Endeavour OS + XFCE desktop hanging / freezing w/ dedicated GPU (7600 XT or 1070ti). Everything keeps running in background including playing audio and video. Can't access a tty

Software & Operating Systems Linux
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1

I’m running the XFCE version of Endeavour OS based on Arch.

My XFCE desktop display just keeps hanging / freezing. Everything keeps running in the background including playing audio and video it just doesn’t update the display. I can’t even access a tty. Sometimes after 15 minutes it will unfreeze and return to normal. Otherwise all I can do is a hard power off restart. This started with my Nvidia 1070ti. I guessed it was an issue w/ the GPU so I removed it and switched to the intel iGPU. Voila! the desktop no longer freezes.

So I just bought a an AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT to replace my Nvidia 1070ti hoping maybe the drivers would be better on Linux and fix the issue. Unfortunately, Endeavour OS has no automated way of changing GPU drivers so I had to do it manually which is awful. I believe I have done it correctly but I’m still having the same freezing issue.

Any thoughts? Could it be XFCE? Or X11? A hardware problem besides the GPU?

Steps so far:

Hardware:

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor
  • CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.65 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS ULTRA GAMING WIFI ATX LGA1151
  • Memory:
    • Corsair Vengeance LED 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16
    • OLOy MD4U163016CGDA 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16
  • Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME
  • Video Card:
    • EVGA FTW2 GAMING iCX GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB
    • Gigabyte Gaming Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 G
  • Case: Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini ATX Mid Tower Case
  • Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS SGX 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply
  • Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCIe x1 Wi-Fi Adapter
2

Did you file a bug-report with the dev’s for that OS? Do so if you haven’t!

You may want to purchase a cheap 1TB NVMe drive and use that to install Devuan. The installer offers the option for DE choice and XFCE is one of them. See if this fixes the issue.

3

I just posted on their forum. Is my issue specific enough for a bug report yet?

I have a spare 1tb nvme in a usb enclosure. Would Devuan have a new enough kernel for the 7600 XT?

4

Devuan Stable has a 5-series kernel, which comes from the Debian tree.

uname -a
Linux desktop 5.10.0-16-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.127-2 (2022-07-23) x86_64 GNU/Linux

The 7600XT may or may not need a 6-series kernel, but you could always try. Just take out the existing NVMe drive with your current OS so it won’t get (accidentally) overwritten.

Another option is to use Funtoo, another systemd-free Linux distro. It has historic ties to Gentoo, but differs enough not to be a clone or fork. I have used Funtoo in the past but not recently (I’m now on Devuan, in case you missed it :wink: ) Their XFCE implementation is marked as “workable but not fully tested yet”. It too has a Debian kernel, but as Funtoo is a bit more bleeding edge I understand it’s a 6 series kernel already. YMMV!