Workstation keeps freezing

xye18912 · July 6, 2019, 6:12pm

Whonix-Workstation started freezing some time ago (back on Whonix 14). I’d just turn it on and I’d have a 4 out of 5 chance that the screen wouldn’t even resize because it’d just freeze before that.
I have to force reset over and over and over again until it doesn’t freeze upon booting (Well, only after the DE popped up), but even so it usually freezes later on (When opening a program/browser mostly, but it also happens when the VM is idle)

This doesn’t seem to affect the Gateway and I have no idea what to do… I’ve spent some time reading threads from people having the same issue, tried different things (Changing DE, increasing RAM, and a couple more things I can’t remember) but nothing works.
Whonix used to work fine, it just started doing this out of the blue, and that happens on all three of my computers.

Does anyone know what else I could try? This is getting a bit frustrating. Thanks in advance!

0brand · July 27, 2019, 9:47am

Hi zye18912

Welcome to the Whonix community!

What you are describing sounds just like a Low RAM Issue. Since its happening on all three of your computers its likely not a Whonix issue.

Are all of your three of your computers identical hardware?
This is happening in Both Whonix 14 and 15?
Did you increase your RAM over the maximum or equal to whats available?
Do you normally have a large number of browser tabs open?
Are you running more than one Whonix-Workstation at a time?
Are your running multi-proccesses on the host while using Whonix?

Test:

Create multiple Debian VMs. Try raising and lowering RAM in those VMs. Can you reproduce the same issue?

xye18912 · July 7, 2019, 8:31am

Actually I’m not sure I tried on my third computer, but I’m certain the issue happens on at least two of them.
I really doubt it’s a RAM issue considering both computers I tested this on have 16GB of RAM, 4 of which are dedicated to the workstation (Tried with 8GB as well).

Are all of your three of your computers identical hardware?

Not exactly. But the host OS is basically the same on all computers (As I script my installs and just restore backups). Maybe there’s a common host issue? I just don’t understand why it would only affect Whonix-Workstation…

This is happening in Both Whonix 14 and 15?

Yes. I’ve been plagued by this issue for a good number of months already…

Did you increase your RAM over the maximum or equal to whats available?

No, I don’t see how that would help to give a VM more RAM than my host has…

Do you normally have a large number of browser tabs open?

In the VM? Not really, it often freezes before I can open multiple tabs in my browser.
As for the host, doesn’t seem to matter. If you’re referring to RAM usage, I definitely have enough for the VM.

Are you running more than one Whonix-Workstation at a time?

Nope.

Are your running multi-proccesses on the host while using Whonix?

I’m not sure what you mean by that… Sorry.

I tried creating Debian VMs running both XFCE and KDE, changing the RAM doesn’t do anything.
I had a weird bug on one of my tests (On Whonix) where a key I’d just pressed kept being typed for about 5 seconds (Even if my fingers weren’t on my keyboard) before the freeze happened. I’m not sure why.

0brand · July 7, 2019, 10:00am

Adding more RAM than what is available can cause Low RAM issues.

Meaning, are you running a large number of applications/processes on the host?

Do you have the same problem with Debian VMs. I’m trying to rule out Whonix.

Possibly a common host issue. Could also be an VM config issue since al Whonix VMs are identical. Could you try installing an default host OS on a flash drive and boot from that. Then download fresh Whonix VMs.

With Low RAM issues, its common for Whonix-Workstation to be affected and not Whonix-Gateway. Whonix-Gateway requires minimal resources to run.

xye18912 · July 7, 2019, 10:06am

Do you have the same problem with Debian VMs. I’m trying to rule out Whonix.

No, Debian works fine. Sorry I just realized I wasn’t clear in my answer.
As for the low RAM issue, I have plenty of RAM available and the Workstation has 4GB allocated to it.
The number of processes running on the host doesn’t seem to matter either as well.

I’ll try installing another OS on a USB drive soon, I’ll report back what happens.

Patrick · July 7, 2019, 11:49am

You could see system logs.

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Troubleshooting#System_Logs

Maybe you are “lucky” and could watch systemd journal log when this issue is happening?

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Troubleshooting#Watch_Systemd_Journal_Log_of_Current_Boot

Otherwise if above does not help, you could Enable Persistent Systemd Journal Log:

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Troubleshooting#Enable_Persistent_Systemd_Journal_Log

And then after freeze and after reboot, Check Systemd Journal Log of Previous Boot:

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Troubleshooting#Check_Systemd_Journal_Log_of_Previous_Boot

xye18912 · July 21, 2019, 11:07am

Sorry for the delayed response. I haven’t tested running a different distribution as host yet.
However, yesterday I decided to troubleshoot some more yesterday following Patrick’s advice.

