LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

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plrplusyou
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LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by plrplusyou »

Good day everybody,
I would really appreciate some help with my OS that freezes continually and
consistently, not getting any work done, these days.
I have reinstalled more time than I care to admit and would like to know
what it could be that is so stressful on my Linux mint OS.
I use to run Windows 7, then 8.1 up to windows 10 Pro 64bits on my desktop,
and then after the last crash 2 years ago I installed LMDE 4 Debbie 64
bits. Since then it has been a consistent learning curve, which I enjoyed
until the last crash that killed my HDD or vice versa.
Nowadays, the only thing I can rely on is that I will be distracted and
unable to complete simple tasks on my PC and find myself reading pages and
pages of Solved issues on this forum that never work for me. My internet
continually seems to simply switch off but I have a feeling that is the
unreliable ISP here in S.A.
I use Inkscape and Krita on the flatpak platform to do basic graphic
design work and I run a very old Desktop PC that has been serviced recently
and I have been assured my hardware, although dated, is still in good
working order. So I can only assume that it is the OS and related software
that is causing me to lose a lot of time waiting for the system to unfreeze.

Code: Select all

-bits:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Host: lmde-4-cinnemon-54-bits Kernel: 4.19.0-17-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 
  compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin 4.8.1 
  dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: LMDE 4 Debbie base: Debian 10.2 buster 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pro 3400 Series MT 
  v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 3 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Foxconn model: 2ABF v: 1.30 serial: <filter> UEFI: AMI v: 7.16 
  date: 03/23/2012 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Pentium G630 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 10774 
  Speed: 1596 MHz min/max: 1600/2700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1596 2: 1596 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:0102 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1024x768~85Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Desktop v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.6 
  compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  chip ID: 8086:1c20 
  Device-2: Microsoft LifeCam VX-2000 type: USB 
  driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus ID: 1-1.2:3 chip ID: 045e:0761 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-17-amd64 
Network:
  Device-1: Ralink RT2790 Wireless 802.11n 1T/2R PCIe vendor: Lite-On 
  driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 port: f040 bus ID: 06:00.0 chip ID: 1814:0781 
  IF: wlp6s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 07:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.64 TiB used: 1.35 TiB (37.0%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1E6164 size: 1.82 TiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC45 scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: External USB 3.0 
  size: 1.82 TiB serial: <filter> rev: 5438 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 51.67 GiB used: 31.68 GiB (61.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-2: /home size: 1.71 TiB used: 39.39 GiB (2.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4 
  ID-3: swap-1 size: 25.37 GiB used: 242.2 MiB (0.9%) fs: swap 
  dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 32.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
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://packages.linuxmint.com debbie main upstream import backport
  2: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
  3: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free
  4: deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
  5: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-backports main contrib non-free
Info:
  Processes: 210 Uptime: 4h 03m Memory: 3.76 GiB used: 2.88 GiB (76.4%) 
  Init: systemd v: 241 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.3 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.32 
bits:~$
Kindly let me know if I am overreaching on my system and which os or distro
you would recommend I install,
alternatively to LMDE 4 Debbie with Cinnamon desktop environment.

I would really just like to start up my system and work on it as I use to.

Please forgive any frustrations that I may have expressed in this request
for help? I appreciate your time and consideration regarding this issue.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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JoeFootball
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by JoeFootball »

plrplusyou wrote: I use Inkscape and Krita on the flatpak platform to do basic graphic
design work and I run a very old Desktop PC ...
You may be pushing that old hardware past its limits. :)
plrplusyou wrote: Kindly let me know if I am overreaching on my system and which os or distro
you would recommend I install,
alternatively to LMDE 4 Debbie with Cinnamon desktop environment.
Cinnamon would not be my choice for that hardware. I would suggest trying something with the Xfce desktop.

If you wanted to try staying with Linux Mint, I would try in this order, to see which one might be acceptable to you and your system ...

