Q4OS Forum

telecaster68

Member

Registered: 2018-05-23

Posts: 8

Q4OS freeze anyone?

I installed Q4OS via the Windows installer about a month ago, which all went well, and now dual booting with W10. My laptop isn't old but it's increasingly underpowered for W10, and Q4OS is fast and responsive.

Mostly.

However, it's developed a persistent but random system freeze/crash, I *think* related to browsing, as it doesn't seem to happen when I'm not in a browser. The mouse is responsive for a while, then stops. If I leave it for a while, the GUI seems to sort of work (windows will take focus if clicked) but very, very slowly - like 2-3 minutes between click and action. Then over a few more minutes, the system becomes entirely unresponsive.

Presumably I can diagnose what's happening from log files, but which ones, and how do I find them, and how do I interpret them?

All guidance much appreciated.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

I haven't experienced any issues with the windows installation of Q4OS, but I don't really use it much as I prefer the "normal" installation so I have no connection between OS's and can add/remove each without affecting any other.

One thing you could try is installing inxi

sudo apt install inxi

and posting the output of

inxi -F

(run in konsole) which will give a better overview of your system and might give some indication of a problem.

If I had to guess I would say it could be a graphics driver problem, but it is just a guess at this point...

telecaster68

Member

Registered: 2018-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

Thanks.

Here's the output from inxi:

CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i3-4005U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           clock speeds: max: 1700 MHz 1: 799 MHz 2: 805 MHz 3: 863 MHz 4: 800 MHz
           CPU Flags: abm acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush
           cmov constant_tsc cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts eagerfpu epb ept erms est f16c
           flexpriority fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht ida invpcid invpcid_single kaiser lahf_lm lm mca mce
           mmx monitor movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb
           pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdrand rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smep ss sse sse2
           sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx
           vnmi vpid xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr

Also - is there a difference between what happens using the Windows installer, and doing a manual partition etc? I'd assumed the Windows installer just automated what I'd be doing manually, having interrogated my PC to suggest appropriate configurations.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

If you could post the output of

inxi -F

this will give the Full output.

As far as how the installation works, I have quite a limited understanding but have seen that installation is done inside the Windows filesystem (on your C: drive) and so is actually contained within the windows OS. This can be changed though to give you a more typical Linux installation.

In a "normal" installation you will have a separate partition for your filesystem and also your swap space, typically this will be completely outside of your other Operating Systems and will usually run with less issues, although I think that is mainly due to being more widely used and therefore any bugs have already been found and ironed out.

jackdanielsesq

Member

From: Phuket

Registered: 2017-12-19

Posts: 149

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

Hi there

I have had similar problems with various Nix flavors - its not Q4OS specific - whilst browsing, using FF, with everything
throttled, adblocks et al, running - several US news sites are to blame in my case, probably fighting for my bandwidth,
resources, etc - dont use MS anything ... have never had any sort of crash or freeze in many years ..

You have already identified the reason, simply blacklist those sites - easy-peasy - not rocket science

Regards

Jack

I installed Q4OS via the Windows installer about a month ago, which all went well, and now dual booting with W10. My laptop isn't old but it's increasingly underpowered for W10, and Q4OS is fast and responsive.

Mostly.

However, it's developed a persistent but random system freeze/crash, I *think* related to browsing, as it doesn't seem to happen when I'm not in a browser. The mouse is responsive for a while, then stops. If I leave it for a while, the GUI seems to sort of work (windows will take focus if clicked) but very, very slowly - like 2-3 minutes between click and action. Then over a few more minutes, the system becomes entirely unresponsive.

Presumably I can diagnose what's happening from log files, but which ones, and how do I find them, and how do I interpret them?

