[SOLVED] Slow login and no panel / menu / notification

[nashjc]

[[ SOLVED -- unfortunatly reinstall was the easiest solution ]]

I recently upgraded to 20.1 and started to get intermittent cases (now 3 times out of 4) where after entering my password, the rest of the bootup is slow.
Sometimes the mouse cursor is huge. Sometimes not. Often there is no bottom panel (where the menu, launchers, notification etc. are). Very annoying.
Reboot usually clears things after several tries, but it is getting worse.

I see other postings about desktop woes, some saying "SOLVED" though they seem to be workarounds rather than true fixes. Or "it went away".

I'm running Linux Mint 20.1 on an Asus UL303LN with lots of memory and SSD (512 GB). It is one of the early models with the 3200 pixel wide screen (even on a
14" laptop!) but I (try to) run it at 1600x900. I have a suspicion there is some attempt by LM 20.1 to "detect" the screen and adjust, which may be putting the panel out of view. However, I've no idea how to test this.

I anyone want to have me try something, I suggest profjcnash _at_ gmail.com directly.

I'm a believer in posting what works, and will do so when/if a solution is found.

JN

[SMG]

I recently upgraded to 20.1 and started to get intermittent cases (now 3 times out of 4) where after entering my password, the rest of the bootup is slow.
Sometimes the mouse cursor is huge. Sometimes not. Often there is no bottom panel (where the menu, launchers, notification etc. are). Very annoying.
Reboot usually clears things after several tries, but it is getting worse.

If it is getting worse, it could be a sign of a hard drive issue.

You could test to see if the issue was just because of the upgrade by restoring to the Timeshift snapshot you took before upgrading to see if returning to the earlier version clears the issue.

I'm running Linux Mint 20.1 on an Asus UL303LN with lots of memory and SSD (512 GB).

Section 5 of READ: How To Get Help! explains the data we need to be able to help you. Please provide that system data.

[nashjc]

I've not been happy at all with Timeshift, and had to work to get it out of the way.
The interface is such that it does not save the files I want saved, so I do my own backups.
The things that are saved seem to fill up all my disk space and take forever to do it.

If I need to revert, it will be a reinstall. I have been using scripts to install software, though
I've not managed (yet?) to script panel items and menus. Possibly the choice to use mint-upgrade
was a bad idea. It took longer than an install by far, and some of my specialty software had to be
removed then reinstalled.

There seems to be a lot of push towards Timeshift, but my experience (about 6 times now) has been
very negative. I think it like;ly the interface is just poor (the tools for selecting what to save) and the software
itself is fine.

For information, I've been building and using computers and software since 1961, and on a continuous
basis since 1966, and been part of a number of IEEE and ISO standards activities, so my opinions come from
a fairly extensive background.

Since my laptop does boot to a correct desktop sometimes, I'm pretty sure there's a setting somewhere
that is being altered inappropriately. The issue is to find where and what and fix it.

JN

[nashjc]

Here's the inxi output requested. On this occasion the boot was quick and correct. There was an update
a few hours ago, and (my bad not to have registered it) possibly to xorg-server which would be a candidate
for a problem.

What is NOT mentioned in inxi info is that the 256G sdb is only used for data storage.

JN


System:
Kernel: 5.4.0-62-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 info: mate-panel wm: marco 1.24.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: UX303LB v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: UX303LB v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
UEFI: American Megatrends v: UX303LB.204 date: 05/13/2015
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 42.9 Wh condition: 45.0/50.1 Wh (90%) volts: 11.3/11.3
model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Charging
cycles: 66
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i7-5500U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Broadwell rev: 4 L2 cache: 4096 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
bogomips: 19156
Speed: 2817 MHz min/max: 500/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2862 2: 2886
3: 2886 4: 2880
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel
bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:1616
Device-2: NVIDIA GM108M [GeForce 940M] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia
v: 460.32.03 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1347
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting,nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa compositor: marco v: 1.24.0 tty: N/A
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce 940M/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 460.32.03
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 chip ID: 8086:160c
Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:9ca0
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-62-generic
Network:
Device-1: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 4040
bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 8086:095a
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 708.75 GiB used: 426.82 GiB (60.2%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Micron model: M600 MTFDDAK512MBF size: 476.94 GiB
speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: MU01 scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Generic model: STORAGE DEVICE
size: 231.81 GiB serial: <filter> rev: 0819 scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 467.96 GiB used: 255.07 GiB (54.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 31.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 31 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint-packages ulyana main upstream import backport
2: deb http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
Info:
Processes: 261 Uptime: 1m Memory: 11.61 GiB used: 1.14 GiB (9.8%)
Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 5/7/9
clang: 10.0.0-4ubuntu1 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: mate-terminal
inxi: 3.0.38

[SMG]

I've not been happy at all with Timeshift, and had to work to get it out of the way.
The interface is such that it does not save the files I want saved, so I do my own backups.
The things that are saved seem to fill up all my disk space and take forever to do it.

