Earlier today I went full-fledged Linux. I was originally running Windows 10, but all this talk of Microsoft collecting all the data it could answered the questions for me: Should I make the jump?
So I downloaded Ubuntu-Gnome 14.04 and went through the installation process making sure to choose the option that destroys Windows. I made sure to back-up my important files and then once Linux was running, I updated everything and started transferring files. Speaking of transferring files, it seemed that the file transfer speed was noticeably faster writing onto the SSD than it was writing onto the external HDD. Even though the HDD is capable of 100MB/s+ it tended to stay lower 40MB/s (it is a 5400RPM HDD and has a USB 3.0 as the plug, I am guessing that the RPM is the bottleneck).
Anyway, so the snags that I have come across, or more precisely, snag, is that every once in a while, maybe couple hours (keep in mind I have only had Ubuntu installed for 7 hours) the computer freezes. The mouse can still move but it can't interact with anything. Not sure why this is happening as when I had the same distro and environment as well as the same version installed a few months ago (dual boot), it ran seamlessly. Any ideas as to the cause?
Going back to the data collection and spying thing: I still use Google and google services, I am not looking for complete removal of spying (if I wanted that I wouldn't be writing this nor would I have a computer connected to the internet), but from what I have read, Windows 10 was a little too close for comfort.
Anyway, I feel I have rambled on for quite some time now, so I appreciate any and all help on my odd problem!
I had a similar issue with Ubuntu and Linux Mint on my desktop. My computer would appear to freeze and my mouse and keyboard would be unresponsive. The first few times I just shut the computer down and rebooted. But then I realized that videos and other things would still run even after the computer "froze" so I decided to move my mouse and keyboard to different ports. And it worked! So for me it seemed that the ports they were plugged in to would crash or something. I haven't looked into it more but I haven't had that issue since. I don't know if that helps but maybe you could try that, see if it's an issue with USB ports crashing.
So it froze again today, but this time it froze while trying to open the download page in chrome. I tried your idea, but it didn't work. I feel like it might be chrome that is causing the problem. I can't remember if the first time it froze I had chrome installed. But it is promising, that was the only download I did't use the terminal on.
Im going to say the obvious and hope your not offended.. is your computer clean are the temps low ? also, your BIOS settings, do you have any overclocking via BIOS
I actually cleaned both the dust and data from it a few days ago, maybe a week. I haven't done any overclocking and I just checked the temps and the CPU is at about 40 degrees Celsius, and the MB is at about 35 degrees. I did have a thought that it might be the GPU, I am running an EVGA GTX 670 FTW which could very well be on its last legs. And now that I think of it, I haven't downloaded any graphics drivers for it. It hasn't froze since this morning (EST).
I had similar issues when i first installed Linux Mint years ago - the entire desktop would disappear with only the wallpaper showing, no mouse pointer or anything. It turned out to be the crappy proprietary AMD drivers relying on an old version of libc that got auto-updated to a newer one. Unlike Windows, Linux rarely freezes, usually it's the graphical interface that breaks. 90% of the time you can jump into a terminal window and with a little websearching on a different computer you can fix the problem and install new drivers from there.
You may be interested in LXDE as a desktop environment (LXLE is a popular ubuntu distro the uses it). It's a lot lighter and has a sort of basic WinXP vibe to it.
If you're looking to ditch Google, consider DuckDuckGo as your default search engine. It's not as good as google but it's completely anonymous.
Been using Mint for years. Issues with Nvidia, resolved by using edgers ppa. Never got it to run on a Sony Vaio that came my way, via the local dump, but it ran Puppy Linux no problem, weird! My recommendation is, avoid newly developed hardware. Wait till it filters down to Linux after a year, approximately. If you're not a hard core Linux man/woman, use an easy to live with LTS version. You let someone else work out and resolve the problems in advance that way. Acer and Asus products have always work well for me and Linux. HP and Sony haven't.
Ubuntu-Gnome seems to have been completely broken. I went to upgrade form 14.04 to 14.10 thinking it might fix my freezing but it made some of the letters on the screen invisible and I couldn't use both my monitors (at first it made me think my GPU had a broken DVI port [I'll get to the conclusion later]). Then I upgraded from 14.10 to 15.04 hoping that maybe that version would work -- same thing: missing letters and a seemingly broken DVI port (Note: I did not try HDMI or DisplayPort).
