Ubuntu Linux and Orca IDE

[jorgevazquez]

I am using Orca in Ubuntu under XFCE. It's a standard AWS image, with standard GUI components, nothing fancy. I have updated the machine twice since I launched it in July and it has some pending system updates that I have not gotten around to. I run this on AWS in an m5.2xlarge instance with 16GB RAM and a 500GB root volume in us-east-1. This machine's sole purpose is agentic coding and I am the only person with access.

I have been using Orca pretty consistently for about a month, I think - maybe slightly longer/shorter. However, over the course of the past week or so, perhaps one or two Orca updates ago, my sessions now routinely freeze the entire machine. Before, I used to be able to SSH into the box and kill the desktop and window manager and would sometimes be able to regain control. Other times, I had to pretty much kill Chrome, Orca, & Claude in order to regain control - yeah, those are the only 3 apps I run.

Today, the box froze around 4PM, I went to run some errands, came back right after 8PM and found a notice on the screen alerting me that Orca had crashed. It really had not crossed my mind until then that Orca may be to blame. Hopefully I can find some assistance here helping me find some clarity so that I do not make any false accusations.

I normally run approximately 5 - 10 terminal sessions inside Orca across one to three repositories. I am using Claude Code and nothing else. I do have the Claude GUI installed but rarely ever use it. The main repo is where most of the action happens and every terminal is doing a different task than the next. Sessions get their own work trees, of course - I think that's a feature Orca touts but I have been running my agents like that for quite some time.

The machine never completely dies, it just freezes. I access it via RDP and the RDP connection does not die. However, if I disconnect, it will not reconnect either until the machine has regained 'consciousness'. Sometimes the freeze will be a few seconds; other times a few minutes; these past few days it has been for more than an hour; and yesterday the machine locked up sometime in the early evening and when I came back to it this morning, it was still locked up. For the first time in four or five months, I had to force reboot. Now, keep in mind that Claude Code has also seen its fair share of updates so it is also possible that Claude is the thing to blame. I just don't know.

Can anyone here suggest a surefire method to determine what is going on here? Your help is much appreciated.

[jorgevazquez]

Figured out the issue....Orca somehow was set to run <50 agents which my machine was unable to handle with a mere 16GB. Changed the setting to <10 and all is well.