Unexpected Xorg crash on unlock after resume from standby

Support Graphics & Display
1

Hello. Today, Xorg crashed. Here’s what happened: Last night, I put my laptop into standby mode by closing the lid. Then I plugged in my USB-C dock, which has two external monitors connected to it. Apparently, the laptop remained in standby mode (at least that’s what the LED on the USB dock suggested).
This morning, as usual, I woke the laptop from standby with the lid closed, but the external monitors remained dark, which is unusual. So I opened the laptop and saw the login screen. I logged in on the laptop screen and then the two external monitors were also activated, but I saw a blank desktop, as if I had logged in completely from scratch – all open programs were closed.
I found the following entries in the journal:

journal log
inxi output

How can I further debug or solve the problem?

EDIT (2025-07-27):
It happened again yesterday. I can’t fully reproduce it yet, but the sequence of events was the same as last time:

  • I disconnect the laptop from the docking station and work
  • I then reconnect it in the evening and put it into standby mode
  • The next morning, I wake up the laptop and see the login screen only on the internal display instead of the external display
  • After logging in, all windows are closed.

BTW: If I only use the laptop with the docking station for a longer period of time, there are absolutely no problems with standby mode – so it must have something to do with docking and undocking.

2

Looking at your inxi output, I noticed that you are still running Plasma on X11, even though you do not have an Nvidia graphics card:

Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Barcelo vendor: Lenovo
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 code: Vega process: GF 14nm
    built: 2017-20 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
    active: DP-4,DP-5 off: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:15e7 class-ID: 0300 temp: 48.0 C
  Device-2: Chicony Integrated Camera (1920x1080) driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-4:2 chip-ID: 04f2:b7b4
    class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: Logitech Brio 500
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.1
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-1.1.2.3:36 chip-ID: 046d:0943
    class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1

Does the problem also occur if you run Plasma on a Wayland session?

You can change your Plasma session from X11 to Wayland by selecting the session type at the login screen (Wayland is now KDE’s default for Plasma).

If you have set up autologin to skip the password screen, you can change to a Wayland session by opening System Settings → Colors & Themes → Login Screen (SDDM) → Behavior.

1 Like
3

X11 seems to be the default setting. I’ve tried Wayland in the past, but there were some issues with the stability of some apps, that I don’t remember exactly right now. I’ll give it a try again and come back.

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4

Indeed, there were some issues at one time. I’ve now been using Wayland exclusively (with AMD graphics) for around two years, with no issues to speak of.

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5

I’m now using Wayland, but it’s happened again. Yesterday, I installed the latest updates and restarted the laptop. All three monitors were in use (laptop display and 2 external monitors). Yesterday, I put the laptop into standby mode.
This morning, I took the laptop out of standby mode, but without the two external monitors—and the interface crashed again.
This still seems to be a problem when you connect or disconnect external monitors in standby mode.

6

Tell me, are these monitors connected with Display Port or HDMI?

7

This is something special because I use a KVM switch. My laptop (Lenovo Thinkbook) is connected to a Lenovo docking station via USB-C. The switch is connected to this docking station via DisplayPort. Two EIZO monitors are connected to the switch via DisplayPort.
And it just happened again, this time without standby. The laptop was turned on, I was working on it and had to switch the KVM switch to the other computer. When switching, the interface apparently crashed again: Firefox displayed a crash message, Terminal was the only application still open and all other applications (OSS Code, Keepass XC, Thunderbird, Dolphin) were closed.

8

maybe check in dmesg for some issue reports. You can also try to use amd-debug-tools to see what issues you might have. Here the introduction

9

Thanks for the tip. Just so I understand: Will these tools help me debug the problem, even if it doesn’t occur in standby mode? (Background to my question: Today at work, I disconnected the USB docking station with the two monitors, and the interface crashed again, so it probably has nothing to do with standby mode.)