[SOLVED] Screen Freeze when I open any Browser

[ChicagoSteve]

I also have a problem with my screen freezing.

First, an apology/explanation: I'm very new to Linux although I've used MS systems (DOS and Windows) for many years. I do hope I'm replying in the proper method; this is my first time on this forum.

I installed Linux Mint 20.2 on two computers, one is a little notebook I use to experiment (Toshiba NB-255 with only 2GB of RAM) and the other is my main computer (Toshiba C655D with 8GB of RAM). Both were upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and I installed Linux Mint as a dual boot on both computers. I downloaded Linux Mint from the official site to a USB flash drive using Etcher. Both installations seemed fine. The only difference I see in the installations is that the NB-255 has Cinnamon 5.0.7 while the Satellite has Cinnamon 5.0.4. (The first flash drive I used on the NB-255 would not boot up, so I made a different installation to a different USB flash drive.

All is fine with the NB-255: I can surf the web, I downloaded pdf arranger, and I can install updates. (I'm loving Linux Mint.) Unfortunately, on the Satellite, anytime I try to do anything online, the computer freezes: this includes any browsing, installing pdf arranger, and installing updates. (The mouse doesn't work, and the cursor is stationary.)

This is really confusing and frustrating. Any help, including any other data I should send, would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Steve

[SMG]

I also have a problem with my screen freezing.

Welcome to the forum, Steve.

I split your post into its own topic as I think that will make it easier for others to help you, especially since you have two different computers in your comparison of how this works.

It sounds like your NB-255 has it updates, but the Satellite does not. While 5.0.4 was the original version of Cinnamon on the LM20.2 ISO, there were updates that came out after the ISO was released. If you are missing the Cinnamon updates, then it is possible other updates are missing as well. That might be why the Satellite is having issues.

Can you take the usb you used to install on the NB-255 and boot with it on the Satellite into a live session of Linux Mint (boot the usb and choose to run Linux Mint instead of installing it). See how well you can navigate on the desktop in the live session and whether it is different than how you can navigate on the installed version.

[ChicagoSteve]

Dear SMG,
Thank you for the quick reply! I'll try a live installation from the USB flash drive tomorrow, and I'll return to the forum afterward.
Again, I'm very appreciative and impressed with the quick (and live -- not automated) reply.
Steve

[ChicagoSteve]

I booted from the Linux Mint USB flash drive without installing Linux. The computer locked up as soon as I opened Firefox (I couldn't even type in a search term). Before I tried to go online, I checked and saw that LIbreOffice opened.
I do appreciate any help.
Thank you,
Steve

[SMG]

I booted from the Linux Mint USB flash drive without installing Linux. The computer locked up as soon as I opened Firefox (I couldn't even type in a search term). Before I tried to go online, I checked and saw that LIbreOffice opened.

Did you possibly do something that might trigger opening LibreOffice? I'm not sure why it would be open. Although, I would not expect it would matter if it was open.

From your description of what happened, it would seem to indicate this issue is somehow related to the hardware. I did a quick search on this forum of "Toshiba C655D" and found mostly older topics, but this one Mint 18 Mate (64 and 32 bit) Freezes when on ethernet the person noticed freezes when Ethernet was connected. How are you connecting to the Internet with that laptop?

Try booting to the live session again and this time select the Compatibility Mode option. Hopefully, that will give you enough stability that you can get some information for us about how Mint views the hardware on that laptop.

Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code].

If you are not able to keep the computer up running long enough to get the information, please provide the full model number and maybe we can find out more info about the hardware that way.

[ChicagoSteve]

This is embarrassing -- I thought I posted the material below yesterday, but I evidently didn't.
Thank you for the reply.

I wasn’t clear about LibreOffice: it didn’t open by itself. I opened it to see if things other than the internet were working.

I'm using wired connections to the internet on both computers and both are 64 bit. The Toshiba Satellite is model C655D-S5300.

I did live installations on the Satellite computer three times. The first time I used the USB flash drive originally used for the Satellite installation (“Satellite USB”) and the computer froze as soon as I got on the internet. Then I tried the USB flash drive originally used for the NB installation (“NB USB”) twice. The first time when I clicked on the browser icon, the screen was really weird – it was blurry and flashing and kind of vibrating with mostly rectangular shapes in addition to the normal items (also blurry). Then I again tried a live installation with NB USB and the browser opened but I couldn’t get to any site on the internet.

As suggested, I tried a live installation in compatibility mode with Satellite USB and after about half an hour, the screen went to a kind of plain version of the Linux Mint home screen. I went to Terminal Mode and the screen said
bash: usr/bin/lesspipe: Input/output error
bash: usr/bin/dircolors: Input/output error
bash: usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion: Input/output error

At the mint@mint command prompt I typed in inix -Fxxxrz

I didn’t see </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox (or any place else), so I hit enter.

