smartctl question

[Colin Law]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2023 at 21:38, Phil <phillor9 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> More often than not ctl alt f1 (may need to log in here) followed by ctl
> alt f7 restores the laptop to normal operation. If that fails then
> killing xorg sometimes does the job. If that also fails then reboot with
> "sudo shutdown -r now" and finally if that also fails, start again with
> "sudo shutdown -h now".

OK, so it is the desktop that has frozen, not the system.
What happens if you log on as a different user?  Make a new user if
necessary, it is sometimes useful to have one available when this sort
of issue turns up.

Colin