Ryzen AI - Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon freezing after July 31st package updates

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
1

Which Linux distro are you using? Linux Mint

Which release version? 22.1

Which kernel are you using? 6.14.0-27 via hardware enablement

Which BIOS version are you using? 3.03

Which Framework Laptop 13 model are you using? AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 Series

I had been using my laptop just fine for a couple months without issues besides wifi for a couple months now. On the morning of July 31st I did a normal auto-update of Linux Mint packages and afterwards Cinnamon freezes after ~10-15 minutes regardless of what I am doing – this never happened prior to the update on July 31st. At first I thought it was Firefox, but Chromium did the same thing, and I also just let it sit idle without a browser open and it froze too.

I can still move the mouse around but nothing registers a click. I cannot do workspace shifting or any other keyboard shortcuts.

BUT I can switch to the non-UI terminal* (tty1, etc) via Ctrl+Alt+Fn+F1/F2/F3/…

In the non-UI terminal I can kill my UI logged in user out but Cinnamon is still frozen. I basically have to restart the laptop (e.g. shutdown -r) to use the UI again.

I tried enabling Linux boot options to switch to the previous kernel version (6.14.0~24) but the issue still happens so it isn’t a weird issue with a kernel patch.

Below are the other packages that updated that day. I used to be a Linux power user (eg. slackware / Gentoo user) but I’ve focused on other stuff and have forgotten all my Linux IT skills so unsure how to further debug and isolate which package is the issue.

Thanks for any suggestions and direction to resolve!

Screenshot from 2025-08-01 20-41-16
Screenshot from 2025-08-01 20-41-161259×805 139 KB

2

There is a kernel patch that might help with this. I can point you at it.

If you can’t apply a kernel patch, switch to a compositor that uses Wayland.

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4

Thanks for the options. I’ll see if there are maybe other options I can poke around first before going those routes as Wayland is still alpha with Cinnamon and I’d like to not mess with kernel.

5

Hello, I believe I am dealing with the exact same issue as you are. Were you able to find any solutions?

6

I’m experiencing the same issue. I installed Fedora as a test and found that the same issue exists with Fedora Cinnamon but not with Fedora GNOME. I believe that’s related to Wayland

7

Unfortunately I have not found the issue nor a solution – tho my time available has been minimal and sporadic.

I tried using Timeshift to revert to the system prior to the July 31st update but it still had the issue which surprised me since I literally was using the computer just fine the evening before. I’m going to attempt to revert further back in time.

One thing that didn’t work that as on the Linux Mint forum was to disable Workspace OSD but that didn’t resolve it for me.

Another odd thing I noticed the other day was that when my laptop went into suspend mode because I just left it on and frozen, I’d come back and find that things worked again temporarily before it froze. Maybe that gives a clue to someone who knows more than me?

I tried looking at journalctl logs but not seeing anything obvious right before or after it freezes.

8

Same Framework, same OS (Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon), same problem … for me, it is brand new, just started happening about 2 hours ago.

Notably … when I installed Mint 22.1 a couple of weeks ago, I did not have this problem … but I did have other problems – system would not do anything (lockscreen/shutdown/suspend) when I closed the lid, screen brightness controls did not work, some other things.

This morning, I was about to file a support ticket with FW about this, when I discovered that my new installation of Mint had opted for an old(er) Linux kernel … 6.8.something. So I upgraded to the latest kernel, 6.14 … and that solved all of my issues … but it also introduced this new issue where the entire DE freezes up (except the mouse pointer) and I’m forced to reboot or at least restart the DE from the TTY screen.

So, I’m not ready to try it yet, but rolling back to a significantly older kernel might fix this issue – though it might introduce other issues in the process, too … but at least the OS keeps running.

…

I see 3 other people in this thread have reported the same issue, so it’s not a “one-off”. Suggestions?

9

Build a kernel yourself and apply the patch I suggested above. Or use Wayland.

2 Likes
10

HI mario, most of us are pretty new linux users because of recent atrocities windows was doing… can you make sure you explain how or where to apply patches for this xorg 10/11 or if you were just pointing a finger to an in development version. When I checked the link it seemed like a spam of emails and did not look safe to download from in general.

Also after some research what works for me so far is just running

nohup cinnamon --replace &
nohup cinnamon --replacpkill -HUP cinnamon

the alt + F2 and pressing r does not work.

I have seen a lot of freezes from users running NVIDIA gpu’s so maybe this is a AMD driver bug. Once again a new linux user so please let us know more details what you guys do to fix the bug

1 Like
11

I don’t have any experience with cinnamon. But the problem is a driver bug with Xorg which is an ancient display technology. Cinnamon relies upon that. I see 3 options for you.

  1. Figure out how to turn on experimental Wayland support for cinnamon.
  2. Use a different desktop environment like plasma.
  3. Add the patch to your kernel. You would need to learn how to compile one.

As a new Linux user I think that 1 or 2 are the best options. You can probably use an LLM to help you with either.

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Here’s a decent-looking crappy do-not-try-to-follow guide for switching to Wayland on Linux Mint. Seems not terribly complicated … except that you do need to perform these steps with the looming system freeze threatening it’s pretty much entirely wrong and likely an LLM-driven fantasy. But hey, YMMV.