LM 20.2 Xfce

LM 19.3 Xfce

LM 19.2 Xfce (defaults to the 4.15 kernel, which may do better with older hardware)
plrplusyou
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by plrplusyou »

Thank you JoeFootball,

I have been able to create some great designs and artwork on this old girl :lol: , however, you are right. I only did it because everywhere I was being told how an old pc can be revived and used with Linux Mint OS.
I will investigate your advice starting with the last one. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

(How do you feel about the LinuxLite 5.4 OS?)
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JoeFootball
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by JoeFootball »

plrplusyou wrote: (How do you feel about the LinuxLite 5.4 OS?)
I've not tried it, but I have heard good things about Linux Lite for old hardware. I also have one old laptop that runs well with MX Linux, give that a review.

I wouldn't say any version of Linux Mint is "lightweight", but I do find the Xfce versions to do well for my own needs on old systems, though I'm not doing any multimedia work on them. Try them and see. Only you can say what's acceptable performance for you. :)
Aztaroth
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by Aztaroth »

If not overruled, swapping begins when less than 40% of RAM is free. The line below shows 76% of RAM is used, so your system may be a lot busy with r/w operations with the swap partition.
Memory: 3.76 GiB used: 2.88 GiB (76.4%)

You can check if the value of the swappiness is still 40 with :

Code: Select all

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
Then, you may try to change the swappiness by :
- editing sysctl.conf :

Code: Select all

xed admin:///etc/sysctl.conf
- adding this line :

Code: Select all

vm.swappiness=15
telling the system to begin the swapping only when free RAM < 15%

(my wife's using an old Intel P6100 laptop with LMDE4/Cinnamon. The price to pay is to use every possible tweak to let these oldies run, because they're too old to upgrade, but still functioning).
dual boot LMDE4 (mostly) + LM19.3 Cinnamon (sometimes)
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David Chiang
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by David Chiang »

JoeFootball wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:21 pm I wouldn't say any version of Linux Mint is "lightweight", but I do find the Xfce versions to do well for my own needs on old systems, though I'm not doing any multimedia work on them.
Maybe LXLE with the desktop LXDE is a suitable alternative, it is compact and relatively fast. However, I share the assumption that this is a bottleneck somewhere in memory management.
LMDE 5 Elsie (64-bit), Linux Kernel 5.10.0, Cinnamon 5.6.8, inxi 3.3.28;
HTPC: ASUS TUF B450M-Pro Gaming, 3.6 GHz AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 cores),
AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, 2 × 4 TiB Seagate BarraCuda ES.3, 4 × 16 GiB HyperX Predator DDR4;
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axisofevil
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by axisofevil »

The OP mentions using flatpak - this is an extra user of resources and flatpak applications are relatively wasteful of memory - so less than ideal.

In fact, I would say less than ideal for anyone [I've uninstalled the flatpak core packages and blocked them from re-installation].

BTW An upgrade for LMDE4 has been available for some time - basically its the Mint 20.2 stuff applied to LMDE4, so there will be some bug fixes as well as updates in there.
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JoeFootball
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by JoeFootball »

axisofevil wrote: The OP mentions using flatpak - this is an extra user of resources and flatpak applications are relatively wasteful of memory - so less than ideal.
And the OP is on a 2011 dual-core CPU, and 4 GBs RAM with integrated graphics, and is working with Inkscape and Krita, on a Cinnamon DE. So, less than ideal indeed. :)
plrplusyou
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Re: LMDE 4 Debbie Cinnamon desktop 64 bits freezing continually

Post by plrplusyou »

Hello everybody,

Thank you all for your advice and input. I took most of your experience and have put it into practice, gaining some great insight into Linx Mint. Cheers.

I have finally found the match that seems to work best;
Linux Mint 20.2 ( Ta-Da! )

I still have the odd issue but nowadays I see that as an op to get to know the OS better. Flatpak is working great, for now, thank you.

I have learned that as long as I have the ISO USB safely tucked in a drawer, waiting for me to use it, all will be well. Oh and creating those backups after each and every addition and/or updates.
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