From there I decided to waste some more bandwidth (not really a big deal, just I have really bad internet speeds so it takes some time) to download Linux Mint. I knew from other people that it was highly regarded, but the reason I didn't install it first was because I had (better) experience with ubuntu-gnome.
Anyway, so I installed Linux Mint and I have run into zero problems. I mean, I have only been using it for maybe an hour, maybe but it seems to be going really smoothly. Solved my graphical problem -- I can run 2 monitors seamlessly. I haven't froze yet, but I will need to use it for a bit to really test if it is resolved. And I am learning more and more every second I use my computer now.
Before with windows it was very "click a button, agree to some terms, and you're good to go" but with linux you really get to know your computer. Sure there is automation, but I think it's a healthy amount. For me, someone fairly new (who am I kidding, I am really new) to linux if I want to install something the right way, through the terminal, I sometimes need to lookup how to do it. For the most part I can get away with "sudo apt-get install [insert program name here]" but sometimes its a lot more difficult. I find it like a puzzle. If you want to solve it, you'll, for the most part, have to work for it.
Freezing persists. This time I unplugged and replugged the DVI cables and something strange happened. I unplugged them and obviously the monitors went into sleep mode. When I plugged them back in, only monitor 2 got a signal and turned back on (to the frozen frame).
Now, I have the GTX 670 FTW from EVGA which I believe I mentioned. I use the 2 DVI ports on it. The odd thing is, though, that in Ubuntu, the bottom port connected to the 2nd monitor was the funky one, in the last freeze, it was the 1st monitor connected to the top port that didn't have signal. Weird right? Now that I think about it, I should have ran a few more tests, like switching what monitors are plugged into what ports. But it's too late now.
This whole thing leads me to believe that I need a new GPU, do you agree? I should add that when I was messing with the display cables that the exhaust for the GPU was considerably warmer than the exhaust for the computer.
Actually, GPU issues usually come from the hardware being too new and the drivers haven't caught up yet.
If you think it's a thermal issue, open up the terminal, type in "watch sensors" and press Enter. This should give you a realtime display on all the CPU and GPU temps.
See if you can Ctrl+Alt+F1 when the monitor goes dark. F1 through F7 are extra terminals you can log on from, and F8 to F12 are the graphical environments available, default one being F8. You can start a second graphical environment if you type in "startx" on one of the alt-terminals.
What driver are you using? Maybe you need to download one from Nvidia's website if they have one. For AMD it's usually a self-installing .sh script (sort of like a BAT file on Win and DOS)
Alright, so in the time that I wrote the previous post and now, which is no more than 10 minutes, it has froze twice. I ran my port switching test and found that the bottom dvi port seems to have pooped out which also seems to have (I guess) crashed the GPU. I dont have a displayport but I do have an over abundance of HDMI cables. I tested that port and found that there was no signal for monitor 1 (normally in the top dvi port) and a white screen on monitor 2 (normally in the bottom) with my cursor.
And I waited long enough with the white screen for it to say
[ 853.843317
And it went away before I could write it down. It say GPU LOCKUP at one point and mentioned nouveau (or however you spell it) quite a few times
Thanks @Pesho for your speedy reply. I will do that but the time between freezes has gotten much smaller. But I will check sensors and look up what drivers I am using.
Edit: Watching sensors and the temps are not high. I have around about 44C for what I am assuming is the GPU based off of the high, critical, and emergency temps. There is another one but I don't know what it's for, plus it is at about 15C so I don't that is a problem. The third is a wattage reading from about 20 to 40 and its critical is at 125 ish.
As for my drivers, I am currently running xserver.xorg-video-nouveau Version: 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2 X.Org X Server -- Nouveau Display Driver.
I have a bunch of options for nvidia drivers: I have 304.125, 340.76, and 346.72 plus their respective updates. I would choose the 346 version, but I don't know if that is the right one I want.
Nouvea are the open source driver for nvidia graphics cards. Seeing as your issue persists through Ubuntu and Mint, with different desktop environments, it points to drivers in my head. Basing it on Ubuntu favouring open source drivers (ie catalyst(?) and nouveau) I think Mint does the same (Mint is a Ubuntu derivative). Try using a proprietary driver, any of the ones you've mentioned should be fine.
