You’re going to see some typing errors in this post, and thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat is intentioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonal. It’s going to make the post unpleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasant to read, but I assure you it’s more unpleasant to type.
The issue: Every 5-10 seconds or so, my laptop has recently started pausing, with one symptom being repetition of any key I happen to be typing at that moment, whether a letter, deletion, or something else. I haven’t changed anything, and something very similar seems to be happening on mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy Fedora-based desktop.
I have tried thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhe usual troubleshooting steps, such as watchinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg my processes, disabling gnome extensions, and I cannot pin down the cause.
(1) Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyone seen anything like this?
(2) Any suggestions for troubleshooting?
The laptop is more than powerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrful enough, a Gen 8 X1 Carbon. OS and apps are up to date. I assume an OS, gnome, or applicationnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn update has broken something, but I cannot for the life of me pinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn down where the issue is occurring.
EDIT:
Adding system specs –
Intel® Core™ i7-10610U 16GB Intel® UHD Graphics Gnome/Wayland NixOS 23.11 kernel 6.1.57
EDIT 2:
Well, it appears to be gnome. Switched to KDE and everything is perfectly fine. I don’t like KDE (but I fully respect others’ preferences, just … to avoid unpleasantness). I’m going to do some digging around to see if gnome is conflicting with something in NixOS land.
This is your best bet op. You can’t figure out the issue if you don’t know where the problem is coming from
Yeah, I will definitely try another live iso. The ONLY possible lead I have is that in btop there’s a .gnome-session entry that pops to the top of the list when the pause happens, but (a) the peak displayed CPU usage is like 10%, and (b) I can’t figure out what it is. So I’m going to try both a KDE session and maybe a new user just to see if there might be something config-related. Though, again, I didn’t change anything in my nix config.
Part of my issue is that I’m not even sure how to describe what’s happening to search to see if it’s a known issue in recent kernels, gnome, etc. I keep descending into insane metaphors, like “it’s sort of like when the cat is about to throw up a hairball and everything pauses while the horror unfolds in front of you.”