Linux 4.4.x kernel, freezing TTY issue
 

Hello,

I've been having a persistent problem of my text TTYs-- TTYs 1 through 6-- becoming frozen after a short amount of time after the OS has loaded-- within 10 minutes or less. My graphic TTY continues to function as normal, but all six of my text TTYs will freeze and become unresponsive. I have noticed that this problem only occurs when I run a 4.4 kernel. I had built and installed the kernel version 4.4 shortly after it became stable, and had this issue, so I figured it was probably because the new kernel version had only just been released and would still have bugs, so I went back to booting with the 4.3.3 kernel. Today I compiled & installed Linux 4.4.2, and the same problem is occurring. I did not make any radical changes to kernel configuration.. has anyone else experienced anything like this with the 4.4 kernel?

My distribution is Linux Mint Debian edition. Any input would be very much appreciated :). I am still fairly new to Linux.

Thanks,
Andrew

Check your system logs. Do you build your own kernels? What does xorg log say?

How are your TTY's setup? Using the older method or devpts? What do your logs say? I am running 4.4.4 and haven't such a problem. My fstab regarding TTY's:

Have you solved this problem? I have been confused by the same problem for more than a month, and now I switch to 4.1.19-lts kernel and everything goes well...I really want to know want actually happened when I run 4.4.x kernel...

I've experienced the same issue too after I updated kernel from 4.3.0 to 4.4.0. After some googling I found something interesting in /var/log/Xorg.0.log just right after freezing:

[ 66652.044] (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
[ 66654.537] (II) AIGLX: Resuming AIGLX clients after VT switch
[ 66656.818] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1366x768@60.0 on eDP1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
(EE) [mi] EQ overflowing. Additional events will be discarded until existing events are processed.
(EE)
(EE) Backtrace:
(EE) 0: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (xorg_backtrace+0x4e) [0x55aab7582f6e]
(EE) 1: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (mieqEnqueue+0x253) [0x55aab7564a33]
(EE) 2: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (QueuePointerEvents+0x52) [0x55aab743d632]
(EE) 3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/evdev_drv.so (0x7ffaa9a2a000+0x61f3) [0x7ffaa9a301f3]
(EE) 4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/evdev_drv.so (0x7ffaa9a2a000+0x6a5d) [0x7ffaa9a30a5d]
(EE) 5: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55aab73d1000+0x940f8) [0x55aab74650f8]
(EE) 6: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55aab73d1000+0xb9392) [0x55aab748a392]
(EE) 7: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x7ffab0297000+0x33500) [0x7ffab02ca500]
(EE) 8: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (ioctl+0x5) [0x7ffab0378575]
(EE) 9: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so (0x7ffaabc2a000+0x234fd) [0x7ffaabc4d4fd]
(EE) 10: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so (0x7ffaabc2a000+0x26ea4) [0x7ffaabc50ea4]
(EE) 11: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so (0x7ffaabc2a000+0x5a98e) [0x7ffaabc8498e]
(EE) 12: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (BlockHandler+0x4a) [0x55aab74295ba]
(EE) 13: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (WaitForSomething+0x163) [0x55aab757fc33]
(EE) 14: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55aab73d1000+0x53a1e) [0x55aab7424a1e]
(EE) 15: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x55aab73d1000+0x57c03) [0x55aab7428c03]
(EE) 16: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xf0) [0x7ffab02b7610]
(EE) 17: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (_start+0x29) [0x55aab7412f99]
(EE)
(EE) [mi] These backtraces from mieqEnqueue may point to a culprit higher up the stack.
(EE) [mi] mieq is *NOT* the cause. It is a victim.
[ 66662.818] [mi] Increasing EQ size to 1024 to prevent dropped events.
[ 66662.819] [mi] EQ processing has resumed after 38 dropped events.
[ 66662.819] [mi] This may be caused by a misbehaving driver monopolizing the server's resources.
[ 66662.823] (EE) intel(0): Failed to submit rendering commands (Input/output error), disabling acceleration.
[ 66662.825] (EE) intel(0): When reporting this, please include /sys/class/drm/card0/error and the full dmesg.
[ 75549.984] (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
[ 75555.260] (II) AIGLX: Resuming AIGLX clients after VT switch
[ 75555.260] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1366x768@60.0 on eDP1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
[ 75555.392] (EE) intel(0): Failed to submit rendering commands (Input/output error), disabling acceleration.
(repeating above 4 lines)

Seems that it's the graphic card driver who is to blame...
My lspci shows:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics (rev 09)

dfceaef, what make you think it's the graphics card? I'm having the same issue and using an Intel graphic card.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Did you have to reboot and then looked at /var/log/Xorg.0.log? I have to reboot, it's the only way to get out of the frozen screen. I wrote a bug report with kernel bugzilla.
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116541

Does anyone have a fix for this?

I assumed it was a kernel issue. I can add this information to it, if need be.

Thanks.

I found someone else had the similar issue too (https://lists.debian.org/debian-user.../msg00024.html). My text ttys (tty1-6 and tty12) froze but tty7 (X) still worked.
Anyway, I've updated to 4.5.0 and the computer has been running for 2 weeks. Everything goes well now.