Gnome session freeze and CPU usage spikes

Hi all !
I use Gnome (customized only with their Gnome version related extensions) on Fedora Silverblue 34+ on several laptops.
Mainly my use cases are web browsing and basic office work so apparently no heavy lifting on the CPU.

RAM is managed by Fedora and there is plenty unusued : hardly 3/4 Gb is used (and hardware provides 8Gb + RAM total)

Frequently Gnome freezes for a half second each 10 to 15 seconds. At the same time it seems related with CPU usage spikes visible with system-monitor, but not always.

Restarting the Gnome session will make the spikes sometimes disappear, sometimes not…

How to diagnose thoses freezes ? Identify what could be the cause(s) ? And eventually eradicate them…

Thanks !

At first I would check the system journal, e.g., sudo journalctl --since "5min ago"

This command outputs all system logs of the last 5 minutes. As soon as you experience the freezes, get the output of this command.

If you want our assistance, it makes sense to let us know the output, and let us also know the exact system time when the freezes happen (e.g., 15:18:22). Maybe the logs will reveal a re-occurring event/pattern that always happens when or before the freezes occur.

Also, since when does the freeze occur? Maybe since the last kernel update or so? I assume your system is up to date?

1 Like

Thanks for your reply @py0xc3

Spikes did occurs even on a brand new Fedora system (at the time for F32 to F34)
I am upgrading to F35 soon and F36 as soon as official release is out.

Session freeze and CPU usage spikes almost only occur on a HP Pavilion 13-s143nf laptop from 2016
It could be video drivers related or Gnome related or Fedora system related ?
I will share as soon as possible the output of :