Clean install of 18 pro on a Framework Desktop, Strix Halo 395 Max…. blah whatever the full CPU name is! lol.
mine is doing this so it looks like it’s a GNOME issue ON Wayland issue, correct? It was ok after i installed it in december and then updates and all and now it crashes out and makes me log in each time.
has any one seen any updates/resolutions to this? cause it sucks nuts when you have stuff open and then it’s all gone when you come back so I haven’t used my desktop in about a month or so because this is a stupid issue.
Is your system updated? The problem may be solved now by updates, I haven't heard of such problems in the last weeks.
If you still have gnome shell crashes,
try to disable third-party gnome extensions for testing (if you have installed other extensions) and also disable the gnome extension "Zorin appindicator".
You can do this with extension manager. To install it:
I am new to Zorin and had the issue with 17.3 core and was hoping it would be resolved after the upgrade to 18 core. However, it still happens and is seemingly random. Somtimes in the morning I can log in fine and other times after just an hour I get the same authentification error and am unable to do anything but power down and reboot. I have seen no solution in this thread. Have I missed something or is there another place I should be posting?
wheel appears, click the wheel, then click "Zorin OS On Xorg."