Took me a bit of time to enable persistent systemd journal log because of the freezes.
After doing that I shut down the VMs to try and get it to bug again. While they were shutdown I decided to update my host (I check for updates several times a day so I wasn’t running old software).
This updated both the libvirt and spice packages, and I haven’t had a single problem with Whonix_Workstation since.

I’m kind of confused to be honest, but I won’t complain.

0brand · July 21, 2019, 5:29pm

Maybe a bug patch in the update fixed the issue?

Ibr0z · July 25, 2019, 2:56am

Please show your sources.list

My whonix workstatation keeps freezing as well, but all my packages are updated
libvirt-clients is already the newest version (5.0.0-4).
libvirt-daemon-system is already the newest version (5.0.0-4).
qemu-kvm is already the newest version (1:3.1+dfsg-8~deb10u1).
virt-manager is already the newest version (1:2.0.0-3).

Ibr0z · July 27, 2019, 9:34am

I want to upload logs but new users can’t post links and can’t upload .txt or .log files

0brand · July 27, 2019, 9:50am

Hi lbr0z

Welcome to the Whonix community!

Have you checked to see if you’re having a low RAM issue.

https://whonix.org/wiki/Troubleshooting#Low_RAM_Issues

Ibr0z · July 27, 2019, 11:23am

Yes. I have a lot of RAM allocated to Workstation. And Whonix 14 KDE was no freezes, but Whonix 15 XFCE freeze.

Maybe there is some bug if use Debian 10 + Whonix 15? I can share logs if you allow my user to send links

I use only main in my sources.list
No contrib and no non-free

Patrick · July 27, 2019, 11:22am

Promoted to basic user. Please try posting links now. Otherwise drop the http://www.
https://www

Ibr0z · August 3, 2019, 2:47pm

This was a Whonix 14 Workstation, but I upgraded it to 15.
After upgrade it start freezing.

I Enable Persistent Systemd Journal Log for Whonix Workstation. I after I type

sudo systemctl restart systemd-journald

it freezes after 5-10 minutes after I reboot I Check Systemd Journal Log of Previous Boot of Whonix Workstation

After that I reboot again and start surfing after some time it freezes. After reboot I get log of previous boot

I have a clean Whonix 15 Workstation downloaded from this website. I can give logs for it too

0brand · July 27, 2019, 4:47pm

Hi lbr0z

Does your system freeze if you have only 1 browser tab open? Could you try just surfing with only one browser tab without watching any videos for 15 minutes or so. If you don’t have any problems, open a dozen browser tabs (they can all be from the same website) and try watching a long video. Can you reproduce the problem by doing that?

Ibr0z · July 28, 2019, 7:00am

Yes

I run Tor Browser it start with Whonix Welcome page and then go afk for 5-10 min. When I came back it was frozen.

One time it freeze 1 min after start, no programs were running.

I will try to reinstall host and workstations when http://yuxv6qujajqvmypv.onion/ A Beginner Friendly Comprehensive Guide to Installing and Using A Safer Anonymous Operating System will be online. Now it’s offline

0brand · July 28, 2019, 5:52pm

Hi lbr0z

I believe the end of https://pastebin.com/LZjPxgh4 shows a condition that can eat up memory. Could you use a search engine to look for some of the journal messages and see what you come up with.

The “Xorg” lines in the kernel log below
"RIP: 0033:0x71fb41004427"
"Code: Bad RIP value."
anything else…

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: INFO: task Xorg:775 blocked for more than 120 seconds.

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:       Not tainted 4.19.0-5-amd64 #1 Debian 4.19.37-5+deb10u1

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: Xorg            D    0   775    754 0x00400004

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: Call Trace:

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? __schedule+0x2a2/0x870

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  schedule+0x28/0x80

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  schedule_preempt_disabled+0xa/0x10

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  __ww_mutex_lock.isra.6+0x3b9/0x6f0

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ttm_eu_reserve_buffers+0x21f/0x340 [ttm]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  qxl_release_reserve_list+0x63/0x150 [qxl]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? qxl_release_list_add+0x8b/0xb0 [qxl]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  qxl_cursor_atomic_update+0x198/0x2c0 [qxl]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? wait_for_completion_timeout+0x3b/0x1a0

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_commit_planes+0xb5/0x220 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_commit_tail+0x26/0x60 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  commit_tail+0x59/0x70 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_commit+0xb4/0x120 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_update_plane+0xf1/0x110 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_mode_cursor_universal+0x120/0x230 [drm]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_mode_cursor_common+0x18b/0x1f0 [drm]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? drm_mode_cursor_ioctl+0x70/0x70 [drm]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_ioctl_kernel+0xa1/0xf0 [drm]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  drm_ioctl+0x206/0x3a0 [drm]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? drm_mode_cursor_ioctl+0x70/0x70 [drm]

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? timerqueue_add+0x52/0x80

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? enqueue_hrtimer+0x38/0x90

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? hrtimer_start_range_ns+0x1b7/0x2c0

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  do_vfs_ioctl+0xa4/0x630

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ? __sys_recvmsg+0x83/0xa0

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  ksys_ioctl+0x60/0x90

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  __x64_sys_ioctl+0x16/0x20

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  do_syscall_64+0x53/0x110

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel:  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: RIP: 0033:0x71fb41004427

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: Code: Bad RIP value.

