Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

Big Scorpio · 2026-01-10 20:43:06

Hello Arch Friends,

This is a simple "newbie" matter I have.

If you know how in Windows when software/programs hang up and freeze completely, you can either alt-tab out of them, invoke task manager and kill the process or use something as cool as SuperF4, which will forcibly kill the currently focused process no matter what (whereas a simple ALT+F4 may not always work). Unfortunately SuperF4 is available and works only on Windows.

In Linux I have not yet found an ability to do the same thing. I'm running on KDE Plasma Wayland (to enjoy the HDR support and other fancy modern features) and Linux-LTS kernel. So when any software/program freezes up, my entire system and input becomes disabled. Cursor doesn't move, keyboard doesn't change LEDs when hitting Numlock or Caps lock and alt-tabbing doesn't do anything and neither does Alt+F4. The only way out of that is by pushing the reset button my machine or power it off.

How do i keep or regain control in Linux if a software/program decides to freeze and hold my entire system hostage in it?

Last edited by Big Scorpio (2026-01-10 20:44:38)

system72 · 2026-01-10 20:45:34

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Keyboa … el_(SysRq)

cryptearth · 2026-01-10 21:19:27

if not even num-lock reacts this hints more towards the entire system freezes - not just an application
- is there something specific when this happens more often like heavy workload or gaming or does it happen out of the blue no matter what (like when just browsing the web?)
- do you have a 2nd screen? open up monitoring tools like htop and nvtop to see if you can make out out of spec values (have an eye on temps), have dmesg run in listen mode
- sinde when does it happen?
- does it happen on standard kernel?
- do you dual boot windows? > https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dual_boot_with_Windows - pay attention to section 1.4
- can you actively reproduce the issue?

Big Scorpio · 2026-01-19 21:01:55

system72 wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Keyboa … el_(SysRq)

I'm not sure what to make of it nor do I see followable instructions to get me much closer to what I want. Killing all processes sounds way too overkill since it's only the focused process, that holds my system runtime hostage.

cryptearth wrote:

if not even num-lock reacts this hints more towards the entire system freezes - not just an application

It happens at random *specifically* with software/processes, that are prone to make my system freeze. Skyrim Special Edition does that consistently and it happens on Windows too. At least on Windows I can regain control by hitting ALT+CTRL+F4 (SuperF4). So it's not just any software or runtime but specific software, that were designed in such a way, that one might think the SW Engineers were either paid 50K annually, used AI to vibe code or both.

I use the LTS kernel since I'm on a legendary GTX 1080 Ti and the nvidia drivers broke the regular kernel version (i switched to the nvidia legacy drivers in the AUR since ngreedia dropped support for Pascal architecture GPUs. quite a Delta India Charlie Kilo move).

I disabled fast boot and hibernation on Windows previously.

seth · 2026-01-19 22:15:52

Killing all processes sounds way too overkill since it's only the focused process, that holds my system runtime hostage.

Not if

The only way out of that is by pushing the reset button my machine or power it off.

no - absolutely not.
Some specific process might be the trigger and even grab the keyboard, but if you cannot
* switch the VT (ctrl+alt+F3) or
* ssh into the system any longer,
* the keyboard no longer changes states (caps lock or numlock) or
* if alt+f4/alt+tab would normally work when the specific process isn't frozen but the active window
you're *NOT* facing some single process being stopped or dead- or live locked.
This isn't how this works - unlike windows, window management isn't cooperatively organized at all and if the window manager isn't "frozen", the window manager shortcuts will absolutely work.

Rebooting w/ the sysrq will at least (if it actually still works and the problem isn't related to the root partition) preserve the journal of the previous boot to inspect for the problem after the reboot.

cryptearth · 2026-01-19 22:18:51

if some games crash your hardware even on windows this sounds more like a serious hardware issue than anything else
in the end: no matter how complicated at some point it comes down to the same code causes the same fault - but as it's not the software (otherwise it would affect others, too) to only logical conclusion remains its a hardware fault
give memtest, prime95 and furmark a try to stress your system under synthetic load - chances are high it will happen, too
also: although often overlooked: could also be a bad power supply - happen to be one of the top most issues in regards to issues in high drive-count storage pools

Big Scorpio · 2026-02-15 16:24:00

I apologize for the late reply and I appreciate the detailed replies my Arch Friends.

It seems that a multitude of my problems (minutes long firmware boot time) all follow the same road to HW defects. My Machine is as old as an Intel i7 6700K CPU (6th Gen codenamed Skylake) Processor today is (bought it in 2015) and i encounter these problems since early XMAS 2025.

I'd run the tests later (couldn't do that lately), however I believe the HW needs replacing really. Tough luck with the RAM prices today.

cryptearth · 2026-02-15 21:38:38

although it often sounds like it - I'm not against using old hardware in general - but I always get some itches when someone tries to run todays software on old hardware and reports issues
even linux with all its "we still support 90s hardware" backwards compatibility isn't meant to be run a 2026 version on 2016 hardware (although it usually does work)
I not followed all your topics - but yea: the sum of all the issues combine comes, again, down to: if it would be the software it also would affect others - but as that isn't the case the only other option left is some hardware issue
maybe you can get away with something used - but yea: buying new ... for many not an option with current prices

best of luck

seth · 2026-02-15 21:49:30

Have you tried and failed or succeeded to reboot w/ sysrq+REISUB?

Arch Linux

#1 2026-01-10 20:43:06

Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#2 2026-01-10 20:45:34

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#3 2026-01-10 21:19:27

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#4 2026-01-19 21:01:55

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#5 2026-01-19 22:15:52

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#6 2026-01-19 22:18:51

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#7 2026-02-15 16:24:00

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#8 2026-02-15 21:38:38

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

#9 2026-02-15 21:49:30

Re: Unresponsive software freezes my entire system and input

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