Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

KaibutsuX · 2026-07-23 15:45:16

First time I've ever had a crash during a system upgrade and when I rebooted nothing worked so I started manually reinstalling all of the packages that were a part of the last upgrade. It finally let me login, but now I'm getting intermittent and random system freezes.

The mouse stops responding, no caps lock, if audio is playing it just plays the last 2 seconds in a loop. Can't Ctrl-Alt-F2 to switch to another tty. All I can do is reboot.

journalctl -b-1 shows no warnings or errors even with an hour of the freeze.

Here's what I've tried:

* Disabled all non-essential "/' mountpoints to ensure it's not an external disk issue
* Tried latest kernel and linux-lts (6.18.39-1)
* Killed any non-essential programs while running (steam, qbittorrent, conky) other than remmina (for work) and librewolf
* Upgraded the system everytime I have to reboot
* Reinstalled any amd* related pacman pkgs for video drivers
* Installed the pactime aur package, sorted by time and reinstalled EVERY single pkg in the list, so essentially the entire system

What else can I try? The system was rock solid up until this update, I think it was a power surge that caused the crash, it was during some thunderstorms. Other than re-installing the system, I'm not sure what else I can try or investigate, I doubt the freeze is leading to anything being logged to a file or the journal.

seth · 2026-07-23 16:18:16

sudo LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files' | grep -v backup

Though I suspect the subject confuses cause and effect - can you keep "dmesg -w" running in a permanently visible terminal? Maybe is shows something before the kernel halts.

KaibutsuX · 2026-07-23 16:30:30

Oh yeah, forgot to list that I already went through the -Qkk and reinstalled all of those:

warning: amd-ucode: /boot/amd-ucode.img (Permissions mismatch)
warning: cups: /etc/cups/classes.conf (Permissions mismatch)
warning: cups: /etc/cups/printers.conf (Permissions mismatch)
warning: libutempter: /usr/lib/utempter/utempter (GID mismatch)
warning: libutempter: /usr/lib/utempter/utempter (Permissions mismatch)
warning: libvlc: /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/plugins.dat (Modification time mismatch)
warning: libvlc: /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/plugins.dat (Size mismatch)
warning: libvlc: /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/plugins.dat (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
warning: openssl: /etc/ssl/private (Permissions mismatch)
warning: systemd: /var/log/journal (GID mismatch)
amd-ucode: 17 total files, 1 altered file
cups: 947 total files, 2 altered files
libutempter: 20 total files, 1 altered file
libvlc: 120 total files, 1 altered file
openssl: 6748 total files, 1 altered file
systemd: 1918 total files, 1 altered file

demsg is running now, waiting for a freeze.

KaibutsuX · 2026-07-23 19:53:11

Another freeze. Happened literally the same second I clicked in the browser. Nothing in dmesg, nothing in journalctl -b-1. Updated my bios at the reboot.

aminepro · 2026-07-23 20:52:25

KaibutsuX wrote:

Another freeze. Happened literally the same second I clicked in the browser. Nothing in dmesg, nothing in journalctl -b-1. Updated my bios at the reboot.

I really want to see how that would be solved, try this https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Keyboard_shortcuts, maybe when the system freezes you hard reset it (using button shutdown), I think you can try shutting down sepecific things to check. {even though I have no experience on that}

I just remembered something similar happened to my system for about 7 seconds after opening the browser (don't really remember what else} three days ago, but everything returned to normal afterwards so I ignored it {thought it may be memory related but didn't check}, I'm using dwm and as mpv was playing it started to loop until the end of the crash, I update my system daily btw cause I have a fast connection

Last edited by aminepro (2026-07-23 20:59:45)

seth · 2026-07-24 05:44:31

Specifically https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Keyboa … el_(SysRq) but if there're no errors in the live dmesg that's not even overly likely.
=> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kdump

Still post your system journal for a general oversight so we can round up the usual suspects, eg. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Ryzen#Troubleshooting
Are you overclocking the system in any way shape or form? (XMP etc?)

KaibutsuX · 2026-07-24 12:07:00

Nope, no overclocking, no custom kernels. All was perfect until a borked pacman -Syu.

I did see the System Halts section, but I'm not sure what PBO means in the context of: "then apply the PBO+4 curve for more stability"

Also installed kdumpst to see if I can get a dump at next freeze.

seth · 2026-07-24 15:31:28

Do you have a ryzen CPU?
Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -s -H "Accept: application/json, */*" --upload-file - 'https://paste.c-net.org/'

(Just to illustrate the system we're facing)

KaibutsuX · 2026-07-24 15:36:05

Yes, Ryzen 9 9950X

CpuID

Journal

Uname -a => Linux mira 6.18.39-1-lts #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat, 18 Jul 2026 18:11:01 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

seth · 2026-07-24 15:58:55

There's the APU and a Radeon RX 9060 XT, can you run the system on the integrated graphics for a while and see whether that has impact on the stability?

ASUS System Product Name/PRIME X870-P WIFI, BIOS 1644 03/10/2026

Not sure whether it does (eg. the TUF stuff seems to have castrated UEFI options) but the PBO curve optimizer is a BIOS/UEFI option - you're basically running the CPU at higher voltages what keeps it "warmer" and prevents it from overdriving isolated cores toomuch™
Disabling the c-states might have similar impact, but at the cost of quite higher power draws (and it's not as reliable)
There's also https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/corectrl/ (you *want* to use the UEFI settings if they're available)

If it's not the CPU/GPU, for the moment just ftr, there's a Micron/Crucial Technology T500 NVMe

KaibutsuX · 2026-07-24 17:04:25

I've never actually used the integrated graphics because I have to run 2 monitors, so that's out. I looked in the bios for power management features but the only things I saw were Wake On Lan and 1 other thing that now I can't remember, but they were both disabled.

The NVME reports no smart errors in the bios SMART util.

seth · 2026-07-24 17:14:17

https://www.asus.com/de/motherboards-co … 70-p-wifi/ makes it look like there're some elaborate settings and certainly PBO control?

Even if it was the nvme that would not relate to smart errors (broken memory modules) but the bus, again: only for later.
Focus on the CPU and related to that the GPU.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-07-23 15:45:16

Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#2 2026-07-23 16:18:16

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#3 2026-07-23 16:30:30

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#4 2026-07-23 19:53:11

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#5 2026-07-23 20:52:25

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#6 2026-07-24 05:44:31

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#7 2026-07-24 12:07:00

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#8 2026-07-24 15:31:28

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#9 2026-07-24 15:36:05

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#10 2026-07-24 15:58:55

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#11 2026-07-24 17:04:25

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

#12 2026-07-24 17:14:17

Re: Crash during pacman -Syu and now system freezes intermittently

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