[SOLVED] Salix 13.37 laptop logging off when left idle

[bobferrell]

Hello,

I have SalixOS 13.37 installed on a lenovo 61 laptop and I find that it automatically logs me off if I leave it sitting idle for more than an hour.

How can I debug this issue?

[gapan]

Are you sure it's logging out? Have you actually seen it log out, or did you just return to see the login screen?

[bobferrell]

I believe I did see it log out. I was doing paperwork while the screensaver was on. I happened to look at the screen then the login screen appeared.

Besides, what other explanation could it be? Could it be rebooting?

[gapan]

Yes, it could be rebooting and the screensaver could be the culprit. Some 3D screensavers don't work with some video cards/drivers. The default configuration of xscreensaver is to cycle randomly through all screensavers, so it might have gotten to one that crashed everything and made your system reboot. You could try setting xscreensaver to one only screensaver that you know that works, or even set it only to a blank screen and see if it happens again.

[bobferrell]

I first tried setting it to just one. The screensaver worked for a while, then rebooted after 4 hours.

I then tried just blanking the screen, then left it on overnight, and it did not reboot.

So, it appears that something with the screensaver is causing the reboot, but I don't think it is an incompatibility with the graphics card. Otherwise, it wouldn't have worked initially.

Not a big deal. I'll just leave it blanking the screen. Thank you.

[gapan]

You could be having heat problems and even a 2D screensaver might be enough to heat up your graphics card after some time. Make sure fans are working properly and that there is good airflow under the laptop. You could also do some stress testing to see if for example transcoding an HD movie or compiling a kernel or running a demanding 3D game lead to a reboot too.

[bobferrell]

A heat problem would make sense. Although it does sound like the fans are moving.

I would like to do some stress testing, but I've never compiled a kernel or transcoded an HD movie. Is there anything else I can do?

Playing a 3D game is probably not a good idea at work, but I'll probably take the laptop home this weekend and try it there.

Thanks,

[Shador]

I've never compiled a kernel

That should get you going:

Code: Select all

cp -r /usr/src/linux-<VERSION>/ .
cd linux-<VERSION>
cp /boot/config-huge-<VERSION> .config
make oldconfig
make -j32

make oldconfig could possibly prompt you some stuff, but I don't expect it to do that. In any case you could just choose anything (e.g. the defaults by pressing enter) as the resulting kernel is not intended for use anyway.

[bobferrell]

Hmmm... I don't have kernel source installed and it has a little lock next to it in gslapt.

I guess I'll try downloading from the source code...

[bobferrell]

I downloaded the kernel source and compiled it successfully. It didn't reboot on me.

I guess I'll give the 3D game a try. Any suggestions?