Linux Mint 20.2 Performance Issues and DE Locking Up SOLVED

[Condobloke]

And you said 'disable it' ....by that you mean create a blacklist file and disable the driver (for his MSI Twin Frozr III GPU) that way, @Condobloke correct?

I was looking at it in a similar way to linux mint's way of not using it....which is to type driver manager into menu, and allow the system to 'scan' for a graphics card.....it will normall 'see' two graphics arrangements...one will be onboard graphics and the other would be the graphics crd itself....select the onboard graphics...usually an intel chip......very basic level, but gets the job done.

 

[Condobloke]

Alex....just read your post above...installed etc in 2012.

is it possible the kernel has moved on and no longer supports that graphics card ?

I know zero about sparky linux, and whether you can search for graphics and in someway just use the onboard graphics instead of that "radeon".....that would at least exclude that 'radeon' if he got the same result when using the built in graphics chip on the motherboard

 

[Condobloke]

I suppose another alternative would be to physically disconnect the graphics card....I don't know how feasible that may or may not be....?

 

[Alexzee]

I was looking at it in a similar way to linux mint's way of not using it....which is to type driver manager into menu, and allow the system to 'scan' for a graphics card.....it will normall 'see' two graphics arrangements...one will be onboard graphics and the other would be the graphics crd itself....select the onboard graphics...usually an intel chip......very basic level, but gets the job done.

Thanks brother.
I'll have a look in the driver manager on his Mint installation.....and let you know.
I'm not sure if he would want to disconnect the GPU at this point.

 

[Alexzee]

Alex....just read your post above...installed etc in 2012.

is it possible the kernel has moved on and no longer supports that graphics card ?

I know zero about sparky linux, and whether you can search for graphics and in someway just use the onboard graphics instead of that "radeon".....that would at least exclude that 'radeon' if he got the same result when using the built in graphics chip on the motherboard

I'll look into finding out if the kernel has dropped support for that gpu--

 

[Alexzee]

Ok, the driver manager in Mint doesn't show where he could change from the MSI GPU to the onboard.
The CPU and GPU don't appear to be overheating.

Approx. 5 minutes after starting a video in FF on Mint the screen turned gray and the the audio continued to repeat the same word.

I'm had trouble finding out if kernel 5.4.0-200-generic that Mint is using still supports my friends MSI GPU.
After some reading I concluded that the current kernel should still support my friends GPU. Which from looking at the output of lsmod showed radeon and also amdgpu drivers.

If the kernel is using the radeon driver (I think it is) and he wants to use the newer amdgpu driver, parameters would have to be added to the kernel to make the switch.
OR> I would have to blacklist the radeon driver.

I have to have my friend boot up Mint again and run this cmd to see which driver is in use.

lspci -k | grep -A 2 -i "VGA"

 

[KGIII]

Approx. 5 minutes after starting a video in FF on Mint the screen turned gray and the the audio continued to repeat the same word.

This isn't going to be what you want to hear...

That's the kind of behavior you'll see when your RAM is all used up and the computer is freezing.

However, you have to trust that the RAM is good. You've tested it. There's enough of it so that it shouldn't be running out from such a basic load as a browser with YouTube open.

There's a chance that it's the RAM embedded in the GPU. As mentioned above, can you switch to on-board graphics? That requires removing the plug from the back of the GPU and plugging it into the plug that goes to the motherboard.

Not all computers have on-board graphics. Oddly, it's often the more expensive motherboards that do not have on-board graphics. I suppose it's because they expect you to buy a distinct graphics card.

 

[osprey]

Ok, the driver manager in Mint doesn't show where he could change from the MSI GPU to the onboard.
The CPU and GPU don't appear to be overheating.

Approx. 5 minutes after starting a video in FF on Mint the screen turned gray and the the audio continued to repeat the same word.

I'm had trouble finding out if kernel 5.4.0-200-generic that Mint is using still supports my friends MSI GPU.
After some reading I concluded that the current kernel should still support my friends GPU. Which from looking at the output of lsmod showed radeon and also amdgpu drivers.

If the kernel is using the radeon driver (I think it is) and he wants to use the newer amdgpu driver, parameters would have to be added to the kernel to make the switch.
OR> I would have to blacklist the radeon driver.

I have to have my friend boot up Mint again and run this cmd to see which driver is in use.

lspci -k | grep -A 2 -i "VGA"

Very unfortunate set of issues in this thread :-(.

A few observations follow:

The command in post #126 would be better with a 3 line request, i.e.:

lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i vga

Three lines get both driver and modules.

The 5.4.0 kernel is old. Mint is now up to 6.8. There's nearly always lots of improvements under the hood in newer kernels.

It's worth having a look at swap usage, if there is a swap partition or file, e.g.:

free -m

If there's no swap and usage of RAM is high, perhaps consider creating a swap file to ease the memory functioning.

To check the video RAM size, that is, the RAM in the GPU, run:

dmesg | grep -i vram

Anything equal to or over 1Gig or more would be fine.

Here's a command that will show the top users of memory by percentage on the system, and by implication the percentage of overall memory used with an example from a machine here:

$ ps --cols=60 -eo %mem,pid,args --sort=-%mem | head
%MEM     PID COMMAND
 6.9    7300 firefox-esr
 2.6    8843 librewolf
 2.1   11509 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.4    7621 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.2    9846 /tmp/.mount_LibreWkBjBdm/librewolf -contentproc
 1.2    7473 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.1   10219 /tmp/.mount_LibreWkBjBdm/librewolf -contentproc
 1.1    8620 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.0    9576 /tmp/.mount_LibreWkBjBdm/librewolf -contentproc

 

[Alexzee]

This isn't going to be what you want to hear...

