Pi's system freezes are quite common especially when i am downloading huge files over the network. They are also happening when the ram is full and swap space is being utilized. I have a 4GB Pi-5 and i needed to increase swap space to prevent full on system crashes (especially caused by Chromium, which is a memory hog). Increasing swap space resolves any such "crashes" however, i have yet to find a solution for the occasional freezes, especially when i am downloading something.
So, how to get less freezes (and zero system crashes):
1. Use a fast NVME SSD or USB-3 SSD (that is what i have) for your root partition. If not possible, use a high quality/fast SD card but it will never be half as good as the SSD.
2. If you have a 4GB Pi, increase swap space to 2GB (i did that). Generate the swap partition in the fastest medium that you have connected to your Pi. NVME SSD preferred. If you have a slow sd card, increasing swap space will negatively impact your Pi's performance as it will constantly write and read from that slow sd card which will result in a lot of system freezes.
Rule of Thumb: Get the 8GB Pi. 4GB is never enough if you will use it as desktop.
So, how to get less freezes (and zero system crashes):
1. Use a fast NVME SSD or USB-3 SSD (that is what i have) for your root partition. If not possible, use a high quality/fast SD card but it will never be half as good as the SSD.
2. If you have a 4GB Pi, increase swap space to 2GB (i did that). Generate the swap partition in the fastest medium that you have connected to your Pi. NVME SSD preferred. If you have a slow sd card, increasing swap space will negatively impact your Pi's performance as it will constantly write and read from that slow sd card which will result in a lot of system freezes.
Rule of Thumb: Get the 8GB Pi. 4GB is never enough if you will use it as desktop.
Statistics: Posted by jason_kidd — Wed Mar 27, 2024 7:47 pm