The response was
Data/Dumper.pm did not return a true value at usr/bin/inxi line 23.
BEGIN failed—compilation aborted at usr/bin/inxi line 23


I then booted up in Linux Mint from the hard drive, opened Terminal Mode, typed in inix-Fxxxrz and again didn’t see the </>, but I copied and pasted the screen shot.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-74-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.4 wm: muffin 5.0.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: Satellite C655D v: PSC0YU-03G02C 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: AMD type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: TOSHIBA model: Portable PC serial: <filter> BIOS: Insyde v: 1.80 
  date: 12/20/2011 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 14.0 Wh condition: 14.0/47.5 Wh (29%) volts: 10.8/10.8 
  model: PA3817U-1BRS type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: AMD E-300 APU with Radeon HD Graphics bits: 64 
  type: MCP arch: Bobcat L2 cache: 512 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 5187 
  Speed: 780 MHz min/max: 780/1300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 780 2: 779 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Wrestler [Radeon HD 6310] vendor: Toshiba driver: radeon 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:9802 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: ati,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD PALM (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.4.0-74-generic LLVM 11.0.0) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 20.2.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1002:4383 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-74-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter driver: rtl8192ce 
  v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8176 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet vendor: Toshiba 
  driver: atl1c v: 1.0.1.1-NAPI port: 2000 bus ID: 06:00.0 
  chip ID: 1969:2060 
  IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 8.38 GiB (1.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9500420AS size: 465.76 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: SDM1 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 187.73 GiB used: 8.38 GiB (4.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 59.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 58 C 
  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 uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/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
Info:
  Processes: 180 Uptime: 2m Memory: 7.38 GiB used: 688.7 MiB (9.1%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

After a while, the screen got weird again with everything out of focus and flashing and blinking. I took a picture and attached it.

Thank you for any help,
Steve

[vimes666]

In your systems specs I see:
Kernel: 5.4.0-74-generic x86_64 bits
Mesa 20.2.6
When did you do your last update?

[ChicagoSteve]

Thank you for checking.
I didn't update because the screen freezes when I try to update.
Steve

[SMG]

The first time I used the USB flash drive originally used for the Satellite installation (“Satellite USB”) and the computer froze as soon as I got on the internet.

That sounds like what many others with this hardware have experienced.

As suggested, I tried a live installation in compatibility mode with Satellite USB and after about half an hour, the screen went to a kind of plain version of the Linux Mint home screen. I went to Terminal Mode and the screen said
bash: usr/bin/lesspipe: Input/output error
bash: usr/bin/dircolors: Input/output error
bash: usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion: Input/output error

The information I found related to these errors indicate a file(s) not installed. I'm not sure why you would get that on a live session, but whatever caused that issue may have also caused the subsequent issue you described.

I then booted up in Linux Mint from the hard drive, opened Terminal Mode, typed in inix-Fxxxrz and again didn’t see the </>, but I copied and pasted the screen shot.

I added the code tags. For future reference, you may find the is a diagram and screenshots in this topic helpful Displaying terminal output in a post.

I found this topic [not really solved but can't do anymore] slow wifi on a toshiba satellite c655d Where the person decided to switch to using wifi because the computer would freeze anytime it was connected using Ethernet. In this post they state, "ethernet doesn't work reliably. if i use it, it will totally lock up computer after just a few seconds which is why i'm trying to get a little more speed from wireless."

There were a couple of other topics on the Satellite C655D mentioning the same exact problem. I did not find a solution to getting the Ethernet working, so it may be that wireless would be the only viable option for this laptop. If the wireless card in it now does not work, you could look into buying a usb wifi dongle. If you do, just check to make sure the reviews for it indicate it works with Linux-based distros.

The first time I used the USB flash drive originally used for the Satellite installation After a while, the screen got weird again with everything out of focus and flashing and blinking. I took a picture and attached it.

It is possible that is a separate issue. Hard to know without the operating system not being updated (and I understand why it is not updated).

[vimes666]

If you are on the distorted/frozen screen, does typing ctrl+alt+F1 give you a stable terminal screen?
If so you can login there and start updates there.

[ChicagoSteve]

WOW, I'M SO IMPRESSED/GRATEFUL/HAPPY!!!! (And by nature I'm rather reserved and conservative, although not politically.)
Using wi-fi worked! I never would have guessed that.
I've done an internet search, downloaded updates (although not all downloaded), and installed pdf arranger in Linux.
THANK YOU AGAIN (and again and again)
Steve

[ChicagoSteve]

In reply to vimes666, I didn't type in anything when the screen acted crazy (like our puppy). I didn't know about the command, and hopefully the problem was related to the wired internet connection.
I do appreciate your interest and suggestion, and if the screen has a relapse, I'll use your tip.
Thank you!
Steve

[SMG]

Using wi-fi worked! I never would have guessed that.
I've done an internet search, downloaded updates (although not all downloaded), and installed pdf arranger in Linux.
THANK YOU AGAIN (and again and again)
Steve

You're welcome. If you have already successfully downloaded updates then it seems the issue has cleared.

Please go to your first post in this topic, click the pencil icon, and add [SOLVED] to the title so others know you are no longer seeking help on this issue. (animated gif courtesy of user BJZilberman)

[ChicagoSteve]

SMG, also thank you for your help in Forum etiquette.