Cinnamon 3.2.7 keeps crashing/thumbnail cache problem

[hedgehoggy]

My desktop has been crashing, it seems, more and more as of late, and is driving me crazy. The Restart Cinnamon applet is being put to good use! Again, and again and again. Another problem that may or may not be related, is that the thumbnail cache (?) keeps breaking and asking for administrative privileges to fix it. Some cursory research on my part suggests a problem with my graphics card . . . ? I'll share a screenshot of what I've got in the Driver Manager. I move files around a lot, which seems to put quite a strain on things. I'm more than a little nervous about messing with the graphics card(s) though, because that's caused me major problems in the past, but I'm not sure I can take the constantly crashing desktop much longer. Any suggestions?

2018-09-16 22-31-20 030908588.png

[Laurent85]

Please post your computer specs:

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inxi -Fxz

Repositories configured:

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inxi -r

Also check the ownership of your home folder files:

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sudo find $HOME ! -user $USER -exec ls -l {} +

[ParaDice]

I have encountered similar problems after some kernel updates (Cinnamon crashing or starting in software rendering mode). Reinstalling the NVIDIA drivers usually solved the problem for me.

[hedgehoggy]

I messed up the formatting a bit, sorry!

total 60
-rw------- 1 root root 27502 Sep 17 05:10 connection_logs
-r-------- 1 root root 50 Jul 7 01:31 protonvpn_openvpn_credentials
-r-------- 1 root root 2 Jul 7 01:31 protonvpn_tier

Any thoughts?

[Laurent85]

If you still did not configure Timeshift you should do so. As a precaution before continuing create a Timeshift snapshot.

First remove old kernels from your system, you are running out of free space with your /boot partition.
Update Manager > View > Linux kernels

Fix the ownership of your home files, paste into the terminal:

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sudo chown -R  $USER:  $HOME

Your graphics driver setup looks broken. Upon next boot enter your bios settings and check Secure Boot is not enabled.
Purge the nvidia packages:

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apt purge nvidia-*
sudo rm /lib/modules/4.*-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/nvidia*.ko
apt install nvidia-prime-applet

Install the latest kernels available in the 4.4.0 and 4.15.0 series. The kernel 4.13 your are using is not maintained anymore. Try both kernel and use the one series that works best with your hardware:
Update Manager > View > Linux kernels

The xorg built-in modesetting driver shoud be preferred over the intel driver with your hardware, remove the xorg intel driver:

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apt purge xserver-xorg-video-intel

Also temporarily remove the xorg nouveau driver.

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apt purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

Ask a filesystem check upon next boot:

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sudo touch /forcefsck

Reboot. If the grub menu doesn't show up by default hold down the shift key at startup.
From the grub Menu > Advanced Options > select the kernel entry to boot.

Post back when done.

[hedgehoggy]

Hi, thanks for your response.
Timeshift is configured and ready to go, so no problem there.
I'm a little nervous about removing old kernels; would you be so kind as to guide me through this? Which ones should I mark for complete removal and which one(s) should I keep? Here's a screenshot from synaptic:

2018-09-20 02-28-19 450471953.png

I'll do a Timeshift snapshot before removing anything.

[Laurent85]

I'm a little nervous about removing old kernels; would you be so kind as to guide me through this? Which ones should I mark for complete removal and which one(s) should I keep? Here's a screenshot from synaptic:

Use the Update Manager instead, It's the Mint utility for this task: quoting my above post:

IInstall the latest kernels available in the 4.4.0 and 4.15.0 series. The kernel 4.13 your are using is not maintained anymore. Try both kernel and use the one series that works best with your hardware:
Update Manager > View > Linux kernels

[hedgehoggy]