All guidance much appreciated.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

You have already identified the reason, simply blacklist those sites - easy-peasy - not rocket science

OP didn't state that it was specific sites, just browsing (as I understood it) so blacklisting every site that is coincidentally loaded/loading when it happens could be futile if there is another reason causing the issue...

telecaster68

Member

Registered: 2018-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

Here's the full output:

System:    Host: q4os-desktop Kernel: 4.9.0-6-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: KDE Plasma 3
           Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Acer product: Aspire E5-571 v: V1.09
           Mobo: Acer model: EA50_HB v: V1.09 UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: V1.09 date: 07/11/2014
Battery    BAT1: charge: 40.5 Wh 100.0% condition: 40.5/50.4 Wh (80%)
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i3-4005U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           clock speeds: max: 1700 MHz 1: 802 MHz 2: 842 MHz 3: 1214 MHz 4: 802 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz, 1280x1024@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 8 Series HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.0-6-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           IF: enp1s0f1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: f8:a9:63:e4:a3:bc
           Card-2: Broadcom Limited BCM43142 802.11b/g/n
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1532.3GB (50.3% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST500LM012_HN size: 500.1GB
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: STORE_N_GO size: 32.0GB
           ID-3: USB /dev/sdc model: HDS721010CLA332 size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 62G used: 13G (22%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/loop0
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 210 Uptime: 2:58 Memory: 2037.9/3882.9MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.5

And yes, it's not specific sites (so far as I can tell); and some of the heaviest sites I use are for work, so avoiding them isn't an option anyway.

Re partitioning - right, I get it. Although the Inxi output seems to say it's a full partition.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

I don't see anything in your output that is concerning...

What browser do you use?
Does this happen if you use a different browser?
Have you tried using a Live-Cd to see if the problem happens there?

re Re partitioning  Yes it will have its own partition but it is placed in the Windows file-system and then "loop-mounted" by Q4OS in a similar way to how Live-Cd's work.

telecaster68

Member

Registered: 2018-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

Yep, it happens on Chrome, FF and Opera, although as I say I'm not sure it's entirely browser based, it just looks like the probably suspect.

Not tried with Live-CD. I might do that.

Then again I might end up removing Q4OS and doing and old school partition and install with Lubuntu, or another lightweight distro, since system resources are the issue here.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

How much RAM do you have?

If resources are an issue you could try an "old school partition and install" with Q4OS too, it is certainly one of the lightest distributions out there (unless you go to the extremes of something like tiny-core or similar). I have been running Q4OS with very minimal issues here and have some similar spec'd systems to you. I usually use Scorpion (Stable) with them, but have been using Centaurus without many issues too.

I did run a NON-scientific memory test on various configurations of Q4OS which can be seen in this post and although not extensively tested it can give you some indication of how other distro's compare

telecaster68

Member

Registered: 2018-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

4gigs, which ought to be fine for Linux, but Windows struggles with half a dozen browser tabs open, whatever the browser, and slows down.

Q4OS works beautifully till it doesn't! I also like the stripped down GUI getting out of my way.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,501

Website

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

@telecaster68
You could try to perform defragmentation of the Q4OS loopback filesystem. Download the Q4OS live cd "q4os-2.4-x64.ra.iso" from here https://q4os.org/downloads1.html , boot it, and run a few commands in terminal:

- create directories to mount filesystems into:
$ mkdir /tmp/disk1-win
$ mkdir /tmp/disk2-q4os

- mount the Windows filesystem:
$ sudo mount /dev/sdXN /tmp/disk1-win/
.. sdXN is the windows's NTFS filesystem drive, for example "sda4"

- mount the Q4OS filesystem:
$ sudo mount /tmp/disk1-win/debian/disks/root.disk /tmp/disk2-q4os/

- perform defragmentation of the Q4OS filesystem:
$ sudo e4defrag /tmp/disk2-q4os/

- unmount disks:
$ sudo umount /tmp/disk2-q4os/
$ sudo umount /tmp/disk1-win/

Now reboot to Q4OS, check it and report back.

telecaster68

Member

Registered: 2018-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: Q4OS freeze anyone?

Thanks. I've done that - I'll see if it does the trick.