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I am using Ubuntu 20.04. Once in a fortnight or so, the system hangs, and the system fan goes to full speed at the same time. After that, no keyboard or mouse input works, not even Ctrl+Alt+F3 to switch to a command line console. So there is no way for me to monitor if any background process is malfunctioning. The only choice I have is to use the power button to reboot.

Last time this event repeated, I managed to log in to the computer remotely using ssh (didn't expect it would work, but it did). And then I was able to use htop to see the processes.

htop

One of the Xorg processes seems to be occupying a lot of space. I don't know much about the X processes. Please help me understand this problem and find a solution if possible.

P.S. Please do not confuse with the Linux Mint logo on the screenshot, as that screenshot was taken from a remote client running Mint.

kksagar
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    Why is there a Linux Mint logo on the screen? Linux Mint uses runtime adjustments so they can use Ubuntu packages (and not build everything themselves) which means it's a different system, and adds an extra software layer that can explain this issue... Are you using Ubuntu or Linux Mint? – guiverc Sep 21 '21 at 08:38
  • @guiverc, this picture is from a remove connection, so could be a Mint client logged in on an Ubuntu 20 system ;) I do not see processes consuming lots of memory or CPU, though. – vanadium Sep 21 '21 at 10:51
  • That's right. The screenshot is from the remote client. Yes @vanadium, the CPU usage is not a lot, but Xorg is using 1 core at 95%, which even though unusual, shouldn't cause Ubuntu to hang. – kksagar Sep 21 '21 at 16:12
  • Next time this event repeats, I will get htop results again to confirm if Xorg is actually the culprit. Please advise if I should extract any other logs – kksagar Sep 21 '21 at 16:17
  • History repeated itself, and I found that the same process is the peak consumer of CPU. But I don't know why that should breakdown the session. – kksagar Sep 28 '21 at 10:17
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    Anyone trying to close this question because it's not Ubuntu, please retract your votes. Just because you use Mint to log in to an Ubuntu session does not make it off-topic. Thanks. – Artur Meinild Oct 09 '21 at 10:12
  • Thank you @ArturMeinild for supporting the question. Didn't know that it was downvoted. – kksagar Oct 09 '21 at 19:05
  • Tried reinstalling Xorg using apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg, but still facing the same problem – kksagar Oct 18 '21 at 07:48
  • I observe sometimes the same problem, but I think it's caused by firefox (especially on youtube) after resuming from screen lock. Maybe this is some kind of cross problem with xorg? I searched xorg issue board but couldn't find anything useful ... – Mischa Nov 02 '21 at 13:28
  • @Mischa thanks for the comment. I do use firefox, but I hardly use YouTube. I wonder what is the problem – kksagar Nov 03 '21 at 19:17
  • Finally, I gave up on Xorg and switched to wayland using this post https://askubuntu.com/a/1258280/719400. Should see how it goes. Could be useful for you @Mischa – kksagar Feb 25 '22 at 11:14

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