this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Fair enough, most of that isn't something a user should have to worry about.
VT is just Virtual Terminals. You always have one of them active, and in most distros you can switch to others by Ctrl-Alt-F1 through F12. In some distos it's just Alt-F1.
So if you press Ctrl-Alt-F2 you should be brought to a text login. For crazy historical reasons you may have to either press Ctrl-Alt-F1 or Ctrl-Alt-F7 to get back to your usual graphical session.
Arch docs for example: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Linux_console
OK, I tried that. Ctrl+Alt+F2 gives me a black screen.
Ctrl+Alt+F1 brings me back to my desktop.
Ctrl+Alt+F3-F6 all have a text login screen. F7+ don't do anything.
I was able to grab the
journalctl
logs. You can find them (and an extra bit about the computer state I was able to get) HERE.What are the crazy historical reasons? As far as I know, running six ttys and one graphical session, in that order, has been standard.
The really crazy historical way to test for crashes is num/scroll/caps lock. That's handled by a very low-level kernel driver. If those are responsive, it's probably just your display (gpu, X, wayland, or something) that's locked up. If they're unresponsive, your kernel is locked up. (If you're lucky, it's just gotten real busy and might catch up in a minute, but I've only seen that happen once.)
I was able to make some progress in troubleshooting.
I went to the Screen Locking options and disabled "Lock after waking from sleep". Now I get to see the screen when I wake the computer back up, frozen as it was when I issued the sleep command.
All devices are disconnected - no network, no Bluetooth, no audio, all the “tray” icons are greyed out and/or showing errors, time is stopped at the moment I clicked the "Sleep" button.
Not sure if that helps at all.
after wake up, does the numlock button change its light when you press it?
No, the keyboard is unresponsive. I also tried Ctrl+Alt+F1...F7, and got absolutely nothing.
I did a BIOS update, as advised here, and the behaviour changed! Now the freeze happens BEFORE the PC goes to sleep. As in: it gets to the frozen state the moment I click the button and the screens remain on.