Freezing

[Patrick Dupre]

Hello,

Since 1 week, when I update my machine (fedora24) by using
dnf update, during the update, the graphic screen freezes.
The update end properly.
The only thing that I can do it to open a text terminal.
and restart the machine.
I do not see any wrong, except that there is a process
/usr/bin/gnome-shell
which takes 100% of cpu
Even if I kill it, the graphics does not recover.
It seems that there is always such a process running, but it does not charge
the machine.

Thank.

===========================================================================
 Patrick DUPRÉ                                 | | email: [e-mail]
 Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie de l'Atmosphère | |
 Université du Littoral-Côte d'Opale           | |
 Tel.  (33)-(0)3 28 23 76 12                   | | Fax: [phone]
 189A, avenue Maurice Schumann                 | | 59140 Dunkerque, France
===========================================================================

[Rick Stevens]

On 03/24/2017 02:00 AM, Patrick Dupre wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Since 1 week, when I update my machine (fedora24) by using
> dnf update, during the update, the graphic screen freezes.
> The update end properly.

You really should upgrade to F25, simply because F26 is around the
corner and 6 months after that happens, support for F24 will end and
you'll be forced to go to at least F25 anyway. You might as well get it
over with now. :-)
> The only thing that I can do it to open a text terminal.
> and restart the machine.
> I do not see any wrong, except that there is a process
> /usr/bin/gnome-shell
> which takes 100% of cpu
> Even if I kill it, the graphics does not recover.
> It seems that there is always such a process running, but it does not charge
> the machine.

gnome-shell is a big part of the Gnome3 desktop. There are large
numbers of anecdotal reports of it getting into weird states where it
consumes all of the CPU and blocks other processes from getting
resources. I don't know that there ever was a single cause of that
behavior found. Killing gnome-shell will not necessarily free the
machine up and make the GUI work as it is a significant component of
the desktop and the real solution is to restart your desktop session
somehow (perhaps by killing your session manager) or reboot.

I rarely use Gnome3. Last time I spent time with it (granted, it was at
least a year ago), it looked like it was designed for tablets and I
don't care for that metaphor on my main systems. I've never gotten fond
of KDE and I've never really done anything with the other desktops
that others swear by. I'm an old f*rt and I liked the old Gnome2
desktop, so I use Xfce (which is fairly close to the way Gnome2 worked
and felt).

(putting on my flack jacket and helmet to await the inevitable
onslaught of Gnome3 and KDE lovers hurling grenades and tactical nukes
in my general direction)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital    [e-mail] -
- AIM/Skype: therps2        ICQ: 226437340           Yahoo: origrps2 -
-                                                                    -
- Grabel's Law: 2 is not equal to 3--not even for large values of 2. -
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Greg Woods]

On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 11:28 AM, Rick Stevens  wrote:
> Killing gnome-shell will not necessarily free the
> machine up and make the GUI work as it is a significant component of
> the desktop

It won't. If you unceremoniously kill off gnome-shell, the desktop no
longer works at all.
> and the real solution is to restart your desktop session
> somehow (perhaps by killing your session manager) or reboot.

In some cases there may be another way. Try pressing ALT-F2. If you get the
"Enter a Command" window, enter "r" and then ENTER. That will restart
gnome-shell. Sometimes this works for other sorts of desktop hangs as well.

--Greg

[Joe Zeff]

On 03/24/2017 10:28 AM, Rick Stevens wrote:
> (putting on my flack jacket and helmet to await the inevitable
> onslaught of Gnome3 and KDE lovers hurling grenades and tactical nukes
> in my general direction)

Not from me, that's for sure.  I bailed on Gnome when I learned what 
Gnome3 was going to be.  I migrated to Xfce and never looked back.

[Tim]

Allegedly, on or about 24 March 2017, Rick Stevens sent:
> I rarely use Gnome3. Last time I spent time with it (granted, it was
> at least a year ago), it looked like it was designed for tablets and I
> don't care for that metaphor on my main systems. I've never gotten
> fond of KDE and I've never really done anything with the other
> desktops that others swear by. I'm an old f*rt and I liked the old
> Gnome2 desktop, so I use Xfce (which is fairly close to the way Gnome2
> worked and felt).

Likewise.  I liked Gnome 2.  I don't like Gnome 3, and it's too heavy a
workload for my PCs.  I've said the same thing about inappropriate
tablet interface style.  And I don't like KDE.  But I went with the MATE
desktop, which is about as close as you can get to the old Gnome 2 as I
think you can get.

