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Linux mint 22.3 cinnamon desktop freezing, audio and mouse cursor fine. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I’m having an issue in linux mint 22.3 cinnamon where the GUI locks up but audio still plays and the mouse cursor still moves. The solution is to press ctrl+alt+f1 to take me to a terminal and then press ctrl+alt+f7 to go back to the GUI. Then everything works fine. Forgive me, I do not know what to call the terminal when accessing ctrl+alt+f1 other than tty1.

I also have an issue where when using a browser (librewolf / waterfox / zen) and using the pop out video window, sometimes over time it will lock in the main browser window and the solution is to minimise and restore the window. Sounds related.

I am new to linux and not sure where to start. I think there is something up with the cinnamon desktop environment but I do not know what. Hardware has been stress tested, multiple components, multiple days. I think it is a software issue but could be wrong, that is why I am asking for help.

Any help / thoughts much appreciated.

Thank you.

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[–] 4 points 1 month ago (1 child)

why is it that going into ctrl+alt+f1 and then ctrl+alt+f7 to go back, resolve the issue?

I suspect when you swap between the terminal screens you force a resolution input to the screen and/or force the GPU to define what it is expecting to the screen.

If it's not wayland / x11 then try changing your display cable and also which of hdmi/dvi/display port you are using (ie if using hdmi swap to a display port out of GPU and into monitor for example) if you can.

I'd also check what video drivers you're using and see if there are any known issues - I vaguely recall early NVidia GPUs (umm 10x0 series I think ? I run AMD and so dont pay a lot of attention) have been deprecated from the latest kernel (don't think that has flowed down to Mint as it runs older/stable kernels but worth checking).

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    I run an AMD GPU as I saw that NVIDIA GPU's can be a pain due to NVIDIA's closed approach to linux. I have determined I am running x11 so I will look into methods of trying a wayland session. I am just nervous of switching as I do not want to find myself booting to a terminal instead of a GUI. It is something I will have to research more and make sure I can roll back. I plan to backup and image the system before going down this route.

    Question, would timeshift be able to roll back a switch from x11 to wayland in case of an issue? And am I right in thinking I would have to boot from a live usb to perform the appropriate timeshift restore?

    Thank you for your help.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    Dude you're not changing any configs by trying it, it's already installed. You're just selecting an existing option.

    Far be it from me to discourage good backups though.

    To answer the question no timeshift won't roll it back because there is no change to rollback.

    Think of it as grabbing your tv remote and switching the input on your tv from hdmi1 to hdmi2 to swap to the ps5/xbox from the cable box. You're not changing the config you're choosing an alternate input that was already there.

    Now if it goes badly (I'll be shocked if it does) then there is a simple way to revert, use your ctrl-alt-f4 (or f3 or f5) keys to swap to a fresh terminal login, login, then type

    shutdown -r now

    And hit enter

    You'll be back after the reboot at the login screen, click on the little mountain icon and choose x11 again (it remembers your last choice) and you're sorted back into x11

    Now just to close the loop for when you do need to restore a timeshift backup. Yes it is best practise to boot from a live mint usb & run timeshift from there to restore your last snapshot however in an emergency it will work to initiate the restore from the boot itself (it will initiate a reboot and do it on reboot).

    Lastly if it's an AMD gpu I'm betting on hardware, changing that cable and swapping physical connection ports would be top of my list.

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