Cinnamon crashes at launch- Nvidia GTX 970

[burner2ro]

Hello there,

I am trying to get Linux Mint 18.3 to work on my desktop ( CPU: i% 4690, MB: Asus Z97-P ) with little success due to the fact that Cinnamon goes into fallback mode at launch every time.

After searching for a solution I've found that this is a somewhat common problem with Nvidia video cards but I've tried several solutions I could find without any success.

This is what I've tried to so far:

Everything described in this very detailed post:If you are having problems with Mint18 Cinnamon and Nvidia drivers read this Although some commands returned an error.
Everything described on this page NVIDIA: how to install the latest video card drivers

I've tried using driver versions 384 , 390 and 396. Only the wallpaper loads if I use the nouveau option in the Driver Manager.
I've installed different versions of Mint, including 19
I've used the same usb stick to boot on my laptop and everything works perfectly on it ( the video card is a 1050ti )

I'd like to mention that I am a complete newbie when it comes to Linux so I feel a bit lost.

Any help / guidance would be very much appreciated !

[Muzza]

As a fellow newbie I feel for you! I too had Cinnamon crashing at launch and running in Fallback Mode, but that was a recent behaviour and not a new OS install.

I solved it by switching from the Nvidia driver as recommended on my driver manager (340.104-Oubuntu0.16.04.1) to the open-source xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.12-1build2 driver.

I'm running Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 64-bit (under a Grub dual boot), with a Nvidia GeForce 9500 graphics card. The problem happened since the new kernel update (4.15.0-24-generic), where Cinnamon 3.6.7 crashes and runs in Fallback Mode. This persisted on start-ups and only 1 of 2 monitors would display.

Interestingly, nvidia (http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverRe ... 5161/en-us) have compiled a Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T) Display Driver 340.107 released 2018.6.6, and they say that "The 340.xx legacy Unified Memory kernel module is incompatible with recent Linux kernels"

Nvidia also kindly provide good instruction (http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... river.html and http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... rtips.html), but for a relative Linux noobie, oh what a mission it seems to install - and with uncertain success.

Your links were really handy - especially to the PPA repo which seems easier. It would be great if updated drivers were available from the Driver Manager more regularly.

[Muzza]

For me, it looks like it could have been the Weather desklet blocking Cinnamon. The desklet is currently disabled and I'm running fine now back with the Nvidia propitiatory 340.104 driver.