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by roxil 1032 days ago
If things are so frozen that you can't open System Monitor (task manager), try this: Hold down SysRq and Alt, let go of SysRq, keep holding down Alt, then press these buttons in order (don't need to hold them): REISUB - to remember it: "Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring", also known as "raising the elephant".

On some systems you need to enable this feature first, so try it out once to see if it works and look up how to enable it, if it doesn't.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

On most distros, you can also get into a command line, with the combination CTRL + ALT + F1 - F8 (try out which function keys do it for you and how to get back to the GUI). There you can use `ps`, `kill <pid>`, `reboot now` or restart the GUI. I'd keep a note of the exact commands on my phone just in case.

As a sidenote, I've had an issue on a good windows desktop PC where it freezes when watching YouTube or ither streaming services. I can still move the mouse for a bit, but clicking does nothing and I'm unable to even save it from a hard reset with Ctrl + Alt + Delete. Sometimes it won't happen for weeks, but if I'm unlucky multiple times in an hour. Look up "PC freezes while watching YouTube" and you will see I'm far from alone with this issue, Asus motherboards with new AMD processors seem to be the common factor. Haven't had this happen on Linux yet (dual boot) and I've tried everything to avoid these unusual freezes in windows, but nothing seems to help.

2 comments

Are you on Windows 11? There is an ongoing fTPM issue with AMD firmware that can cause behavior like that. I had this issue and ultimately just disabled TPM in the BIOS. Its supposed to be required for Win 11, but I haven't seen any issues since disabling.
I will try this, thanks.
Well this is the perfect example of the infuriatingly arcane crap that I have to deal with on Linux. Every time I need to do something on Linux, I have to look it up and then when I do - it is some crazy long explanation of hoops I need to jump through to make it happen. I try to keep track of these notes, but it all takes so much time.

I am hoping someone comes up with a fully dis-arcaned distro. Especially ditch (or remap) goofy command line relics into the obvious and easily remembered. Why do we still use CP instead of Copy? Legacy stuff that greybeards would freak if it were changed. Let them use a greybeard distro and make one that is for joe user.

Yes, I use Mint and it is still full of arcane crap.

yes, i much prefer the mac experience where it crashes and says sorry in 13 different languages.