cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

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primuspaul

cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by primuspaul »

I have 18.2 installed on a laptop I use to play videos from an external HD via displayport (with passthrough audio). Everything works fine except cinnamon keeps crashing almost every session. I get the "fallback" message and it interrupts the video sometimes. I tried installing xfce, but the audio doesn't work correctly on. So I'm back to trying to fix cinnamon. Any ideas on how to fix this?
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catweazel
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Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by catweazel »

primuspaul wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:11 am Any ideas on how to fix this?
Please post the output of this terminal command:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz
Enclose the results in code markers "</>", which you can select from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply.
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
primuspaul

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by primuspaul »

Code: Select all

media@media-Latitude-E6410 ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: media-Latitude-E6410 Kernel: 4.8.0-53-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.4.3 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Latitude E6410 v: 0001
           Mobo: Dell model: 0667CC v: A03 Bios: Dell v: A07 date: 02/15/2011
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5 M 560 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10640
           clock speeds: max: 2667 MHz 1: 1199 MHz 2: 1733 MHz 3: 1333 MHz
           4: 1466 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 12.0.6 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.8.0-53-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 7040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
           driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1120.2GB (16.3% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: KINGSTON_SV300S3 size: 120.0GB
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: My_Passport_25E1 size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 37G used: 6.0G (18%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 209 Uptime: 21:35 Memory: 587.5/3750.9MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35
media@media-Latitude-E6410 ~ $
primuspaul

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by primuspaul »

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing it? It's a regular Dell laptop E6410. I use it pretty much always with the external power plugged in, lid closed, HDTV connected via displayport/HDMI adapter.
Mattyboy

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by Mattyboy »

First thing I would do is update your kernel to 4.13x you're running the system unprotected from spectre and meltdown and it'll add all the improvements running the latest Kernel offers. You'll find it in software updates top levels. Test to see if there's any improvement after a re-boot.

You may find that your system is more stable and faster by installing the MATE desktop, I'd be looking at that option to be honest.
primuspaul

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by primuspaul »

Mattyboy wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:17 pm First thing I would do is update your kernel to 4.13x you're running the system unprotected from spectre and meltdown and it'll add all the improvements running the latest Kernel offers. You'll find it in software updates top levels. Test to see if there's any improvement after a re-boot.

You may find that your system is more stable and faster by installing the MATE desktop, I'd be looking at that option to be honest.
Why does mint even offer as a default option to install a broken desktop environment?
Mattyboy

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by Mattyboy »

primuspaul wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:02 pm
Mattyboy wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:17 pm First thing I would do is update your kernel to 4.13x you're running the system unprotected from spectre and meltdown and it'll add all the improvements running the latest Kernel offers. You'll find it in software updates top levels. Test to see if there's any improvement after a re-boot.

You may find that your system is more stable and faster by installing the MATE desktop, I'd be looking at that option to be honest.
Why does mint even offer as a default option to install a broken desktop environment?
I meant install MATE as a fresh install not another desktop environment... yeah sorry I see how I worded that wrongly. MATE requires less resources to run than Cinnamon. I think you'll have a better, none crashing, experience. Sound issues, if you experience them can be resolved, probably by installing pavucontrol so don't worry to much about that at this stage... but DO make sure you update your machine to the 4.13x Kernel regardless. MATE is far from 'broken' its incredibly stable.
primuspaul

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by primuspaul »

Mattyboy wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:23 pm
primuspaul wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:02 pm
Mattyboy wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:17 pm First thing I would do is update your kernel to 4.13x you're running the system unprotected from spectre and meltdown and it'll add all the improvements running the latest Kernel offers. You'll find it in software updates top levels. Test to see if there's any improvement after a re-boot.

You may find that your system is more stable and faster by installing the MATE desktop, I'd be looking at that option to be honest.
Why does mint even offer as a default option to install a broken desktop environment?
I meant install MATE as a fresh install not another desktop environment... yeah sorry I see how I worded that wrongly. MATE requires less resources to run than Cinnamon. I think you'll have a better, none crashing, experience. Sound issues, if you experience them can be resolved, probably by installing pavucontrol so don't worry to much about that at this stage... but DO make sure you update your machine to the 4.13x Kernel regardless. MATE is far from 'broken' its incredibly stable.
I was referring to Cinnamon. Why is it offered as one of the default desktop environments at install if it's broken?

