Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

Debian 9.5 Freezing After Monitor Sleep

New to Debian (Or Linux in general)? Ask your questions here!
Post Reply
Message
Author
Huecuva
Posts: 135
Joined: 2017-06-09 04:00

Debian 9.5 Freezing After Monitor Sleep

#1 Post by Huecuva »

Hi guys, it's me again.

I've just upgraded the CPUs in my server and decided to upgrade to Debian 9.5 while I was at it. However, now that it's installed, the server seems to freeze after a period of inactivity. It will blank the monitor and if I press a key or move the mouse right away it will wake up, but if I leave it for even a second longer, the whole thing seems to have frozen. it is interesting to note that when I set the power management display settings to 1, 2 and 3 minutes respectively, it did not actually turn the monitor off and the LED on the front of it did not go amber after 2 minutes or even 3, the screen just went blank after 1 minute. I thought maybe it was just disabling the keyboard at first because I was unable to turn caps lock or num lock on, so I turned on the caps lock and num lock so that I could watch the lights. They remained on when the computer blanked the monitor and then froze but I was unable to turn them off so I that tells me the whole server is freezing up. I did hot have this problem with Debian 8.

My specs:

Mobo: Supermicro X7DVL-E
CPUs: 2x Xeon E5450
DE: xfce
RAM: 24GB
video card: Matrox MGA G450

The monitor I'm using is an old generic Dell 1024x768 beast and I'm using an ADESSO ACK5010UB keyboard/trackball gadget. The machine seems to run stable and fine until I leave it alone. The 8 CPU cores are, according to psensor, all running nicely in the mid 30s to low 40s generally so it's not overheating and crashing. I don't know what's happening here. Are there any logs you guys need to see what's going on? I downloaded the ISO for tiny USBs and the installer had to download a buttload of stuff. I have the proper iso now and I can reinstall if I have to but since I'm already part way through getting this thing reconfigured I'd rather not have to do that.

This does appear to be tied to the power management settings somehow, as it only seems to freeze after the monitor goes black, regardless when I have it configured to do so. I set it to never blank the monitor and it does not appear to be freezing. I've read somewhere that it may have something to do with turning the monitor off at the same time as the screensaver kicks in, but I do not have a screensaver enabled at all.

EDIT: Actually for some reason I can't seem to even find any screensaver settings, but I changed the settings to NOT lock the computer when the monitor goes to sleep. It made no difference at all. Once the monitor went black, the server became completely unresponsive, though the LED on the front of the monitor remained green.

EDIT AGAIN: Upon some further research, it appears that xfce does not have a customizable screensaver as such and only allows the blank screen. That's odd as well, as I had a screensaver with xfce in Debian 8.

Thanks!

User avatar
Hallvor
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 2029
Joined: 2009-04-16 18:35
Location: Kristiansand, Norway
Has thanked: 139 times
Been thanked: 206 times

Re: Debian 9.5 Freezing After Monitor Sleep

#2 Post by Hallvor »

Try pasting this into the cli. It should disable display power management signaling and prevent the screen from blanking.

Code: Select all

xset s off -dpms 
You may also want to check the logs.
[HowTo] Install and configure Debian bookworm
Debian 12 | KDE Plasma | ThinkPad T440s | 4 × Intel® Core™ i7-4600U CPU @ 2.10GHz | 12 GiB RAM | Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4400 | 1 TB SSD

User avatar
debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: Debian 9.5 Freezing After Monitor Sleep

#3 Post by debiman »

Huecuva wrote:I've just upgraded the CPUs in my server and decided to upgrade to Debian 9.5 while I was at it. However, now that it's installed, the server seems to freeze after a period of inactivity.
this is unfortunate, because it is difficult to tell if your problem comes from the cpu upgrade or the software upgrade. my guess is on the hardware.

but if it's the software - maybe it also locks the screen??? tried entering your password?
EDIT AGAIN: Upon some further research, it appears that xfce does not have a customizable screensaver as such and only allows the blank screen. That's odd as well, as I had a screensaver with xfce in Debian 8.
this is the new default.
personally i think it's a sane choice.
does this mean the thread is solved now?

Huecuva
Posts: 135
Joined: 2017-06-09 04:00

Re: Debian 9.5 Freezing After Monitor Sleep

#4 Post by Huecuva »

debiman wrote:does this mean the thread is solved now?
Not at all. I'm sorry you somehow got the impression that because xfce doesn't have a screensaver my server magically stopped freezing when the screen goes to sleep. Nothing has actually changed.

It's not my hardware. I had plugged a clone of my Debian 8 installation into the rig after installing Debian 9.5 with the new CPUs to get some stuff off of it and I inadvertently booted off it. I was quite surprised to find that the rig booted normally and operated perfectly smoothly with the old installation and the new CPUs. The server did not freeze when the monitor blanked. In fact, the monitor legitimately went to sleep, including amber power LED. This problem only happens with Debian 9 (It also happened with 9. I had installed it before I realized there was a newer version and had the same problem. Decided I might as well install the newer version and see if I still had the same problem with 9.5 and it turns out I do) when the monitor blanks when Power Management says to.

I suppose I should have been a little clearer. In stating that I couldn't even toggle caps lock or num lock what I was trying to say is that the keyboard becomes completely unresponsive. Pressing anything on the keyboard has no effect. The screen remains completely black.

Hallvor: As for that terminal command, thanks, but the GUI method of turning off the power management for display works just fine and prevents the computer from freezing. That's not the point. Which logs do you suggest checking?

Huecuva
Posts: 135
Joined: 2017-06-09 04:00

Re: Debian 9.5 Freezing After Monitor Sleep

#5 Post by Huecuva »

Does nobody have any idea?

FateRover
Posts: 14
Joined: 2018-06-29 02:46

Re: Debian 9.5 Freezing After Monitor Sleep

#6 Post by FateRover »

I used to have the same issue twice ,one caused by a kernel bug with graphic ,a work around is simply switch to another tty and logout then login,the other was cause by lightdm & light-lock& screensaver, after screen blank,can not recall screen,a workaround is apt purge screensaver or something else relate screensaver ,just use xfce4-power-manager to make the screen balnk

Post Reply