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My computer randomly freezes, but only on my Linux drive. How do I even begin troubleshooting this? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by GooseFinger@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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It started freezing maybe a month or two ago. It happens anytime between a few seconds after the OS loads, to hours or days later. I do not recall downloading anything around when this issue began that could be suspect.

I've put off fixing this because I have no idea how to even begin troubleshooting it. Internet searches for "Linux freezes" returns practically countless potential problems.

What are some recommendations? I have my root directory on a 30 GB partition separate from my home directory, which I think makes reinstalling my base image (Debian) easy without losing personal data, so that's an option. Maybe there's a system log file that would provide some insight?

I'm Linux dumb so please teach me how to fish!

I'll add that my Windows install (on a separate drive) doesn't freeze, and my Linux install is on a new Samsung drive that didn't report issues, so the problems unlikely hardware related.

02:05 18OCT: Thanks for all the quick responses, a lot of helpful suggestions so far. I should clarify that "my computer freezes" means it is 100% unresponsive until it is rebooted. Ctrl+alt+del spam or changing terminal sessions when its frozen does not get a response. The last few entries in my most recent journalctl boot outputs are different from one another, and the I did not see any errors. For now, I'll boot a live USB and let it sit for while, see if it crashes again.

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[-] ozymandias117@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago

Maybe easier to another suggestion, you're probably using a systemd based distros -

journalctl -b -1 will show you the logs from the previous boot, so you could check that after resetting to see if anything was logged

For some other ideas to narrow down where the issue is...

If you're stuck in the frozen state, you can Ctrl+alt+delete 7+ times quickly to tell systemd to try to restart the system. If this works, it means init was still able to process messages

If that doesn't work, you could enable Magic Sysrq Key (if disabled in your distro), and then use the key sequence REISUB to try to see if the kernel is still responding and can reset the system

[-] Korkki@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago

If you’re stuck in the frozen state, you can Ctrl+alt+delete 7+ times quickly to tell systemd to try to restart the system.

Less destructive way would be to try to open a terminal session with ctr+alt+f3 (or any f key) If it's only the gui that's frozen. Makes it also possible to troubleshoot things from there. I had this issue recently. AMD core boost caused random freezes to kwin.

[-] GooseFinger@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

It froze again tonight. Neither ctrl+alt+del spam nor trying to change terminal session worked unfortunately. Seems to be 100% locked up.

this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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