( Sorry for posting this before trying it. )

13

The problem here is that there is no need to “install” Wayland on Linux Mint, since Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon Edition (which the OP uses) includes a Wayland session by default - not a great one, mind, it’s explicitly “experimental”, but this certainly won’t make it any better. This guide will have you try and install a package that you already have (xwayland), then edit a config file that doesn’t exist where it seems to think it does, and that’s as far as I got before realizing I’d been dunked straight into another AI garbage quagmire. It includes an all-star cast of characters such as the author of the piece in question, Andrew, a totally real human being like you and me, and articles with the classic brand of always-on-slightly-off titles such as “Unveiling the World of 32-bit Linux Mint”. Welcome to the internet as of 2025, we hope you’ll enjoy your stay!

1 Like
14

Update on my end – I used Timeshift to revert all the way back to July 26th which was before many updates including Xorg, kernel, GTK, etc.

Yet I’m still having the freezing issue with Cinnamon. I’m stumped as to why I was able to use the laptop just fine for a few months only to have this suddenly crop up but reverting doesn’t resolve it. Since the cursor works and I can switch to a terminal tty it seems like it isn’t a hardware issue but maybe I’m wrong.

SMG on the Linux Mint forums said how I can try Wyland very easily so I’ll give that a go – https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2672767&sid=92f98d2efd396ec2858d077662e8e022#p2672767

15

FWIW, I just quit worrying about it … I switched to an entirely different OS, one that natively supports Wayland (Mint is still solidly in the Alpha phase of development, with big red warning labels promising assorted bugs and issues, if you try it).

I installed CachyOS, and it’s been working great for a few days now.

I may circle back around to Mint in a few months, if/when it sounds like these issues have been resolved … my primary OS these days is actually LMDE (Mint on Debian), and I’m waiting for the new LMDE to drop, built on the new Debian that just did drop. So once that’s out, and stable, I may give that a try.

But also, so far, CachyOS seems pretty good. If I get comfortable enough with it, I might just stick with it. PS: I haven’t tried it (I’m running Plasma), but CachyOS does have a Cinnamon flavor.

16

I have seen this problem also on Ubuntu 24.04.

I use Xorg because the colours are all wrong, over saturated, on wayland when playing movies.

I only occasionally see the frozen screen problem, but will try the patch when I can.

17

On Linux Mint 22.1, I’ve observed this freezing issue as well using kernel 6.14, but have had no real issues with kernel 6.11. I’d guess the OP’s issue around July 31st was his particular system following the upgrade path to 6.14.

Since Linux Mint 22.2 uses 6.14 by default, I’ve been holding off upgrading until the kernel gets fixed.

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Hi everyone,

This is Clem from Linux Mint.

PSR

Until the bug is fixed upstream, the workaround for this issue is to disable PSR (Panel Self Refresh). You can’t do this in the BIOS so you’ll need to add amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x12 to your kernel boot parameters.

As root, create a file in /etc/default/grub.d/99-amdgpu-fix.cfg with the following content:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x12"

Then update your grub menu and reboot:

sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

PSR is a power-saving optimization feature. Once disable you might get a slightly higher power consumption (shorter battery life), but you should have a stable system.

Upon reboot you can check that the kernel parameter appears with:

cat /proc/cmdline

Other workarounds

The PSR issue affects kernel 6.14 with Xorg and can be triggered randomly by anything that uses the GPU.

Disabling the workspace OSD or the desktop effects might help a tiny little bit but the issue can be triggered in many other ways.

Switching to Wayland avoids this bug, but not all desktops support it yet. Cinnamon works in Wayland but with a reduced set of features (no screensaver, keyboard layouts, input methods..).

Switching to kernel 6.8 GA/LTS leads to other issues. This kernel predates the Ryzen AI 300 series hardware, so it likely has incomplete or missing drivers for proper GPU, power management, and other hardware support.

Switching to kernel 6.11 shouldn’t be considered. There are Wifi dropout issues with this kernel and it no longer receives security updates.

10 Likes
19

Very nice, I just did that and upgraded to 6.14. I was on 6.11 since I got this laptop due to the screen freezing issue, so hopefully that fixes it for now.

20

Hi Clem!

Thank you for posting this. I just recently received a FW13 laptop with Ryzen AI 9 HX370 and installed Linux Mint 22 with 6.14-29 and didn’t initially see the freezing issue, until the software manager updated the kernal to 6.14-33, then I saw it literally within 5 minutes of logging in. Doing much searching on the issue I see it was an occurrence experienced by others (having initially thought it was the hardware, ran a ram test to see and it passed). I reinstalled from scratch and left it on 6.14-29 for a time and then experienced it again on that version. Long story short, I came across your post and performed your suggested workaround. I can safely say, I’ve had the laptop running all day today both on and off battery for several hours including shutting down and bringing up without a single hiccup. If there is increased battery usage it’s minimal. As you stated there could be other triggers as well, but so far with a stock configured Cinnamon it seems to be stable.

Thank you!

Ford

(Never, never, never listen to Vogon poetry…)

1 Like