Also, are you saying I need to reinstall the entire OS? I was kind of hoping to avoid that.
primuspaul

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by primuspaul »

Anyway, I installed all 400 mb of updates so hopefully I won't have the problem anymore. I really don't want to reinstall the OS. It's not the installation, but tweaking the controls and shortcuts.
Mattyboy

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by Mattyboy »

primuspaul wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:38 pm
I was referring to Cinnamon. Why is it offered as one of the default desktop environments at install if it's broken?

Also, are you saying I need to reinstall the entire OS? I was kind of hoping to avoid that.
Cinnamon isn't broken. It just requires more system resources to run than, for example, MATE. Your older processor is having to do all the number crunching AND deal with graphics rendering. When under load you may experience crashes. Now that you've updated the system keep it updated and if you continue to experience crashes turn on the system monitor and see what happens to the cpu at the time of the crash. You can also run programs via the terminal as this will give error reports.

It simply may be the case that your older computer struggles to run Cinnamon. Yes I'm saying you'll probably get a better running system if you install, from fresh, MATE.
Hoser Rob
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Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by Hoser Rob »

primuspaul wrote: Fri Feb 23, 2018 12:14 am ... It's not the installation, but tweaking the controls and shortcuts.
That's just wishful thinking.

I have a laptop with the same Ironlake series graphics as yours. I had 17 Cinnamon installed for a while and didn't get dumped into fallback mode but the performance wasn't so great either. Useable, but if I were to ever to install Cinnamon again it'd be on a much newer machine with a gpu with at least 1Gb of dedicated RAM. Not integrated laptop graphics. It's meant for modern machines with a fair amount of power.

That machine has 18.2 KDE installed with all desktop efffects turned off. No video acceleration issues, but then Cinnamon needs 3D hardware acceraltion just by itself.

I'd second the above advice and do a clean reinstall with another DE. One, like Mate of the other Mint offerings, that you can turn off desktop effects on. Eye candy and old laptops don't mix well in Linux.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
jglen490

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by jglen490 »

There's a couple of things going on. I started with LM 18.2 Cinnmon on my laptop. It ran fine for a while, but after an update, it kept crashing to its fallback DE. I reinstalled 18.2 with Mate and that worked great! The other is the 4.8 kernel. 18.2 was released before the SPectre/Meltdown party started. Ubuntu, upstream, decided to apply Spectre/Meltdown patches to the 3.13, 4.4, and 4.13 kernels only. 4.8, 4.9, and 4.10 no longer received patches.

So it's not that Linux Mint is pushing bad product, it's that a really bad event has come up and no one can support every kernel, especially the ones that no longer get other security patch support. While changing the DE is not all that easy, changing the kernel in LM is easy in the Update Manager.
primuspaul

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by primuspaul »

So can someone explain why it's not recommended to simply install a new desktop environment and simply log in using that? I assume the old DE pretty much becomes an unused program (and therefore affects nothing but HDD space usage until deleted) after that.

If it's possible to do so, what is the LEAST resource-demanding desktop environment (which is still a GUI) and what are the instructions to install it correctly on my system?
Hoser Rob
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Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by Hoser Rob »

primuspaul wrote: Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:09 am So can someone explain why it's not recommended to simply install a new desktop environment and simply log in using that? ...
Because of conflicts in libraries used by the DEs. It's one of the best ways to break your OS. Noobs who post saying it works have always just done it. It hasn't broken YET.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
Hoser Rob
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Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by Hoser Rob »

I couldn't find this before. This is what I do on my Ironlake (like yours) machine ... see 1st answer ...

https://askubuntu.com/questions/292224/ ... l-ironlake
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
wwindexx

Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by wwindexx »

I have a fairly powerful desktop and Cinnamon keeps crashing for me as well upon fresh install. It is super frustrating. Are you locked into "laptop mode" as well with a 1024x768 resolution? I have tried so many things to fix this. I have tried different kernels, different Nvidia driver versions - nothing. I love Mint with Cinnamon, it works great on my laptop. I wish I could get it to run correctly on my desktop.
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kevin987
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Re: cinnamon on 18.2 keeps crashing

Post by kevin987 »

I've read that 18.3 takes up less resources and runs smoother than 18.2 and the upgrade is really simple. It won't affect your software and other files, just provide a more updated version of 18.
Linux Mint 20.3 (Cinnamon)
Linux Mint 19.3 (Cinnamon)
Bodhi Linux 6.0 (MokshaArcGreen)
Fedora 35 (Cinnamon)
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