Troubleshooting system freeze: Arch Linux

Framework Laptop 16
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Hello, I’m looking for help troubleshooting system freezes on my Framework 16.

Host: Framework Laptop 16
Kernel: Linux 7.2.6-arch2-1
Window manager: Hyprland 0.56.2 (Wayland)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
iGPU: AMD Radeon 780M
dGPU: AMD Radeon RX 7700S
Memory: 16G

The system freezes started occurring sometime around September 18th. Here are the observable symptoms:

I am usually doing some fairly lightweight work. Hyprland is open, and I typically have firefox, an editor, and some terminal (kitty) windows open. RAM usage sits on average between 3-6G.

Before the freeze occurs, I usually notice the fans spin faster (although CPU and GPU temps are still well within normal operating temperature), and RAM usage might increase slightly (by about 1G or so). Sometimes, I see clamav or snapper running, which may or may not be accounting for the increased fan speed and RAM usage.

Then the system freezes for anywhere between 3 seconds and 60 seconds. I have been unable to pinpoint what is causing the freeze, and thus have not been able to create a set of steps to duplicate the freeze on my machine. While the system is frozen, I can spawn new terminal windows, but they do not load and I cannot type in them. All windows/applications (current or newly created windows) are unresponsive. However, I can still move the mouse and switch workspaces in Hyprland. Using any of the SysRq key combos do not register until after the freeze ends.

And I want to note that the system freeze ALWAYS goes away without user intervention after somewhere between 3 and 60 seconds. Once the system is responsive again, any SysRq key combos pushed during that time print to journalctl -f. I often notice that journalctl logs that snapperd service has been deactivated successfully once the system freeze ends and resumes normal operation, but I do not know if this is related at all.

Any advice on how to collect more useful data/troubleshoot would be greatly appreciated.

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There’s dmesg, which can help if there’s something happening at the kernel level, and Hyprland logs in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/hypr/$HYPRLAND_INSTANCE_SIGNATURE/hyprland.log.

You can also make ps or top script that logs the top CPU-using processes every 10 seconds or so.

You can try to force clamav to just one or two CPU cores and see if goes away.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve set up a ps script to keep logs, and I’ll try checking the Hyprland logs as well. Unfortunately dmesg doesn’t contain any messages around the times that the freezes occur.

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SOLVED: The freezes were being caused by having BTRFS quotas enabled. Disabling BTRFS quotas fixed the problem. See more info here: [SOLVED] Troubleshooting system freeze: Framework 16, BTRFS, Quotas / Laptop Issues / Arch Linux Forums

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