Laptop sometimes freezes completly after plasma start

AndrewAmmerlaan

For a while now I have been having this issue where after the plasma loading screen is gone, the screen completely turns black. No cursor, no switching to a tty.
The strange thing is this only happens *sometimes*, if I hold down the power button and try again odds are that it will work just fine. Looking at /var/log/messages, this caught my eye:

Blind_Sniper · Guru Joined: 20 Apr 2018 Posts: 340

The same here, tho I using Nvidia card. It appeared for first time a couple of weeks ago. I think it's related to one of the last updates.
BTW other 3 systems works properly, so I doubt it's a hardware problem (at least for me)

AndrewAmmerlaan · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:06 am Post subject:

Blind_Sniper · Guru Joined: 20 Apr 2018 Posts: 340

AndrewAmmerlaan · Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 10:05 am Post subject:

Alright so it's not mesa then, how about these:

albright · Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:15 am Post subject:

I get the same thing, but I'm using intel video on a thinkpad x1

I don't get a completely black screen, but a single tiny white dash
or underline in the upper left of the screen (like a non-blinking cursor).

It happens maybe 5-10% of boots and I can see no pattern in when it happens.
_________________
.... there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth
doing as simply messing about with Linux ...
(apologies to Kenneth Graeme)

Blind_Sniper · Guru Joined: 20 Apr 2018 Posts: 340

xorg-server differs too:

AndrewAmmerlaan · Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:24 pm Post subject:

I don't think it's qt related, I am currently on 5.11.1. And I'm pretty sure I was using 5.9.6 before this problem first appeared. I'll update asap and see if the problem goes away for me as well.
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OS: Gentoo 6.7.3-gentoo-dist, ~amd64, 17.1/desktop/plasma/systemd/merged-usr
MB: MSI Z370-A PRO
CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KS
GPU: Intel Arc A770 16GB & Intel UHD Graphics 630
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 32GB DDR4-2400

AndrewAmmerlaan · Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:14 am Post subject:

I think I found out what the problem is exactly: So I have this secondary monitor which I sometimes use. When I'm done using it I disconnect it, but when I then reboot the system I get this black screen issue. However if I run xrandr after I disconnect the monitor it updates the current monitor settings to only use my laptop screen. If I do this before a restart I don't get a black screen.

Here's my hypothesis, If a monitor was connected before restart, and that monitor is no longer connected after the restart. Plasma/KDE tries to restore the windows that were on the second monitor, but then it gets confused as that monitor is no longer there which somehow causes the whole thing to stop and give a black screen.
Possible workarounds:
Make sure the monitor configuration does not change over reboots
Always disconnect all monitors before restart and update configuration accordingly (either run xrandr, or go to kde systemsettings subsection displays)
Disable session restore (haven't tried this yet, but it might work as well EDIT: nope, doesn't work)

Does this solve your problems too?

I'll do some more experimenting, and if all findings are consistent with the above I'll file a bugreport.
_________________
OS: Gentoo 6.7.3-gentoo-dist, ~amd64, 17.1/desktop/plasma/systemd/merged-usr
MB: MSI Z370-A PRO
CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KS
GPU: Intel Arc A770 16GB & Intel UHD Graphics 630
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 32GB DDR4-2400

houtworm · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 11:41 pm Post subject:

I had this problem too. It started a few months ago that i had a black screen in kde, so I installed lxde
And today I realized that perhaps the external monitor worked and it did!
And now there are some keys on my laptop keyboard: fn -> f4
..to switch monitors. On the screen appeared a selection, only the laptop screen, only the external screen, both screens,..
That did the trick, problem solved :-)

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niemand is onbekwamer, dan een timmerman zonder hamer

Kees

AndrewAmmerlaan · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:39 pm Post subject:

So turns out it was the hardware after all. Last week (sunday) it decided to quit working completely (the screen froze). And ever since it will sometimes work for ~7 minutes (or not at all) and then the screen would (turn black)/freeze/(get corrupted) (or sometimes all three).
It works just fine, as long as I don't startx. Therefore I'm pretty sure the problem is with the GPU. And since the GPU is not easily removable from the motherboard I can't fix it. Toshiba was no help at all, their customer service might as well be non-existent

So I decided to get a new machine instead (an upgrade was due anyway), and salvage as many working comments as I can. I'm currently re-installing gentoo on my new pc, second time is a lot easier then the first

_________________
OS: Gentoo 6.7.3-gentoo-dist, ~amd64, 17.1/desktop/plasma/systemd/merged-usr
MB: MSI Z370-A PRO
CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KS
GPU: Intel Arc A770 16GB & Intel UHD Graphics 630
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 32GB DDR4-2400