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: RSP: 002b:00007ffcc7e087e8 EFLAGS: 00003246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00005a4bce40c5a0 RCX: 000071fb41004427

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: RDX: 00007ffcc7e08820 RSI: 00000000c02464bb RDI: 000000000000000e

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: RBP: 00007ffcc7e08820 R08: 0000000000000040 R09: 000000000000000b

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: R10: 000000000000003f R11: 0000000000003246 R12: 00000000c02464bb

Jul 27 08:38:56 host kernel: R13: 000000000000000e R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 00005a4bce40b8e0

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: INFO: task Xorg:775 blocked for more than 120 seconds.

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:       Not tainted 4.19.0-5-amd64 #1 Debian 4.19.37-5+deb10u1

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: Xorg            D    0   775    754 0x00400004

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: Call Trace:

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? __schedule+0x2a2/0x870

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  schedule+0x28/0x80

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  schedule_preempt_disabled+0xa/0x10

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  __ww_mutex_lock.isra.6+0x3b9/0x6f0

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ttm_eu_reserve_buffers+0x21f/0x340 [ttm]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  qxl_release_reserve_list+0x63/0x150 [qxl]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? qxl_release_list_add+0x8b/0xb0 [qxl]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  qxl_cursor_atomic_update+0x198/0x2c0 [qxl]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? wait_for_completion_timeout+0x3b/0x1a0

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_commit_planes+0xb5/0x220 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_commit_tail+0x26/0x60 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  commit_tail+0x59/0x70 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_commit+0xb4/0x120 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_atomic_helper_update_plane+0xf1/0x110 [drm_kms_helper]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_mode_cursor_universal+0x120/0x230 [drm]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_mode_cursor_common+0x18b/0x1f0 [drm]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? drm_mode_cursor_ioctl+0x70/0x70 [drm]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_ioctl_kernel+0xa1/0xf0 [drm]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  drm_ioctl+0x206/0x3a0 [drm]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? drm_mode_cursor_ioctl+0x70/0x70 [drm]

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? timerqueue_add+0x52/0x80

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? enqueue_hrtimer+0x38/0x90

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? hrtimer_start_range_ns+0x1b7/0x2c0

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  do_vfs_ioctl+0xa4/0x630

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ? __sys_recvmsg+0x83/0xa0

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  ksys_ioctl+0x60/0x90

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  __x64_sys_ioctl+0x16/0x20

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  do_syscall_64+0x53/0x110

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel:  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: RIP: 0033:0x71fb41004427

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: Code: Bad RIP value.

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: RSP: 002b:00007ffcc7e087e8 EFLAGS: 00003246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00005a4bce40c5a0 RCX: 000071fb41004427

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: RDX: 00007ffcc7e08820 RSI: 00000000c02464bb RDI: 000000000000000e

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: RBP: 00007ffcc7e08820 R08: 0000000000000040 R09: 000000000000000b

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: R10: 000000000000003f R11: 0000000000003246 R12: 00000000c02464bb

Jul 27 08:40:57 host kernel: R13: 000000000000000e R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 00005a4bce40b8e0

Ibr0z · August 3, 2019, 2:50pm

I changed it from 6GB RAM to 8 and I still get this bug.
And I installed a fresh Debian 10 and Whonix and use it with default configuration ( I didn’t add extra ram or cpu) and there was no freezes.
It’s some bug if you upgrade Debian 9 to 10 and Whonix 14 to 15 you get freezes in Workstation

Ibr0z · August 20, 2019, 4:59pm

@Patrick @0brand I was wrong. With fresh Debian 10 and Whonix 15 still get freezes. Just sometimes it might take 1 hour to wait the freeze, other times I get freeze in 5-10 mins. All other VM’s are working fine. I get same errors RIP: 0033:0x71fb41004427just the code 0x71fb41004427 is different. Only stuff I can find in google about this kind of errors it’s bad RAM. But I think it’s not my case because all other VM work fine.

0brand · August 20, 2019, 5:57pm

Hi lbr0z

Sorry to hear that. Is it possible you have a flakey RAM module? There are free and open-source memory diagnostic tools available. You might want to look into that.

You might also want ot monitor system processes on the host and VMs. See if there are noticible differneces when using Whonix vs. Non-Whonix VMs.