That's the kind of behavior you'll see when your RAM is all used up and the computer is freezing.

However, you have to trust that the RAM is good. You've tested it. There's enough of it so that it shouldn't be running out from such a basic load as a browser with YouTube open.

There's a chance that it's the RAM embedded in the GPU. As mentioned above, can you switch to on-board graphics? That requires removing the plug from the back of the GPU and plugging it into the plug that goes to the motherboard.

Not all computers have on-board graphics. Oddly, it's often the more expensive motherboards that do not have on-board graphics. I suppose it's because they expect you to buy a distinct graphics card.

I'll look in the mobo manual as I'm not sure if the MSI Z87GD-65 Gaming has onboard graphics.
Thanks David!

 

[Alexzee]

My friends mobo doesn't have on-board graphics.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z87-GD65-GAMING/Specification

I'm writing down the cmd's that osprey gave now.
I'll be back with that information in screenshots.

 

[Alexzee]

Very unfortunate set of issues in this thread :-(.

A few observations follow:

The command in post #126 would be better with a 3 line request, i.e.:

lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i vga

Three lines get both driver and modules.

The 5.4.0 kernel is old. Mint is now up to 6.8. There's nearly always lots of improvements under the hood in newer kernels.

It's worth having a look at swap usage, if there is a swap partition or file, e.g.:

free -m

If there's no swap and usage of RAM is high, perhaps consider creating a swap file to ease the memory functioning.

To check the video RAM size, that is, the RAM in the GPU, run:

dmesg | grep -i vram

Anything equal to or over 1Gig or more would be fine.

Here's a command that will show the top users of memory by percentage on the system, and by implication the percentage of overall memory used with an example from a machine here:

$ ps --cols=60 -eo %mem,pid,args --sort=-%mem | head
%MEM     PID COMMAND
 6.9    7300 firefox-esr
 2.6    8843 librewolf
 2.1   11509 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.4    7621 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.2    9846 /tmp/.mount_LibreWkBjBdm/librewolf -contentproc
 1.2    7473 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.1   10219 /tmp/.mount_LibreWkBjBdm/librewolf -contentproc
 1.1    8620 /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr -contentproc -
 1.0    9576 /tmp/.mount_LibreWkBjBdm/librewolf -contentproc

Screenshots of output from free -m and etc.

 

[Alexzee]

It wasn't long after running those cmd's that the screen started to show graphics issues.

My friend is trying to back up to an external at this time.

 

[Alexzee]

Anyone know what parameters I would tell the kernel to switch to the amdpgu driver?
I'm not well versed in setting parameters for the kernel to use.

And, would that practice work at this point as this GPU and mobo is a 12 year old build?

 

[KGIII]

My friends mobo doesn't have on-board graphics.

I'm leaning towards it being a GPU issue. I don't suppose you have a spare that can be used for testing?

 

[Alexzee]

I'm leaning towards it being a GPU issue. I don't suppose you have a spare that can be used for testing?

No, unfortunately he doesn't have another spare laying around.
Is there a way to test the GPU to see if it's on it's way out?

 

[KGIII]

I'm reluctant to suggest buying a new graphics card because I am not completely certain that it will solve the problem.

 

[Alexzee]

I'm reluctant to suggest buying a new graphics card because I am not completely certain that it will solve the problem.

My friend was able to back up his /home directory yesterday on LM however in the middle of getting ready to back up his FF Bookmarks the monitor went gray and was unresponsive.
Booting into LM again today he get's his MSI splash screen and then Grub but Mint only shows the logo and won't boot to DE.
He's thinking that Mint may be looking for the external HDD and perhaps that's why it won't boot to the DE. OR> the system reacted to what it perceived as a security threat when the external drive was removed after shutdown.
BTW, my friends desktop is set in the BIOS to boot to a USB key if one is present at boot time.

Now today, booting into LMDE 6 just a few minutes ago FF managed to stay up and run for approx. 10 minutes of a YouTube video. At this point, he looked at his GPU which has 2 fans (both downward facing) and one fan was spinning and the other fan was not spinning.
When my friend touched the GPU with his finger (index finger knuckle) the cards metal frame was almost too hot to touch.

Here's a screenshot of the YouTube video that was running at the time.
There's clearly artifacts or anomalies (whatever you'd call them)

He's not sure how to proceed maybe find another MSI Twin Frozr III (new on the shelf) or> another compatible GPU and hope it's not the mobo--

What do the wise sages say about how to move forward?

Alex

 

[KGIII]

What do the wise sages say about how to move forward?

This is not a recommendation. I simply can't recommend it without knowing more than I can know.

If they buy a graphics card and it doesn't resolve the issue, they can later use that card on a new motherboard should they end up needing to replace that. If they buy the same generation, they can even reuse the RAM they purchased. So, there's that...

 

[Alexzee]

The system isn't booting into LM 20.2 so..... does anyone know how my friend can get his FF bookmarks?

He's coming to the end of his rope with this 12 year old desktop build.
Thinking on returning the newly purchased ram sticks that came from Amazon.

 

[Condobloke]

where to start?....that is the question.

I dont think I can get this in order....so I have just typed just as they occur to me.

Timeshift ?....yes or no

Backup?....image saved on an external drive?

if he has neither of those, then he has been courting trouble for quite a long time, and his chickens are coming home to roost !

Current problem...software or hardware?....maybe a combination of both.....although with the symptoms it displayed previously, it sounds like hardware......multiple hardware. ....ram....hdd (ssd?)....possible PSU....power supply....any smells?...

Is the capability there to remove the hdd/sdd and run it another pc ?....that would be my first move if saving data is a must...it may end up 'messy', but it could prove to be a lifesaver in some way....hopefully ...!