Ok, I removed the extra kernels via the update manager as you instructed. I installed the latest 4.4 and the latest 4.15. Tried booting into 4.15 and got a distorted decrypt screen that didn't recognize keyboard typing. Booted into 4.4 successfully, and then removed all 4.13 and 4.15 kernels. Now the crazy thing is, if I just do a regular reboot without using the grub menu, it boots me into 4.13 even though I'd already removed it! More than a little confused. The grub boot kernel menu still lists 4.10 and 4.13 even though I removed them (I'm not sure I even had 4.10 on here in the first place). The update manager shows that I have only 4.4.0-53 and 4.4.0-135 installed, with the latter being listed as active. A straight reboot without the grub menu seems to boot me into a phantom kernel! So far no desktop crashes, but I probably haven't played around with it enough to be sure. The thumbnail cache still crashes repeatedly if I move icons around. I tried to follow all your instructions in order, but for

sudo rm /lib/modules/4.*-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/nvidia*.ko

I got

rm: cannot remove '/lib/modules/4.*-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/nvidia*.ko': No such file or directory

All the other commands appeared to be successfully executed. I haven't

Should I rerun the "inxi -Fxz", "inxi -r", and "sudo find $HOME ! -user $USER -exec ls -l {} +" commands and post the results?

[Laurent85]

Now the crazy thing is, if I just do a regular reboot without using the grub menu, it boots me into 4.13 even though I'd already removed it!

Post the list of installed kernels:

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apt search ~i^linux- -F %p

The grub boot kernel menu still lists 4.10 and 4.13 even though I removed them

Update the grub menu:

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sudo update-grub

The thumbnail cache still crashes repeatedly if I move icons around.

What sort of icons, moved from, to ?

Should I rerun the "inxi -Fxz", "inxi -r", and "sudo find $HOME ! -user $USER -exec ls -l {} +" commands and post the results?

Post the results of the following commands:

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inxi -SGx
sudo find $HOME ! -user $USER -exec ls -l {} +
lsmod | grep -E 'i915|nouveau|nvidia'
apt search ~invidia ~ixserver-xorg-video -F %p

[hedgehoggy]

apt search ~i^linux- -F %p gives me
linux-base
linux-firmware
linux-headers-4.4.0-135
linux-headers-4.4.0-135-generic
linux-headers-4.4.0-53
linux-headers-4.4.0-53-generic
linux-image-4.4.0-135-generic
linux-image-4.4.0-53-generic
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-135-generic
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-53-generic
linux-kernel-generic
linux-libc-dev
linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic
linux-sound-base

But System Settings>System info still says 4.13.0-31-generic!

sudo update-grub done.

inxi -SGx gives me
System: Host: az-ux51vz Kernel: 4.13.0-31-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Graphics: Card-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 650M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau
Resolution: 1920x1080@59.97hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes

sudo find $HOME ! -user $USER -exec ls -l {} + just gives me the next ~ $

lsmod | grep -E 'i915|nouveau|nvidia' gives me
nouveau 1642496 1
i915 1806336 22
ttm 94208 1 nouveau
i2c_algo_bit 16384 2 nouveau,i915
drm_kms_helper 167936 2 nouveau,i915
mxm_wmi 16384 1 nouveau
drm 356352 10 nouveau,i915,ttm,drm_kms_helper
wmi 24576 4 asus_wmi,wmi_bmof,mxm_wmi,nouveau
video 40960 3 asus_wmi,nouveau,i915

apt search ~invidia ~ixserver-xorg-video -F %p gives me
nvidia-prime-applet
xserver-xorg-video-all
xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu
xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
xserver-xorg-video-qxl
xserver-xorg-video-radeon
xserver-xorg-video-vesa
xserver-xorg-video-vmware

Forgot to mention that Secure Boot is not enabled.
I'll see if I can send you a screencast of my thumbnail problem.

[Laurent85]

linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic

Purge package linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic:

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apt purge linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic

But System Settings>System info still says 4.13.0-31-generic!