The primary purpose of Timeshift snapshots are for doing operating system backups. It's analogous to a system restore point in Windows terminology. It is not meant as a disk backup or a means of backing up personal files. There are other tools for that.

I run Timeshift on an ad-hoc basis (it runs only when I tell it to run), using the default settings, and save snapshots to an external drive. The point of taking a snapshot prior to doing an upgrade is that if something goes wrong one can restore the operating system to its previous state without overwriting any of one's personal files which may have been updated in the meantime. It's much, much faster than starting over with a fresh install and having to redo all one's settings.

There was an update a few hours ago, and (my bad not to have registered it) possibly to xorg-server which would be a candidate for a problem.

I read the release notes (which are available in Update Manager by clicking the package being updated and then clicking the release notes tab in the lower section) and seem to recall it being a bug fix to a prior release. It did not seem like it would be a problem to me so I installed it. You have the option to not install an update if you think it would be a problem. Or you can take a snapshot prior to doing the update so you can roll back if it does not turn out as you would like it.

What is NOT mentioned in inxi info is that the 256G sdb is only used for data storage.

The inxi information lists the drive as "Storage Device" with an MBR scheme. Your UEFI install should have GPT for any operating system drives (which it does have), so I would presume that drive was data.

You indicated you updated the system to LM20.1 Ulyssa, but your information indicates that did not happen.

System:
Kernel: 5.4.0-62-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 info: mate-panel wm: marco 1.24.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal

Did you get any errors after you did the upgrade?

Some people did get errors after the upgrade. When they rolled back to their pre-upgrade snapshot and made a second attempt they realized they must not have elected to "replace" as recommended in the How to upgrade to Linux Mint 20.1 notes under #3 "If asked whether to keep or replace configuration files, choose to replace them." because their second attempt at upgrade was successful. I only mention that because it happened to multiple people who posted for help on the forum. I do not know what may have happened during your upgrade.

However, looking at your prior post, it appears you may not have used Update Manager to do the upgrade? There was nothing in the upgrade instructions which made any indication that software might need to be unistalled, so I'm not sure what instructions you used for the upgrade. However, if you modified the underlying Mint software, then maybe you did have to uninstall something.

As you are having issues and you indicate you did upgrade but the inxi information indicates the system upgrade did not happen (or did not happen properly),
I would advise to roll back to the pre-upgrade snapshot and try the upgrade again. If you did not take a snapshot just prior to the upgrade but have an older one, it's fine to use that one. You would just want to make sure to do all the updates on it before moving to the upgrade.

Or you can start with a fresh install as you indicated you might do.

[nashjc]

I went with the reinstall, as I have a script that installs from a list of packages.
It doesn't get everything, but is relatively painless.

Timeshift to an external drive and turning off scheduled tries seems to have gone OK too.

In the upgrade, I am fairly certain there was one of the config confirmations where I wanted to keep what I had, so didn't replace. That is generally my choice, and I think the default. Given the need to replace, this could be the source of my troubles.

Thanks for the detailed response.

JN

[SMG]

Several people did mention they felt the prompts of whether to replace or not were not very clear as to the ramifications of doing or not doing it. Per their comments after the successful upgrade they indicated their install retained their customizations, so I'm not sure what exactly was replaced.

If the login is working properly and you now have panels, etc, please edit the first post in this thread and add [SOLVED] so others will know you no longer need help.

You may find his current thread How good & effective is Timeshift? interesting. It has feedback both for and against the use of Timeshift and mentions some of the other tools people use instead of, or in addition to, Timeshift.

[nashjc]

My complaints about Timeshift are partly, I have discovered, related to having a ZFS pool of 2 mirrored disks that are for keeping a fairly large archive.

Now such pools seem to get placed in a directory like /myzfspool in the root filesystem. So Timeshift tries to save them -- all 2TB if full. Not good.
It is simple to exclude this directory. Unfortunately, Timeshift doesn't like ZFS or the output could go there. In any event, Timeshift now does not chew
up disks and goes much faster.

JN

[SMG]

My complaints about Timeshift are partly, I have discovered, related to having a ZFS pool of 2 mirrored disks that are for keeping a fairly large archive.

Now such pools seem to get placed in a directory like /myzfspool in the root filesystem. So Timeshift tries to save them -- all 2TB if full.

It's a wonder Timeshift would ever finish.

Glad you figured that out and your post may help others in the future.