Extended use seems to cause crashes and screen tearing

Geronimo

I've been enjoying Solus for the most part but there is one thing that seems to be really hindering the experience for me. It seems that if I continue a session for long enough one of two things start to happen (sometimes both)

1.) The screen will start behaving erratically, sometimes this presents itself like screen flickering, other times it looks like screen tearing or random graphical glitches.
2.) The system will grind to a halt at which point my mouse begins to respond very slowly, after a few seconds of this it usually stops responding entirely and the only way to recover is a hard reboot.

These issues seem to occur about once or twice in an average workday so probably 3-4 hours of continuous use.

If I can help collect any more info on the cause of this issue I'm not exactly sure where to look, is there log files I can share or something that might help pinpoint the issue?

WetGeek

Geronimo he screen will start behaving erratically, sometimes this presents itself like screen flickering, other times it looks like screen tearing or random graphical glitches.

You didn't mention which DE you're using. Most of mine are using Budgie, but for the media machine, MATE is our choice, because it doesn't exhibit screen tearing that happens occasionally with Budgie on that machine.

Of course, this could involve the video card, or it could be an interaction between the DE and the video card, so your experience could be very different from mine. If you're not using MATE, you might want to experiment with it. Perhaps your equipment might like it better?

pomon

When

Geronimo one of two things start to happen (sometimes both)

You need to check the log

For example, by time

journalctl --since 22:30 --until "1 hour ago"

See more here

synth-ruiner

Geronimo The system will grind to a halt at which point my mouse begins to respond very slowly,

this sounds like thrashing (running out of RAM, and no swap available). check whether you have swap enabled and keep an eye on your RAM usage 🙂

Geronimo

WetGeek ah yes sorry, I am using Budgie 4.1

Geronimo

pomon this is the last 5 minutes before reboot, anything useful there? issue occured shortly before rebooting

2020-08-08T15:50:00-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:50:00:900] info: [DND] (T1R1SAKGT) Checking for changes in DND status for the following members: U74MYH3FD,U1RCNF4TE,U1R3739TJ,U2U6UH5FG,UJ05RPKAP,U1R4680J> 2020-08-08T15:50:00-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:50:00:900] info: [DND] (T1R1SAKGT) Will check for changes in DND status again in 5 minutes 2020-08-08T15:50:21-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:50:21:040] info: Store: SET_SYSTEM_IDLE idle_taskbar 2020-08-08T15:50:21-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:50:21:087] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["app"] 2020-08-08T15:51:31-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:51:31:076] info: Store: SET_SYSTEM_IDLE active 2020-08-08T15:51:31-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:51:31:084] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["app"] 2020-08-08T15:52:41-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:52:41:286] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927161.285 Flannel users/info called with reason: flannel-call:users/info 2020-08-08T15:52:41-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:52:41:286] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927161.285 Flannel users/info is ENQUEUED 2020-08-08T15:52:41-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:52:41:290] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927161.285 Flannel users/info is ACTIVE 2020-08-08T15:52:42-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:52:42:015] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927161.285 Flannel users/info is RESOLVED 2020-08-08T15:53:53-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:53:187] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927233.186 Flannel users/info called with reason: flannel-call:users/info 2020-08-08T15:53:53-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:53:188] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927233.186 Flannel users/info is ENQUEUED 2020-08-08T15:53:53-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:53:188] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927233.186 Flannel users/info is ACTIVE 2020-08-08T15:53:53-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:53:384] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927233.186 Flannel users/info is RESOLVED 2020-08-08T15:53:53-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:53:611] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:53:53-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:53:965] info: [FOCUS-EVENT] Client window focused 2020-08-08T15:53:54-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:54:025] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:53:54-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:54:318] info: [CHECK-UNREADS] (T1R1SAKGT) Checking unreads after window became focused 2020-08-08T15:53:54-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:54:318] info: [CHECK-UNREADS] (T1R1SAKGT) Not marking CL2FR59DM because last_read >= latest && channel is read 2020-08-08T15:53:54-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:54:327] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:53:54-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:54:336] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:53:55-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:55:435] info: [FOCUS-EVENT] Client window blurred 2020-08-08T15:53:55-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:55:473] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:53:55-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:55:480] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:53:55-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:53:55:713] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:54:11-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:11:640] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:54:11-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:11:662] info: [FOCUS-EVENT] Client window focused 2020-08-08T15:54:11-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:11:674] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:54:11-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:11:680] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:54:11-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:11:832] info: [CHECK-UNREADS] (T1R1SAKGT) Checking unreads after window became focused 2020-08-08T15:54:11-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:11:832] info: [CHECK-UNREADS] (T1R1SAKGT) Not marking CL2FR59DM because last_read >= latest && channel is read 2020-08-08T15:54:13-0700 user budgie-panel[1300]: register_popover(): Widget 0x1d189f0 is already registered 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:615] info: [FOCUS-EVENT] Client window blurred 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:786] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:792] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:796] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["windows"] 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:801] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927254.800 Flannel users/info called with reason: flannel-call:users/info 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:802] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927254.800 Flannel users/info is ENQUEUED 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:802] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927254.800 Flannel users/info is ACTIVE 2020-08-08T15:54:14-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:14:992] info: [API-Q] (T1R1SAKGT) noversion-1596927254.800 Flannel users/info is RESOLVED 2020-08-08T15:54:17-0700 user budgie-wm.desktop[1291]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym ff61 with keysym ff61 (keycode 6b). 2020-08-08T15:54:17-0700 user budgie-wm.desktop[1291]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym ff61 with keysym ff61 (keycode 6b). 2020-08-08T15:54:17-0700 user budgie-wm.desktop[1291]: Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym ff61 with keysym ff61 (keycode 6b). 2020-08-08T15:54:17-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:17:715] info: Store: SET_SUSPEND_STATUS false 2020-08-08T15:54:17-0700 user budgie-panel.desktop[3212]: [08/08/20, 15:54:17:723] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["app"] -- Reboot --

Geronimo

synth-ruiner I hadn't noticed anything unusual in the ram usage TBH, but when it stops responding I can't exactly keep an eye on the sys monitor. You're right i don't have a swap set up, I'll give that a try and report back with my result in a day or two.

Geronimo

That seems to have solved the issue of my machine slowing down, I'm not longer needing to reboot constantly. I'm still seeing some graphical issues now and then but that is likely a separate issue.