Help diagnose unpredictable plasma crash

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1

Lately, I have noticed that plasma crashes unpredictably. One minute I am working on something and all of a sudden everything goes blank and I am presented with the login screen. All of my open windows are gone and any unsaved work is lost.

I don’t know what causes this. What’s the best way to figure that out? I tried dmesg but did not find anything obvious. I don’t know where else to look.

I am suspecting something related to the graphics drivers because if I remember correctly, it started after switching my graphics cards. My current graphics setup is:

$ inxi --graphics
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060] driver: nvidia v: 550.120
  Device-2: Logitech C920 PRO HD Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 550.120
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib

I also suspect graphics because the last couple of times it happened, it was immediately after I click on share screen on zoom.

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2

Hey I noticed that you are using x11 server. Are you still seeing this issue using Wayland? I’m running the nvidia 555 driver and I’m not seeing this type of issue.

3

I last tried using wayland several weeks ago. At that time, there was an issue with screensharing using applications like zoom or Teams. Since that was a dealbreaker for me, I just switched to using X11. I can give it a try again but since this happens so unpredictably, I can go for days without a crash.

4

How did you install the nvidia 555 driver? I am only seeing nvidia 550.

$ sudo ubuntu-drivers devices
[sudo] password for vamsi: 
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/0000:2b:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00002503sv00001043sd000087F3bc03sc00i00
vendor   : NVIDIA Corporation
model    : GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060]
driver   : nvidia-driver-550-open - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-535 - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-550 - distro non-free recommended
driver   : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-535-server - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-535-open - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-535-server-open - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-470 - distro non-free
driver   : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin
5

You will need to first add a repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

Then update apt:
sudo apt update

Once you have done that you should be able to see the nvidia-driver-555 which you can install. There is also 560 though I’ve had issues with a few programs with it.

6

Thanks, I ended up installing v560 because that’s what the autoinstall did. So far, it seems to be working fine. I am going to keep an eye on this for a week before making any calls.

1 Like
7

Awesome.

The two programs I had issues with are Bambu Studio and Chitubox. They would load but I could not get any 3d acceleration to work so the workspace would always be blank.