[Joe Zeff]

On 03/24/2017 12:03 PM, Tim wrote:
> Likewise.  I liked Gnome 2.  I don't like Gnome 3, and it's too heavy a
> workload for my PCs.  I've said the same thing about inappropriate
> tablet interface style.  And I don't like KDE.  But I went with the MATE
> desktop, which is about as close as you can get to the old Gnome 2 as I
> think you can get.

One thing I like about Xfce is that it lets you decide how to organize 
your desktop.  I have one panel, on the bottom, and two rows of icons on 
the left, just as I did in Win98.  I'm used to it, I'm comfortable with 
it and I see no reason to change just to because it's new and *shiny!*

[Rick Stevens]

On 03/24/2017 12:18 PM, Joe Zeff wrote:
> On 03/24/2017 12:03 PM, Tim wrote:
> > Likewise.  I liked Gnome 2.  I don't like Gnome 3, and it's too heavy a
> > workload for my PCs.  I've said the same thing about inappropriate
> > tablet interface style.  And I don't like KDE.  But I went with the MATE
> > desktop, which is about as close as you can get to the old Gnome 2 as I
> > think you can get.
>
> One thing I like about Xfce is that it lets you decide how to organize
> your desktop.  I have one panel, on the bottom, and two rows of icons on
> the left, just as I did in Win98.  I'm used to it, I'm comfortable with
> it and I see no reason to change just to because it's new and *shiny!*

Ooooooooh! Shiny! Pretty! Oh, look! Bird! Squirrel!

Sorry, got distracted channeling my dog. :-)

Yeah, I agree. I have Xfce because I could make it look like Gnome2 and
still customize it to a reasonable extent. I guess MATE is popular with
Gnome2ites as well (such as Tim), though I've not used it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital    [e-mail] -
- AIM/Skype: therps2        ICQ: 226437340           Yahoo: origrps2 -
-                                                                    -
-  BASIC is the Computer Science version of `Scientific Creationism' -
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Alan]

On Fri, 2017-03-24 at 11:43 -0600, Greg Woods wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 11:28 AM, Rick Stevens 
> wrote:
> > Killing gnome-shell will not necessarily free the
> > machine up and make the GUI work as it is a significant component
> > of
> > the desktop
>
> It won't. If you unceremoniously kill off gnome-shell, the desktop no
> longer works at all.

Use top to find the process number of gnome-shell.

kill -1 <pid of gnome-shell>

That will restart it without killing anything actually running.

[Tim]

Allegedly, on or about 24 March 2017, Rick Stevens sent:
> I have Xfce because I could make it look like Gnome2 and still
> customize it to a reasonable extent. I guess MATE is popular with
> Gnome2ites as well (such as Tim), though I've not used it.

If what you're using works, stick with it.  But if you're doing a lot of
work to make XFCE behave like Gnome 2, then give MATE a try.  It's
virtually Gnome 2, to start off with.

I tried XFCE a long time ago, didn't like it then, but it's probably
changed.  I had trouble with it and pulseaudio, it wasn't good at
auto-mounting, I didn't like that dock that you couldn't get rid of, I
disliked the lack of an organised/categorised top-of-screen menu, and
the lack of windowing tab bar at the bottom.

But, I think the biggest swaying factor for me using MATE, is that most
of the programs that I use tend to be gnome, or gnome-centric.  So it
makes sense to avoid a mish-mash desktop.

[Alex H]

It's interesting the upgrade suggestion because I have been getting this
issue lately-several times-on f25. I have tried several things, this being
the latest:
Kill -9 -1
Don't run this as root though.

P.s. in retrospect I'd try using sigterm on the first try; kill -15 -1

On Mar 24, 2017 4:20 PM, "Alan"  wrote:
> On Fri, 2017-03-24 at 11:43 -0600, Greg Woods wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 11:28 AM, Rick Stevens 
> > wrote:
> > > Killing gnome-shell will not necessarily free the
> > > machine up and make the GUI work as it is a significant component
> > > of
> > > the desktop
> >
> > It won't. If you unceremoniously kill off gnome-shell, the desktop no
> > longer works at all.
>
> Use top to find the process number of gnome-shell.
>
> kill -1 <pid of gnome-shell>
>
> That will restart it without killing anything actually running.
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