System freezes completely

[eexxil]

The last couple of weeks my computer has started to freeze completely. It is not responding to anything and I have to do a hard reboot by holding in the start button.

I have absolutely no idea where to start troubleshooting to identify the culprit. Sometimes I suspect some script running in the browser and other times I suspect Slack (snap).

If anybody have any suggestion on how to go about to identify the problem, I would appreciate it.

I am on Manjaro 20.1.2 with KDE Plasma

inxi -Fazy

System:
  Kernel: 5.8.16-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.8-x86_64 
  root=UUID=1abc3790-00bf-497e-8909-496ce929e4fb rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor resume=UUID=6217e660-c646-4374-beaa-84bc9f6014ea 
  udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.19.5 tk: Qt 5.15.1 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: Z370 Pro4 serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: P4.30 date: 10/31/2019 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard serial: <filter> 
  charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech M705 serial: <filter> charge: 100% 
  rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i5-8400 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Kaby Lake family: 6 model-id: 9E (158) stepping: A (10) microcode: D6 
  L2 cache: 9216 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 33613 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 
  4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
  Type: l1tf 
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 630 vendor: ASRock driver: i915 v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:3e92 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: intel 
  unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa display ID: :0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1013x285mm (39.9x11.2") 
  s-diag: 1052mm (41.4") 
  Monitor-1: DP1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 510x290mm (20.1x11.4") 
  diag: 587mm (23.1") 
  Monitor-2: HDMI1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 510x290mm (20.1x11.4") 
  diag: 587mm (23.1") 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.1.8 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a2f0 
  Device-2: Logitech Headset H390 type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus ID: 1-13:4 chip ID: 046d:0a44 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.16-2-MANJARO 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASRock driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
  port: f040 bus ID: 00:1f.6 chip ID: 8086:15b8 
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.05 TiB used: 518.53 GiB (24.7%) 
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-00ZF5A0 
  size: 931.51 GiB block size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  serial: <filter> rev: 0A80 scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB 
  block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
  rev: 1B6Q scheme: GPT 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABD100 size: 931.51 GiB 
  block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B rotation: 5400 rpm 
  serial: <filter> scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw size: 228.48 GiB size: 223.89 GiB (97.99%) 
  used: 37.49 GiB (16.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2 
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 3.91 GiB used: 33.8 MiB (0.8%) 
  priority: -2 dev: /dev/sdb1 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 277 Uptime: 16m Memory: 7.45 GiB used: 2.12 GiB (28.4%) 
  Init: systemd v: 246 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: 1302 pacman: 1285 
  lib: 356 flatpak: 11 snap: 6 Shell: Bash v: 5.0.18 running in: konsole 
  inxi: 3.1.05

[bogdancovaciu]

We need this kind of information to know how to help you out:

How to provide good information

When asking questions in the forum it is most helpful to everyone for you to provide some basic information. When sharing information to either give or receive assistance, please be aware of the following: 1 ) In almost every situation not explicitly involving appearance, Text is preferred over Images. 2 ) When providing code or text output, please format it so the content is easy to read. How to Format “Code” in the Forum Its easy to make your text and code easy on the eyes Firs…

[eexxil]

@ bogdancovaciu
Thank you. I ran the first command and added the output in the original posting.
Running them all and added would perhaps be a bit too much?

I will see if I can add the “Manjaro Log Helper”. However I only have small windows here and there for troubleshooting, so this has the potential for being a painful process.

[bogdancovaciu]

I see you use swap on a SSD. I usually recommend a swapfile or systemd.swap instead.
Schedulers are also important, take a look:

XFCE Keyboard shortcuts delayed and firefox freeze after login

Switch to another kernel, that one is EOL. I usually recommend no swap partition on SSD and NVME drives, but instead use a swapfile or systemd.swap Also, not sure if @BS86 made a tutorial already about, or mentioned it (had no time to check), but on the old forum he talked about this: Also, do you have haveged installed and the service enabled?

Are you also using /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf file with one of this options ?

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

or maybe this

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
EndSection

both are taken from the Intel graphics - ArchWiki

[eexxil]

I should probably have added that I am a basic user, and when it comes to code I am pretty much lost.

Is there an easy way to change from swap to swapfile or systemd.swap?
And does it affect negatively on the system to use swap instead of swapfile or systemd.swap?

I don’t think my issue has to do with scheduling because the freezes usually happens after the system has finished booted and I am happily working away. That is why I have this feeling that it is related to some program I am using, but also there I am pretty basic and I use the office suite libreoffice, browsers firefox, chromium and brave and slack and skype (both installed via snap),

About /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf, I was not sure what you meant so I took a look inside the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ and there were two files only:

00-keyboard.conf
30-touchpad.conf

I also use two monitors, one with HDMI and the other with VGA.

Thank you!

[eexxil]

So, what actually seems to be my problem is that plasma for some reason clogs up and eventually freezes the whole system. If it freezes completely then I can only reboot. But if I, when I start to notice the signs, open a konsole and run:

plasmashell --replace

Then I will be able to continue to work.

So if somebody else has the same problem, try this and see if it helps.