Random slow downs and applications crashing - Logs are not catching it

General system Kernel, boot, graphics & hardware
1

I am having several issues and not sure where to start. I have a framework laptop running EndeavourOS, it has 96GB of RAM and a 2TB M2 SSD. (I am not sure if the resources make a difference). As of yesterday it started having random slow-downs when trying to do stuff in the terminal or on the browser. To the point some applications start shutting down. So I open system monitor and see that the RAM is using 6GB out of 96GB so I ruled out some crazy OOM situation. The processor only goes to about ~30% so nothing to bad there.

When it slows down I can still click on apps that are open and they come forward and refresh but I can’t interact with it. Such as on a browser I can’t scroll or click links/type and on the termninal I can’t type. The speed is very slow and a couple applications will usually crash. Now the issue is the logs don’t really show anything that I can use.

I thought it could be kernel as I am on Zen, but I can’t even get the kernel to automatically change. I tried following these instructions https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/changing-kernel-guide/38245/3 and it didn’t work. I also tried using the 1>2 and it stayed zen.

Maybe someone will see something that I am not or have a solution, because I can’t find much.

journalctl -k -p 3 -b
Mar 22 15:25:19 zerker-fw16 kernel: ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: unknown error 0
Mar 22 15:25:19 zerker-fw16 kernel: ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: GET_CABLE_PROPERTY failed (-5)
Mar 22 15:25:19 zerker-fw16 kernel: ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: unknown error 256
Mar 22 15:25:19 zerker-fw16 kernel: ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: GET_CABLE_PROPERTY failed (-5)
Mar 22 15:25:19 zerker-fw16 kernel: ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: unknown error 256
Mar 22 15:25:19 zerker-fw16 kernel: ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: GET_CABLE_PROPERTY failed (-5)
Mar 22 15:25:21 zerker-fw16 kernel: cros-usbpd-charger cros-usbpd-charger.6.auto: Unexpected number of charge port count
Mar 22 15:25:21 zerker-fw16 kernel: cros-usbpd-charger cros-usbpd-charger.6.auto: probe with driver cros-usbpd-charger failed with error -71

free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            92Gi       5.6Gi        78Gi       177Mi       9.7Gi        86Gi
Swap:             0B          0B          0B

dmesg | tail -n 50
journalctl --user -xe
dmesg: read kernel buffer failed: Operation not permitted
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has begun execution.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 729.
Mar 22 15:42:55 zerker-fw16 systemd[5077]: Started Track hardware statistics.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 729.
Mar 22 15:43:22 zerker-fw16 systemd[5077]: Started kitty child process: 22326 launched by: 21859.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 750.
Mar 22 15:43:24 zerker-fw16 systemd[5077]: Started kitty child process: 22360 launched by: 21859.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 754.
Mar 22 15:43:43 zerker-fw16 wireplumber[5228]: wp-event-dispatcher: <WpAsyncEventHook:0x57423d69d0d0> failed: failed to activate item: Object activation>
Mar 22 15:43:45 zerker-fw16 plasmashell[5393]: The cached device pixel ratio value was stale on window update.  Please file a QTBUG which explains how t>
Mar 22 15:44:20 zerker-fw16 systemd[5077]: Started kitty child process: 22405 launched by: 21859.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has finished successfully.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 758.
Mar 22 15:45:04 zerker-fw16 plasmashell[5393]: The cached device pixel ratio value was stale on window update.  Please file a QTBUG which explains how t>
Mar 22 15:45:29 zerker-fw16 ark[5759]: QThreadStorage: Thread 0x600f363e3600 exited after QThreadStorage 8 destroyed
Mar 22 15:47:33 zerker-fw16 kded6[5331]: org.kde.freespacenotifier: Obtaining storage info is taking a long while for "/home/zerkereod"
Mar 22 15:47:44 zerker-fw16 plasmashell[5393]: The cached device pixel ratio value was stale on window update.  Please file a QTBUG which explains how t>
Mar 22 15:47:53 zerker-fw16 plasmashell[5393]: kf.plasma.quick: location should be set before showing popup window
Mar 22 15:47:53 zerker-fw16 plasmashell[5393]: qt.qml.signalhandler: Property 'onPressed' of object CompactRepresentation_QMLTYPE_628(0x595cc6b82000) is>
Mar 22 15:47:53 zerker-fw16 plasmashell[5393]: The cached device pixel ratio value was stale on window update.  Please file a QTBUG which explains how t>
Mar 22 15:47:55 zerker-fw16 plasmashell[5393]: The cached device pixel ratio value was stale on window update.  Please file a QTBUG which explains how t>
Mar 22 15:49:17 zerker-fw16 kwin_wayland[5128]: kwin_libinput: Libinput: event4  - PIXA3854:00 093A:0274 Touchpad: kernel bug: Touch jump detected and d>
                                                See https://wayland.freedesktop.org/libinput/doc/1.27.1/touchpad-jumping-cursors.html for details
Mar 22 15:49:33 zerker-fw16 kded6[5331]: org.kde.freespacenotifier: Obtaining storage info is taking a long while for "/home/zerkereod"
2

