Ubuntu – How to Diagnose and Fix Freezing For A few Seconds Every Few Minutes

18.04

Every few minutes my Ubuntu desktop freezes for a few seconds. I can move my mouse but clicking and the keyboard have no obvious effect.

While this is happening I see the following in my logs:

May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) NOUVEAU(0): NVLeaveVT is called.
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 13:75
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 226:0
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 13:69
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 13:66
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 13:68
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 13:67
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 13:65
May 11 15:04:07 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got pause for 13:64
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got resume for 13:75
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) systemd-logind: got resume for 226:0
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) AIGLX: Resuming AIGLX clients after VT switch
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) NOUVEAU(0): NVEnterVT is called.
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) NOUVEAU(0): EDID vendor "DEL", prod id 40976
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) NOUVEAU(0): Using hsync ranges from config file
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) NOUVEAU(0): Using vrefresh ranges from config file
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) NOUVEAU(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
May 11 15:04:39 bb8 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[29416]: (II) NOUVEAU(0): Modeline "1920x1200"x0.0  154.00  1920 1968 2000 2080  1200 1203 1209 1235 +hsync -vsync (74.0 kHz eP)

I installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS a couple days ago and this has been happening since then — this was not occurring when I was running Ubuntu 14.04 on the same PC.

Best Answer

When your desktop freezes, write down the exact time.

Either wait for the desktop to unfreeze or ssh into the machine, and then view /var/log/syslog for the time that you wrote down it freezing.

In the my case the logs had NOUVEAU lines around the time of the freeze, I replaced the Nouveau display driver with the NVIDIA binary driver, and that resolved the intermittent freezes.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Using NIS client in Ubuntu 18.04 crashes both Gnome and Unity

I was also affected by this and at first I also solved this problem by commenting out

IPAdressDeny=Any in /lib/systemd/system/systemd-logind.service

like many others here mentioned before.

However, besides being a security risk, this will only work until the next update of the systemd toolchain rolls out, as mentioned in the Arch-Wiki. What the wiki does not explain very well, is how to extend the configuration of the systemd-logind.service such that a certain address range is whitelisted and that these settings will survive an update. After some reading in the RHEL documentation (especially section 10.6.4: Modifying Existing Unit Files), the following solution worked for me:

Create a new directory in /etc/systemd/system/ named exactly after the service you want to extend including a .d, here this would be: systemd-logind.service.d
Create a new file choose_an_appropriate_name.conf (e.g. nis_open_network_interface.conf) inside the newly created directory with the following content, which specifies the IP or IP range you want to be allowed:
```
[Service]
IPAddressAllow=10.10.0.0/16
```
Do a systemctl daemon-reload
And check if the new configuration is actually part of your systemd-logind.service unit using systemctl cat systemd-logind.service
Finally restart the service systemctl restart systemd-logind.service (This will kick you out of your running gnome session and you have to login again.)

There is no need to modify any other file! At this point you should be able to login with NIS-users again without getting a system freeze. Beware though, that this is still considered insecure (whitelisting IP addresses) and that the sandboxed behavior of systemd-logind is wanted. NIS/YP is kind of outdated but I still find it used ever so often. Also there may be a better solution to this involving a name caching daemon using nscd or sssd as mentioned in this systemd github issue dealing with the whole situation. But this is out of my scope at the moment.

This answer collects all the bits and pieces from previous posts and I hope clarifies a bit to give a good solution to the problem.

Cheers

Ubuntu – Mouse cursor freezing randomly for 5 seconds

This is due to interference, it is unlikely to be connected with wasps, try using a wired mouse for a while, if the problem is resolved, then search near the computer for what can cause interference data, a receiver, a phone, anything.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – Using NIS client in Ubuntu 18.04 crashes both Gnome and Unity

Ubuntu – Mouse cursor freezing randomly for 5 seconds

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