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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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A device driver needs access to the system to control a device. There's a couple ways of going about it, but GPUs are effectively required to use a kernel driver. A kernel driver runs as part of your system, and crashes have different effects from normal programs. If a normal program crashes, the system handles that, the program closes, too bad. If the kernel crashes, nothing can catch that, and your whole computer crashes.
That being said, with this little info on the crash there's nothing anyone can do except speculate on the cause. It could be hardware, it could be the kernel. Whatever it is, you'd need more information (
journalctl -b -1after a crash and reboot) to diagnose this issue.Though important to note; if holding the power button for an extended period of time (30s) doesn't shut down the computer, it is most likely a hardware fault.
4 seconds should be enough.