It seems you don´t have any swap active?
Do you see any oom-killer activity?

Some one else was reporting similar behavior the other day; they also had a lot of memory, but activating swap seems to have resolved their issue:

3

After posting that above I haven’t had any issues. I think it is an issue with Cursor (AI editor). I haven’t gotten a single slow down when it is closed. I am about to open it and see if it causes an issue again. If it does, I will report it to their forums. If not I will try adding swap to see if that fixes it. I am not sure why that would make a difference but I stopped questing that type of thing a long time ago haha.

1 Like
4

That’s the spirit! A true (Arch)Linux user! :wink: :rofl:

1 Like
5

So it crashed my entire system in about 3 minutes…

I can’t interact with anything so I had to snap a photo.

IMG20250322193554
IMG202503221935541920×1440 225 KB

6

Such programs can use a huge amount of memory so OOM could definitely be the cause of your problems.
So, as suggest already by others, set some swap, type doesn’t matter, swap file, partition or zswap. 8GB should be enough, so the system has some room when needed.

7

I got that but I’m not running the model locally and have 96GB of RAM. When in cursor I’m watching the system monitor and htop and both show ram in use at less than 10GB. I never see it go above and there are no OOM errors.

8

Not Cursor, now it is happening almost as soon as I boot up.

9

Have you added any swap?

10

Reseat the memory modules? Shouldn’t need swap on 96gb.

11

Tried that, let’s see how it goes. I also tried to restore from a prior snapshot to see if that fixes it but for some reason I didn’t need to update any packages, so I’m not sure it actually restored anything.

12

Got to be hardware. Try 16gb then 32gb etc, also is your SSD OK?

You could also try running of the install media for a bit and see if that crashes.

13

Could be hardware, I’m not sure I trust the temps but I’ve not heard of temps causing this issue. Usually it just shuts down. I reseated the ram and SSDs. I installed Mission Control and at idle it’s reporting CPU temps of 70-99c as soon as I do anything with a load it spikes to 100c and the fans ramp way up. Until it hits 100 though the fans are running just not a lot. I know the frameworks had temp issues and I wasn’t initially affected but I’m going to repaste it tomorrow and see it it’s a thermal issue.

I was reading some stuff that the thermals reported by most apps are very off, but it’s all I have to go on.

14

Do people still recommend swap when 96GB of ram is used ?

This is not a normal behavior, idle should be between 30-50c

15

I remember reading an article a few years ago that used very technical language to say that Linux can perform badly without swap. Modern web search being what it is, I can’t find it now.

Even if that’s been changed now, it’s a simple thing to try. If it doesn’t work, I’d run a memtest.

16

Well endeavour os stock installation does not add a swap partition by default. I tried it with BTRFS install and EXT4. Both came without it.

17

I’m pretty sure I took the ext4 defaults and got a 8gb swap partition. Well, I definitely don’t remember playing with the partitions at all.

18

How many ram do you have ? My main system has 64GB. So if i need a swap partition i would not give it more then 4GB. If i am not wrong Pop! OS already did this on my machine.

I will keep an eye on it when i format my main machine to Endeavour.

Edit: Instead of a swap partition you can also use a swap file which does do the same thing.

19

I have a paltry 32GB. It’s possible that I added it post install and don’t remember doing so. My meds do mess with my memory more than a little.

20

Indeed:

1 Like