As for your problem with GNOME: I think it's a driver issue here too. I think GNOME wasn't able to detect your second monitor, and didn't' give you the option. I would've run "xrandr" in a terminal to see which outputs were available. If you wanna get deeper into being a Linux nerd I recommend you familiarise yourself a bit with xrandr. It can be a life-saver sometimes (I remember when I had accidentally misconfigured my screen layout. I could SSH into the machine, do some xrandr magic ('xrandr --output DVI0 --auto') and get it working).
I also want to recommend that you give mint a really good chance now. Distro hopping can really waste your time, and you'll find yourself using 300 different distro over a long period of time, but still don't know as much about the command line as you might wish. I remember that I'd hop from one distro to another as soon as I'd get into a problem, and then it didn't take long before I was back to Windows. Then one day I gave Arch a chance, solved problems as they arose even if I felt it was a huge hassle, and now I've just settled for Arch and been using it for the last 2ish years. During that time I've learned a lot, become really comfortable with using a *nix environment - including fixing problems on my own, and I feel a little bit crippled when I have to use Windows.
Alright, got a driver installed (about 10 minutes ago), hope that helps. Thanks @kiipa
My GPU ports are still a little finicky: For the past few hours I was only using my main monitor thinking maybe it had to do with the dual monitor set up. Fortunately, no freezes. But after installing the driver, I went to plug my second monitor in (bottom port) and it didn't get a signal. I unplugged my main and plugged my secondary monitor in the top port and it got it signal. Then I plugged my main monitor into the bottom port and they both had signals. I then switched them again and they both had signals. Phew. That was complicated to write!
Another problem has been occurring (I'll have to try it again now that I have a proprietary driver): Every time I try to restart it gets to the manufacturers screen (the one that has "press f1 or delete to access setup" or something) and then the monitor flashes (just the signal indicator box) a couple times then ends with no signal. I have to completely shutdown for it to get to the log in screen.
Also, while I am here, is there a way to get rid of the screen then lets you boot (1.) regularly, (2.) safe mode(I think it is), and (3.) setup and just go right to the log in screen when I turn on the power?
It sounds like your rebooting problems are actually booting problems. Sounds like it's trying to boot from another medium than your SSD/HDD. Check that your BIOS settings are correct.
@jake did you turn off your other hard drives when installing ? I found the best way to quickly install Linux is to only keep the hard drive on your wanting to install too. You can turn the others off in the BIOS by disabling SATA power. Obviously you would have to install fresh and then follow the instructions to get those nice closed source ( official nvidia ) drivers installed.
if you dont want to do that, then you can get to the desktop, use the software centre ( if its not already installed ) and install a program called 'gparted' .. it will list your discs. Right click on the discs and on the menu that opens click 'manage flags' .. only your main drive should have 'boot' ticked as a flag. click apply.
I think it might be this, its worth a look at least. But yea, always install your OS with just the main disc turned on or plugged in, this way the boot loader and flags dont go on the wrong discs. You can then turn the others on and proceed to edit the file that mounts the other discs at startup very easily ( fstab )
Seems as though when I installed the nvidia drivers it must have changed that file because when I turned on my computer this morning, the grub loader didn't come up and it went straight to the log in screen.
Note: I really need to learn the basic terminal commands. I think I will do that today.
Awesome! So, at first I didn't want to reinstall Mint because that would mean all of my update downloading would have been a waste. So, I installed gparted and found that boot was flagged on both my main (ssd) and my secondary (hdd) drives. I removed the flag on hdd. But now that I think about it, I probably should install it the right way. Might do that today (after I learn some basic commands. Or while I learn them...).
Also, when in the BIOS I noticed that there were 2 SSD boot drives -- oh, and that makes sense because there is a /dev/sda1 mounted as /boot/efi and /dev/sda2 mounted as /boot (which doesn't have a boot flag). I disabled the second drive in hopes that that was the one that didn't boot the computer and voila it still worked with it disabled. Hopefully my problems won't persist.
The kernel doesn't mess with BIOS, so what you think explained the two SSD drives does explain it. :P
Explanation: sda is the kernel's name of the first drive that shows up (then they're mounted to /dev by some program, not sure which). sda1 is the first partition of that drive. That's just how the kernel identifies storage units. Where you mount partitions and what they're used for, the kernel doesn't really care. BIOS especially does not care, as it has done its job when the kernel boots. What DOES explain the two drives is that your SSD has two partitions.
