So I have been using mint on my other pics with little issue. Wanted to try something different. Got pop all setup, it does work pretty well and is fun (other than God awful pop shop) but I keep gettung an issue that seems to be totally unique to me.
No Nvidia.
Amd fx 8320 (yes. Its shit but was free) 12 gb ram Radeon ellesmere xfx rx580
My issue. After varying times of usage. Either running vms, gaming. Browsing web, doesn’t matter, ill get pink diagonal squares across the screen, full freeze up, kicked to the login screen, and then I am not able to log in at all until I hard shutdown.
I just put a bunch of stuff on this pc and would rather not have to switch back to mint. I am thinking it’s maybe my graphics card driver but I am unsure how to see. I do have the correct popos for my hardware.
I know there is logs but im unsure where.
Edit: ofc amd drivers should be native so that shouldn’t be my issue
Have any other distros been tried on this box and do the same issues present with them? I think the recommended PSU combined with an RX580 is 600W, so you might try swapping PSUs. Another option if you don’t have a spare to test with is to undervolt the GPU. If it stabilizes at that point, it would suggest the PSU needs replacement. At least that way you wouldn’t be dropping money on a hunch.
Another good indicator of that being GPU/PSU issues is the fact you mention not being able to get past the login screen. Both X11 and Wayland (especially Wayland) crank up the VRAM usage at that point due to compositors caching and whatnot
This can be caused by a faulty RAM. If possible, run memtest from boot screen.
Anything suspect in the
journaldlogs?fwiw, system76 support is actually pretty responsive, if you want to try them. they even have their own mattermost server for quicker responses.
For me, when I hear about display issues like that I think of either the GPU or the power supply. It could be memory-related too, as others have said, but if memtest doesn’t give you any insight you should also do diagnostics on your GPU and inspect your power supply for wear or damage.
If you were on a budget and went a little cheap on the power supply, which I’ve done tbh, I’d really think about replacing it even if there’s no obvious signs of wear, especially if you got it secondhand. Use a power supply wattage calculator (Newegg and PCPartPicker both have one) and give yourself at least 20% overhead, e.g., if the calculator says 500W, go for at least 600W.
Personally, unrelated to OP, I’m on the other end of the spectrum. I built a silent PC, with fanless heatsink. Couldn’t find a source here for fanless power supply so bought a 750w that doesn’t spin fan till 30% wattage use. PC uses 15w at idle and about 23w for normal computer stuff. 45w if I push it with video rendering or other workloads. 700w doing nothing :)
Also before buying a PSU, make sure it’s from a reliable brand, has at least 5 years warranty and then see what the smart people with equipment say about the specific model you’re looking at. PSUCircuit is a good resource for this.
Absolutely. The brand is very important. So many no-name brands out there putting out complete junk that can be straight up unsafe in addition to offering poor (or no) performance.
If your distro ships with the tool
inxi, you can dump a lot of data about your system withinxi -Fazy. Folks might be better able to help you then. The-zflag filters sensitive information.inxi -Fazy
That’s a pretty neat tool. I’ll definitely be using that for future troubleshooting.
My only, minor, gripe is that it shows kernel parameters which can contain the UUID of the LUKS partition containing your sysroot. This isn’t a factor in most people’s threat model, but it’s worth pointing out.
I just put a bunch of stuff on this pc and would rather not have to switch back to mint.
If you move that stuff to a partition that’s different from where root lives, switching operating systems shouldn’t be a problem. You can just mount the data partition on your new OS, if the need arises.
Problem is its software and patches etc, I dont know how to move that in linux without it all breaking. If it was media I’d be fine
Not an answer to your question. Just some perspective. I’ve come to be more patient with FOSS. Perhaps it doesn’t always work how I want, but unlike proprierary options, it belongs to me. Something to think about when something doesn’t go your way.
Oh totally, I am just annoyed with popos, not linux in general lol
You’re likely running out of memory. Try setting up a swap file.
I have a 5 gig swap file. I dont think im running out. 12g should be plenty for what I do
Huh, well the fact that you’re just logged out suggests that the DE either encounters an unrecoverable error, or the system runs out of resources and has to kill some userspace processes to free them up and your DE just happens to be one of the things it kills, which can leave it in an unrecoverable state.
The pink squares do suggest a gpu-related problem however, it’s possible that your gpu is either overheating or doesn’t get enough power from the power supply. What gpu temperatures and ram usage are you seeing before the freeze? And what power supply are you using?
Generally, if it’s not happening under load, it’s probably a memory issue. .ale sure your BIOS timings aren’t off, and run memtest.
It may happen under load as well…not totally sure. I will run meanest. Would that cause a graphics glitch like that?
Burn a usb with memtest and try that. Only after you have removed suspicion of your RAM being bad, go to the next thing to investigate.
The graphics glitching could just be from a kernel bail of some sort. List some specs of your machine, that would be helpful.
Another thing: what’s your PSU wattage?
Edit: checked, and your CPU can draw 125W, while the GPU can draw up to 250W, so if you don’t have at least a 400W PSU, you could have some problems. Maybe consider under locking just a tad, or locking the GPU at a lower clock to prevent big power draws. That might help. Would hurt to check the temp on that GPU as well.
If that doesn’t reveal anything, maybe try to get your hands on a dirt cheap alternate GPU. Memory and GPU would also be my two possible suspects.
Also GPU driver I guess but I feel like you wouldn’t be alone with the issue then.
Good call. Commented, but could be the GPU or also related to lack of power for that GPU.
