LM 19.3 Cinnamon Freezes when running Firefox or Chrome [SOLVED]

[tmitchell]

Recently installed both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Linux Mint 19.3 on some older HP Pavilion equipment. No problems running installations (dual boot for 32 bit and 64 bit versions) but system freezes when starting Firefox or Chrome. Some past forum post recommended Turning off visual effects in Cinnamon, which I did but the problem persist.

Any help would be appreciated.

System details:

Code: Select all

mint@mint:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: mint Kernel: 5.0.0-32-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.5 
           Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: HP-Pavilion product: FK785AA-ABA s3620f v: N/A serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: FOXCONN model: Irvine v: HP P/N serial: <filter> BIOS: Phoenix v: 5.20 date: 10/28/2008 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Pentium E5200 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn rev: 6 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 bogomips: 10000 
           Speed: 1200 MHz min/max: 1200/2500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1200 2: 1200 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA C73 [GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A bus ID: 00:10.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: vesa resolution: 1024x768~N/A 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 8.0 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 19.0.8 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA MCP73 High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:09.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.0.0-32-generic 
Network:   Device-1: NVIDIA MCP73 Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: forcedeth v: kernel port: f600 bus ID: 00:0f.0 
           IF: enp0s15 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Gemtek WUBR-177G [Ralink RT2571W] type: USB driver: rt73usb bus ID: 1-5:3 
           IF: wlx00225f33e274 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 110.2 MiB (0.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3500620AS size: 465.76 GiB temp: 39 C 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 1.86 GiB used: 110.2 MiB (5.8%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 172 Uptime: 4m Memory: 3.72 GiB used: 1.03 GiB (27.7%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
           gcc: 7.4.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 inxi: 3.0.32 
mint@mint:~$ 

[mikaelrask]

hey you are using a kernel that is not supported anymore. and based on your computer 10/28/2008 i would recommend you to go to the lts 4.15 instead of that 5 kernel your using atm. second cinnamon might be to heavy for that computer so you might wanna try with linux mint mate or xfce instead because they use less cpu power then cinnamon.

[tmitchell]

Thanks for the recommendation. Gave up trying to "fix" the issue with Cinnamon so I did a fresh install with Linux Mint Mate 64 bit V19.3 and all is fine now. Mate works great. Not as fancy as Cinnamon but very useful.

BTW, you mentioned that the kernel that I was using with Cinnamon was not supported anymore. That kernel was what was included on the download. The Cinnamon was a fresh install from the Linux Mint web site. https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=274

[soundchaser59]

I am running LM 19.3 Tricia 64 bit, 5.4.0-109-generic x86_64, Mate 1.22.2 and my machine only freezes when I run Firefox.

When I run Opera all is well. Everything worked great until I let Update Manager run a couple months ago. After that update Firefox has never worked right since. Before the update Firefox worked as well as everything else. Now it's useless. And no matter what I try to fix it nothing will fix it. I've visited countless web sites purporting to have the fix, but none do.

Yes I have old hardware. But the fact that it worked perfectly for several months when I first installed Tricia, and only started freezing the machine after i ran updates suggests that the problem is not my old hardware.