Weird, no such kernel package is currently installed. Post:

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ls -l /boot

sudo find $HOME ! -user $USER -exec ls -l {} + just gives me the next ~ $

Fine.
There was a typo in my post, temporarily remove package xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:

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apt purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

[hedgehoggy]

apt purge linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic gives me

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
After this operation, 66.3 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 299881 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic (4.15.0-34.37~16.04.1) ...
Purging configuration files for linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic (4.15.0-34.37~16.04.1) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic, directory '/lib/modules/4.15.0-34-generic' not empty so not removed

ls -l /boot gives me

total 299569
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1443962 Oct 10 2017 abi-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1500049 Jan 9 2018 abi-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1500342 Jan 19 2018 abi-4.13.0-31-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1251923 Aug 27 08:51 abi-4.4.0-135-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1243479 Dec 2 2016 abi-4.4.0-53-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 204970 Oct 10 2017 config-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 213164 Jan 9 2018 config-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 213164 Jan 19 2018 config-4.13.0-31-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 190624 Aug 27 08:51 config-4.4.0-135-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 189877 Dec 2 2016 config-4.4.0-53-generic
drwx------ 3 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 efi
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 1024 Sep 20 17:11 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46516851 Sep 20 07:23 initrd.img-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 54216315 Sep 20 07:23 initrd.img-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 54213535 Sep 20 08:23 initrd.img-4.13.0-31-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 43081902 Sep 20 07:42 initrd.img-4.4.0-135-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42740380 Sep 20 07:24 initrd.img-4.4.0-53-generic
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Feb 2 2017 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 182704 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184380 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184840 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 255 Aug 27 08:51 retpoline-4.4.0-135-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3722376 Oct 10 2017 System.map-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3875011 Jan 9 2018 System.map-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3876825 Jan 19 2018 System.map-4.13.0-31-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3902867 Aug 27 08:51 System.map-4.4.0-135-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3874377 Dec 2 2016 System.map-4.4.0-53-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7407392 Oct 10 2017 vmlinuz-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7669648 Jan 9 2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7671312 Jan 19 2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-31-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7161952 Aug 27 08:51 vmlinuz-4.4.0-135-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7065648 Dec 13 2016 vmlinuz-4.4.0-53-generic

apt purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau = done.

2018-09-20 18-00-23 091155346.png

As soon as I try to record my thumbnail cache problem, I can't replicate it!

[Laurent85]

dpkg: warning: while removing linux-modules-4.15.0-34-generic, directory '/lib/modules/4.15.0-34-generic' not empty so not removed

Delete directory:

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sudo rm -r /lib/modules/4.15.0-34-generic

ls -l /boot gives me
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1443962 Oct 10 2017 abi-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1500049 Jan 9 2018 abi-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1500342 Jan 19 2018 abi-4.13.0-31-generic
...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 204970 Oct 10 2017 config-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 213164 Jan 9 2018 config-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 213164 Jan 19 2018 config-4.13.0-31-generic
...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46516851 Sep 20 07:23 initrd.img-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 54216315 Sep 20 07:23 initrd.img-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 54213535 Sep 20 08:23 initrd.img-4.13.0-31-generic
...
-rw------- 1 root root 3722376 Oct 10 2017 System.map-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3875011 Jan 9 2018 System.map-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3876825 Jan 19 2018 System.map-4.13.0-31-generic
...
-rw------- 1 root root 7407392 Oct 10 2017 vmlinuz-4.10.0-38-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7669648 Jan 9 2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-26-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7671312 Jan 19 2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-31-generic

Remove those orphan files:

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cd /boot
sudo rm abi-4.10.0-38-generic abi-4.13.0-26-generic abi-4.13.0-31-generic 
sudo rm config-4.10.0-38-generic config-4.13.0-26-generic config-4.13.0-31-generic
sudo rm initrd.img-4.10.0-38-generic initrd.img-4.13.0-26-generic initrd.img-4.13.0-31-generic
sudo rm System.map-4.10.0-38-generic System.map-4.13.0-26-generic System.map-4.13.0-31-generic
sudo rm vmlinuz-4.10.0-38-generic vmlinuz-4.13.0-26-generic vmlinuz-4.13.0-31-generic

Update grub, should load the 4.4 kernel by default now:

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sudo update-grub

As soon as I try to record my thumbnail cache problem, I can't replicate it!

Solved I guess