Linux Mint 19, Cinnamon constantly crashes after upgrade

[AlienJoker]

It appears that someone was able to fix this in another thread viewtopic.php?f=46&t=272538&p=1490863&h ... 1#p1490894

This sounds good. Now we just have to downgrade mintupgrade and try this solution

/edit:
Downgrading mintupgrade is of course not possible because mintupgrade chacks for existing updates and stopps working, if packages are not up to date

[rjd]

It appears that someone was able to fix this in another thread viewtopic.php?f=46&t=272538&p=1490863&h ... 1#p1490894

This is not a fix as it reportedly only allows software rendering, Also, this was a different issue than this thread is addressing. That thread addresses a problem that occurs at login; this is in reference to a crash after a successful login.

The cause is now known - per Clem's post of July 7 2:54am it was a backport by Ubuntu after we started doing upgrades.
https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3615#comment-144157

[mikyle]

I have attempted the fix and got Cinnamon to launch with some applets needing an update. It was a bit annoying to not have a menu, but that applet was not updated prior to mintupgrade.

As for software rendering... with 18.3, I had software rendering and hoped that 19 would improve things. Although there is the occasional freeze while the CPU catches up, it is still marginally better than performance in 18.3. I would love to be able to shift render to the gpu, but having an HP notebook with AMD ATI Carrizo I have reserved myself to software rendering.

I accept that this may not be the perfect solution, but it can be an alternative, for me, to a fresh install until it is all resolved or (maybe) 19.1

[AlienJoker]

this is in reference to a crash after a successful login.

Only at the beginning. If you continue reading the author has the same issue:

So I was able to reinstall cinnamon from the command line. It now allows me to log in, but displays the error:
"Cinnamon just crashed. You are currently running in Fallback Mode. Do you want to restart Cinnamon?"
If I click yes, it just crashes again. So far I am able to open things from the welcome menu and such, but I have no toolbar.

[rjd]

this is in reference to a crash after a successful login.

Only at the beginning. If you continue reading the author has the same issue:

So I was able to reinstall cinnamon from the command line. It now allows me to log in, but displays the error:
"Cinnamon just crashed. You are currently running in Fallback Mode. Do you want to restart Cinnamon?"
If I click yes, it just crashes again...

Yes, the author is able to get to a point where he can login and then gets the same problem we are discussing. And yes, you can get Cinnamon to start in software rendering mode if you follow those instructions. However, the earlier post stated:

...someone was able to fix this in another thread...

. This is not a fix, as it's not working properly (i.e. using the available hardware) and applying any updates that may become available could cause it to stop working again.

When the Mint team does release a solution for this issue (which was caused by Ubuntu, not the upgrade), I would be very leery of applying it to a system that had been patched up this way for future dependability. I would only use this if needed to copy/save data added since running the upgrade. Then I'd either revert to previous version via Timeshift and wait for a fix to be announced by the Mint team or do a clean install of 19. YMMV

[mikyle]

I was happy. Through this forum, I found an answer to a problem with my update and, after some errands, tried to use the notebook. Software rendering sucks; videos would skip, browsers to hang, and editing a document (plain text) couldn't keep up with my typing. Oddest thing; I'd be typing out a paragraph and getting ready to start a new one just to see the screen start with the first sentence.

I heard the advice of going back to 18.3 and reminded myself that I wanted the new Cinnamon for its improvements in window management and memory. I am tapping out, I have to downgrade to a timeshift before the update and I'll wait for either 19.2 or an opportunity for fresh install.

[arthurprs]

Just tried again (w/ new mintupgrade) and the upgrade worked beautifully. The Ubuntu fix did the trick

[no no]

Has anybody else the same success?

[royg]

Most reliable way seems to be to do a fresh install instead of an upgrade. Much quicker, and none of the problems associated with the upgrade process. Note; you'll need to have /home on a separate partition if you don't want the fresh install to overwrite your home folder...

[no no]

This is not really acceptable if you have sophisticated set-up.

To recreate them take hours.

We should have a solution like there is for Samsung machines for example. Through Smart Switch you are able to do a fresh install and then to import your data and set-up (even sophisticated) with no errors.

I think I better wait for a mint 19.2 or .3.

[smurphos]

We should have a solution...

Aptik...https://github.com/teejee2008/aptik

[no no]

promising thank you, I will try it asap. I am busy on other topics for now.