Mouse feezing [SOLVED]

[rabcnesbit]

Hello. Just downloaded mint 10(Julia) iso image, burnt to a CD and trying to run from the live CD on my Dell dimension C521 PC with windows XP installed. Mint loads up, but after about a few minutes, the cursor freezes (mouse does not respond at all) and I have to do a hard reboot. Could someone assist please? I know there are a few threads on the forum similar to my problem, but the suggested solutions (which in many cases did not actually seem to have resolved the problem for the original poster) seem to be specific to the original poster's problem, PC spec etc. Just to add, I am relatively new to linux. Many thanks

[mads]

Hello. Just downloaded mint 10(Julia) iso image, burnt to a CD and trying to run from the live CD on my Dell dimension C521 PC with windows XP installed. Mint loads up, but after about a few minutes, the cursor freezes (mouse does not respond at all) and I have to do a hard reboot. Could someone assist please? I know there are a few threads on the forum similar to my problem, but the suggested solutions (which in many cases did not actually seem to have resolved the problem for the original poster) seem to be specific to the original poster's problem, PC spec etc. Just to add, I am relatively new to linux. Many thanks

Hi rabcnesbit.

This is a common issue with some Dell models, including Dimension C521. Have you recently checked "Dell - Drivers and Downloads" site to see if there are any bios updates available for your computer?
If no, please do it and see if it helps. If yes, or if updating bios didn't help, try to add these parameters: noapic irqpoll pci=routeirq to the kernel line.

Boot from live cd. When it starts click ENTER to see the GRUB boot menu.
Highlight the Linux Mint line, press the 'e' key and scroll down to the kernal line and add noapic irqpoll pci=routeirq after quiet splash.
Click Ctrl-x to boot.

[rabcnesbit]

Hello. Just downloaded mint 10(Julia) iso image, burnt to a CD and trying to run from the live CD on my Dell dimension C521 PC with windows XP installed. Mint loads up, but after about a few minutes, the cursor freezes (mouse does not respond at all) and I have to do a hard reboot. Could someone assist please? I know there are a few threads on the forum similar to my problem, but the suggested solutions (which in many cases did not actually seem to have resolved the problem for the original poster) seem to be specific to the original poster's problem, PC spec etc. Just to add, I am relatively new to linux. Many thanks

Hi rabcnesbit.

This is a common issue with some Dell models, including Dimension C521. Have you recently checked "Dell - Drivers and Downloads" site to see if there are any bios updates available for your computer?
If no, please do it and see if it helps. If yes, or if updating bios didn't help, try to add these parameters: noapic irqpoll pci=routeirq to the kernel line.

Boot from live cd. When it starts click ENTER to see the GRUB boot menu.
Highlight the Linux Mint line, press the 'e' key and scroll down to the kernal line and add noapic irqpoll pci=routeirq after quiet splash.
Click Ctrl-x to boot.

Hello mads,

Thanks fro your reply. Will try out your suggestions and report back. Cheers

[rabcnesbit]

Hi mads. Now what I have done so far.

I went to Dell website to search for any drivers updates, and subsequently updated my BIOS, and my nDivia drivers (not sure if the latter actually updated?). I then tried running linux mint from live CD. One thing of interest that came up after I boot up from live CD is a notification that there are non-propriety drivers that might required to be installed. I clicked on this, which happened to be a driver for nDivia graphics needed for 3D graphics acceleration, to be installed. This then gets downloaded and 'installed', and then ask for the PC to be rebooted for changes to take place. However, every time I did this and rebooted from the live CD, I still kept getting the notification for the nDivia driver(s) to be installed. It would appear it was not installing properly using just the live CD. I decided to bite the bullet and installed linux mint straight on to my PC, side by side with window XP for a dual boot system. Doing this eventually got the nDivia driver(s) installed properly (I think as I no longer get the notification). Ever since, a few hours now, my mouse has not frozen! I don't know whether it was the updated BIOS or the NDivia driver(s) that seemed to have cured the problem. I say seem because it's just been a few hours, and have to wait and see what happens in the next few days. So for now, may I say many thanks for your help.

Just one more thing. I read somewhere in the documentation that the option is available, during installation, to make your documents etc from the other OS (Windows XP, in my case) available in linux mint. I never saw this option when I was installing linux mint 10 (or may be I missed it). Is there a way I could still be able to do this retrospectively now that I have already installed linux mint 10?

Many thanks

[willie42]

I believe you will find insructions on file sharing located here-->http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=28397


Hope this helps you.

[mads]

Well done rabcnesbit!

You can check whether Nvidia drivers were updated or not, when you boot to Windows XP. Right-click My Computer, click Manage, and then click Device Manager. You should see your Nvidia graphic card under Display adapters. Right click and select Properties. You'll see if the adapter is working properly, and information about the driver version.

Back to Linux, you are right about Nvidia drivers not being properly installed when booting from live CD. I think the purpose of this notification is to let people who are trying Linux for the first time, to know that "it is easy to install Nvidia drivers". It is also a good way to make people decide to bite the bullet and install Linux Mint straight on their PC, side by side with Window.

In Linux Mint, to check if the Nvidia driver installation has been successful or not, you can run this command in Terminal:

Code: Select all

glxinfo | grep vendor

The output should be similar to this:

Code: Select all

server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation

I am not sure if this is actually what you meant, but during installation, it is possible to import your documents (My Music, My Pictures) and personal settings (Wallpaper, User Picture), to your Linux Mint user account. I don't know so much about this, and I suggest starting a new thread. I am sure many users will give you proper guidance on this. But if you just want to have access to your files in Windows XP, go to Menu > Places > Computer. Your windows partitions are there. Just right click the icon, select Mount and then navigate to "Documents and Settings/YOUR-USER-NAME-IN-WINDOWS/My Documents/" or some other location you prefer.

I hope you enjoy Linux Mint and stick around.

[rabcnesbit]

I believe you will find insructions on file sharing located here-->http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=28397


Hope this helps you.

Hi willie42, and thanks for the link. However, the thread is about sharing printers. What I was after was being able to access my files that I have on my windows XP part of my PC from linux mint. Thanks

[rabcnesbit]

I am not sure if this is actually what you meant, but during installation, it is possible to import your documents (My Music, My Pictures) and personal settings (Wallpaper, User Picture), to your Linux Mint user account.

Yes, this is what I meant.

But if you just want to have access to your files in Windows XP, go to Menu > Places > Computer. Your windows partitions are there. Just right click the icon, select Mount and then navigate to "Documents and Settings/YOUR-USER-NAME-IN-WINDOWS/My Documents/" or some other location you prefer.

This will do. Many thanks