GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 02:32:45

Hi this is my first time posting to the forum, so thanks for the help in advance.

Some more info about the issue:
If my laptop screen turns off in any way whether it be by closing the lid or letting it sit for too long, when I wake it up, most GUI applications act strangely. When the application is taking up the whole screen ( such as only one window open), they pretty much freeze. But if I open a window with another window ( including a terminal, or a window of the same type) both act perfectly normal. The only fix I've been able to find is to restart the X-Server by exiting i3 and then re-logging in. This does not happen with terminals, but with pretty much every other program such as firefox, eclipse, and vscode.

Specs:
lspci | grep VGA : "00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Stoney [Radeon R2/R3/R4/R5 Graphics] (rev c1)" ( I have updated my ATI graphics drivers)
uname -a : "Linux Marvin 4.19.37-1-lts #1 SMP [TIME] 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux"
kernal : "4.19.37-1-lts"
wm : "i3-gaps"
Programs that I use to make stuff look nice:
Compton
feh

I originally thought it was an X issue, so I setup my startx command to run like this:

if [[ ! $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]]; then
exec startx -- -keeptty > ~/.cache/xorg.log 2>&1
fi

And then did everything that I could that I thought would get an error related to the issue (closed my laptop lid to start the issue, then opened many applications, tried interacting with them, closing and opening them), but the output was pretty uninteresting which is linked below.
https://termbin.com/a2xs

Then I though it may have been an issue with compton, so I created a new user and started a fresh i3 session on there with the default settings and config files, but I still had the issue, so now I'm pretty lost.

I thought I did some pretty extensive google searching, but I couldn't find a similar issue anywhere. If anyone needs any more info, I'll update the post.

Thanks again in advance

Last edited by BeyondPerception (2019-05-03 02:37:34)

seth · 2019-05-03 08:09:27

Then I though it may have been an issue with compton, so I created a new user and started a fresh i3 session

Does this imply you also tried w/o compton at all?

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 12:08:53

Yes I tried both disabling Compton on my main accounts window manager, and then didn’t use anything but default i3 on the other account. No Compton

However when I did this, on both accounts, turning the screen off and on again through suspend or sleep froze I3 completely. I couldn’t interact with it at all, but the mouse would still move. Even hitting Mod+Shift+E to exit i3 didn’t bring up a window, so I had to restart on both occasions.

seth · 2019-05-03 14:01:20

If i3 locks up somewhere, it won't process shortcuts.
Can you just kill i3 from a different VT (it must not be the session keeping process) in doubt by SIGKILL ("-9") and restart it, resp. does eg. openbox show the same behavior?
In that case what likely happens is that the output unregisters, the rootwindow collapses ("0x0") and i3 goes nuts over that…

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 17:28:28

Sorry for the dumb question, but how do I go about doing this? If I have i3 open how do I kill it from outside the session? I’m guessing that a sig term -9 would just stop i3 and drop me back in the arch terminal because I’m pretty sure my computer isn’t frozen, just the window manager. The reason I think this is because I have systemd setup so a press of the power button will shutdown arch gracefully and that’s how I’ve been getting out of the frozen i3.

How can I find out where the hang up happens though?

Last edited by BeyondPerception (2019-05-03 17:28:58)

seth · 2019-05-03 19:03:01

ctrl+alt+F1,F2,… will switch to VT1, VT2, … and allow you to login to a console session.
If you kill i3 from there (or anyway else, eg. from an ssh login) ensure that it is NOT the session keeping process, ie. that your xinitrc does eg. not say "exec i3".
Run instead an xterm to keep the session and start i3wm from there instead.

Also it's not "sig term -9" but "kill -9"

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 19:11:57

That's a pretty cool trick, I will use that more often.

The first significant thing I saw is that switching between VT1, VT2, etc, also causes the issue.

I used "kill -9 <PID>" and i3 closed and took me back to the login screen, and I started it again but not much changed. i3 started working again until I closed my laptop lid and reopened it then full screen windows broke again.

seth · 2019-05-03 19:24:05

Yes, I told you to ensure i3 isn't the session keeping process, adjust your xinitrc…

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 20:19:07

Sorry I still don't really understand what I need to do.

Should I just comment out the "exec i3" line and then run startx from the arch terminal?

seth · 2019-05-03 20:23:24

No.
How did you install archlinux?

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 21:00:09

I just followed the Installation Guide on the wiki

seth · 2019-05-03 21:01:55

So you do understand how xinitrc works.
Don't run i3, run xterm as session and start i3 from that xterm. This way killing i3 won't terminate the session.

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 21:04:22

Do i run it with startx or just run i3?

If I run i3, it says Cannot open display, but if I run startx it tries to run, the says Server terminated successfully.

Last edited by BeyondPerception (2019-05-03 21:05:25)

seth · 2019-05-03 21:18:43

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinit

BeyondPerception · 2019-05-03 21:24:51

Ok so I kept exec i3 in my .xinitrc and removed startx from my .zprofile so it wouldnt start on login, then launched i3 using startx from the VT, but the problem persisted.

seth · 2019-05-04 05:59:44

That is not at all what I suggested to do. Not even remotely.
Do you actually speak English or do you use google translate?

Arch Linux

#1 2019-05-03 02:32:45

GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#2 2019-05-03 08:09:27

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#3 2019-05-03 12:08:53

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#4 2019-05-03 14:01:20

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#5 2019-05-03 17:28:28

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#6 2019-05-03 19:03:01

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#7 2019-05-03 19:11:57

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#8 2019-05-03 19:24:05

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#9 2019-05-03 20:19:07

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#10 2019-05-03 20:23:24

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#11 2019-05-03 21:00:09

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#12 2019-05-03 21:01:55

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#13 2019-05-03 21:04:22

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#14 2019-05-03 21:18:43

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#15 2019-05-03 21:24:51

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

#16 2019-05-04 05:59:44

Re: GUI applications freeze after screen turns off an on again

Board footer