[Resolved] Using a live disk to diagnose problems

[jazz pigeon]

So my laptop is a wobbly thing and it needs help. I have a lIve disk (Mint 20, though my system is 19.1). How do I go about using it to figure what the trouble is? And how long is it likely to take with a hard disk with 500GB ish of memory?
I'm procrastinating over this so a plan might be helpful to get me actually diving in. By plan a 'step 1, 2, 3, 4' will do very nicely. Also, options to see the boot menu if the shift key does nothing? Thanks in advance.

[Larry78723]

You provided exactly Zero information that would allow us to help you. Please read  How to get help paying special attention to item #5. We need details, not " my laptop is a wobbly thing and it needs help".

[JoeFootball]

So my laptop is a wobbly thing and it needs help.

Would you be able to elaborate on that statement? i.e., what's it doing or not doing that's giving you concern?

Also, to better assist anyone who would to be able to help, they'd likely want to know the details of your system. If you post the output of inxi -Fxxxrz here, put it between [code]output-goes-here[/code] tags to make it easier to digest.

[jazz pigeon]

Once every so often it will freeze totally so no key stroke does anything. It will boot into initramfs. It will say either or both of Firefox or Thunderbird are running but not responding but I can't find any process to halt (I have checked the system monitor) and killall does nothing. (It will sometimes but not always.) Firefox will stop opening new tabs. (Sure sign it's not happy.) Sometimes it won't open. That kind of thing.

[Larry78723]

Please post an inxi -Fxpmzr report. This will give us a concise overview of your hardware and how Mint sees it.

Here is how to generate the report and post it:
Open a terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-t). Make it fullscreen to avoid unneeded linebreaks or chopped lines. Copy the following code and paste into the terminal then hit Enter/Return:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxpmrz 

exactly as it has been typed here.

Go to Edit, Select All, and then Copy, come back here, click on reply then code tags, </>, and then paste.

[jazz pigeon]

[Larry78723]

Please follow the directions I gave you. We need to see the complete report.

[jazz pigeon]

That's what it gave me. And that is all of it bar some personal info. Is this better? (I googled and I used a slightly different command but it seems to give more info.)

[Larry78723]

There is no personal info. Here's mine:

Code: Select all

larry@larry-LM20:~$ inxi -Fxpmzr
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-80-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma 
  base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20CJS1ET00 v: ThinkPad T550 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20CJS1ET00 v: SDK0E50510 WIN serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: LENOVO v: N11ET51W (1.27 ) date: 11/12/2019 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 37.4 Wh condition: 39.6/44.5 Wh (89%) 
  model: SONY 45N1743 status: Unknown 
  ID-2: BAT1 charge: 66.1 Wh condition: 66.7/71.3 Wh (94%) 
  model: SANYO 45N1777 status: Unknown 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.51 GiB used: 2.94 GiB (19.0%) 
  RAM Report: 
  permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-5300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Broadwell rev: 4 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 18356 
  Speed: 838 MHz min/max: 500/2900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 798 2: 798 
  3: 799 4: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 
  Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-80-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
  port: 3080 bus ID: 00:19.0 
  IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: efa0 
  bus ID: 03:00.0 
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 86.10 GiB (9.2%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 91.37 GiB used: 23.44 GiB (25.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 645.3 MiB used: 15.8 MiB (2.5%) fs: vfat 
  dev: /dev/sda1 
  ID-3: /home size: 182.43 GiB used: 62.64 GiB (34.3%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/sda7 
  ID-4: /snap/core18/2074 raw size: 55.4 MiB size: <superuser/root required> 
  used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop0 
  ID-5: /snap/gtk-common-themes/1515 raw size: 65.1 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop1 
  ID-6: /snap/snapd/12398 raw size: 32.3 MiB size: <superuser/root required> 
  used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop4 
  ID-7: /snap/snapd/12704 raw size: 32.3 MiB size: <superuser/root required> 
  used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop5 
  ID-8: /snap/wickrme/543 raw size: 450.2 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop3 
  ID-9: /snap/wickrme/554 raw size: 450.4 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop7 
  ID-10: /snap/wickrpro/612 raw size: 450.1 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop2 
  ID-11: /snap/wickrpro/624 raw size: 450.3 MiB 
  size: <superuser/root required> used: <superuser/root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop6 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: 0.0 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/gerardpuig-ppa-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gerardpuig/ppa/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyana upstream
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nordvpn.list 
  1: deb https://repo.nordvpn.com/deb/nordvpn/debian stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://mirror.sjc02.svwh.net/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://mirror.sjc02.svwh.net/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://mirror.sjc02.svwh.net/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/systemback.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://mirrors.bwbot.org/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:
  Processes: 286 Uptime: 5h 03m Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
  gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38 
larry@larry-LM20:~$ ^C
larry@larry-LM20:~$ 

[AndyMH]

This might help in posting terminal output:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=338297

One of my T430 thinkpads has a i5-3210M and runs cinnamon without problems, you might want to install the CPU temp applet and see if you have a temperature problem.

[jazz pigeon]

Honestly tempted to give up here as checking system reports gives me a whole list of images that crashed and no way of c+p ying them here. And I don't even think that's what you want anyway, unless it is.

P.S. Did a memtest86 a while back and there is no temperature issue. 52c ish throughout.

[BenTrabetere]

I am pretty sure pastebin is part of a default installation, so before you give up, try this.

Open a terminal and Copy/Paste (or enter) the following command.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxpmrz|pastebin

Wait for the termbin URL. Be patient, this will take several seconds. Copy/Paste (or enter) the URL to a post here. The URL and output should look something like https://termbin.com/ndpm.