(SOLVED)cinnamon crashes after login.........

[ramblin]

Hello, I just installed Debian 9 from ISO disk on a fairly low resource machine. During install at "software selection, Debian desktop environment" I checked all boxes for GNOME, MATE,KDE, est. After login it goes to a dark blue blank screen. I am able to load the desktop with recovery console and "startx" but only after running "DPKG -reconfigure GDM" then switch to "LightDM". GDM or SDDM will not work. After desktop loads I get a message "cinnamon just crashed. You are currently running in fallback mode" Restarting cinnamon only returns the same message. In fallback mode everything seems to work just fine. Good internet. All menus work. I loaded every package I could find for GNOME with Synaptic Package manager. I have run "APT-GET UPDATE" and UPGRADE. I have googled and found this problem to be widespread in other distros and tried every fix I could find. Many commands don`t work on Stretch and not much here about it. I would be happy with GNOME or KDE or lightDM if I can get it to work properly. I have done my homework and just don`t know what to do next. Thanks

[squeeze]

There is no gdm in debian, it's called gdm3.

Also it would be good to know WHAT you actually tried AND what your hardware-specs are.

[ramblin]

There is no gdm in debian, it's called gdm3.
Also it would be good to know WHAT you actually tried AND what your hardware-specs are.

OhhKaa....GDM or GDM3 ...when I run "DPKG-reconfigure lightdm" it still shows GDM in the menu, which is part of the problem for me since as a noob most of the commands I`ve tried fail because the fixes pertain more to "mint" or "ubuntu" so it may be hard to list what I have tried. Hardware is: Micro MS-6390 v30b ATX motherboard based on "VIA" KM266 & VT8235 chipset. AMD Athlon XP 2.8GHz. and 1G of memory. No point in trying to list them since most have failed because of wrong commands on my part from misinformation on other sites. If you can post correct info for me to try I will post results. Thanks

[ramblin]

I have been examining my syslog files today and find this error at precisely the time, everytime, that cinnamon crashes. Does this mean something to someone here that can help me solve my problem ?



Jul 26 20:24:25 shoplinux kernel: [ 156.121134 ] cinnamon[859]: segfault at 4 ip ae36076d sp bfb95950 error 4 in libLLVM-3.9.so.1[ada5a000+2d1b000 ]

[stevepusser]

So that's an ancient machine with just 1 GB of RAM, but you try to load heavy desktops such as GNOME 3 and Cinnamon on it? You should expect to have problems! You should use 32-bit LXDE, MATE, or XFCE desktops with it, they are much lighter. I don't even know if Debian supports the ancient Via KM266 drivers any longer...what exactly do you want to use the machine for?

Maybe try a Debian spinoff that's more suited for old hardware, such as AntiX? Maybe BunsenLabs Linux?

[ramblin]

Your right, old hardware. Ram I can add. Problem is I have many of these former Win XP machines around. I chose Debian because I thought it was the distro of choice for this old stuff. I new Unbuntu was to much for this. I also chose for this support forum and would like to stay with Debian for that reason. Like I said I am new to Linux. My plan was to rid myself of XP (just can`t deal with the flashplayer issues anymore). I stream music, news , Kodi, est. several places in my shop and use them for nothing else. No web surfing, email or nothing. This is OK right now for radio but is not running well enough for vid. I am open to all suggestions. Would I be better off going back to Jessie or cut back on features and lighter desktop, est ? Mate is installed now. How do I turn everything else off ? Is Pentium 4 any better ? I have them too ! I have a genuine "ancient" Win 95 laptop running Puppy just for kicks. Its a toy but it runs about as good as this right now. Thanks for the help. I`m waiting.

[stevepusser]

32-bit Debian probably is OK for that machine, depending on if you can get the correct video driver working, but stick to the light desktops. If you got it working well in Jessie, why not stick to that?--there are ways to get the multimedia apps up to the current versions, such as Kodi 17.3 in Jessie, if that's what you really need.

[ramblin]

Steve you were right. Probably the old Via driver was not supported. I put the HD in a 3.2 GHz.Pentium 4 with 2 GB ram and EVERYTHING just worked right out of the box. This lightdm desktop is working. How would you suggest I proceed in trimming some of the fat and put as much resources towards what I need ?

[stevepusser]

You could remove all the heavy desktop metapackages that the installer used for GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, etc, but I don't know exactly they're called. Are you familiar with Synaptic? You can use that to search for the metapackages that are installed for a desktop. Once you remove the metapackage, the rest of its packages becomes autoremovable via "apt-get autoremove".

But we still need to know what you're going to use to let you know what else to cut out.

I also think that the Stretch-based antiX 17 beta is still supporting the Via video driver.

[dasein]

Problem is I have many of these former Win XP machines around.

Quantity on hand is not a legitimate parameter for determining hardware capability.

I chose Debian because I thought it was the distro of choice for this old stuff.

Only if your use-case is viable, which it isn't.

This is OK right now for radio but is not running well enough for vid.

A single-core 2.08 Ghz machine (the Athlon XP 2800 is not a 2.8 Ghz CPU) is never going to do real-time video streaming acceptably. The CPU doesn't have what it takes, and neither does the GPU, and wishing will not make it so.

I`m waiting.

Then you're waiting for Godot. These machines are long past their EOL, and really should be sent in for recycling. I'm as big a fan as anyone of getting every last ounce of life out of a rig, but these machines no longer even "carry their own weight" in terms of the power they require. (TDP for the Athlon XP CPUs are in the 50-75W range; by comparison, an Atom 2560, which is vastly more capable, requires just 10W.)

[ramblin]

This is OK right now for radio but is not running well enough for vid.

A single-core 2.08 Ghz machine (the Athlon XP 2800 is not a 2.8 Ghz CPU) is never going to do real-time video streaming acceptably. The CPU doesn't have what it takes, and neither does the GPU, and wishing will not make it so.






OK, I `m using a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with 2 GB ram now and everything is loading fine now. When everything is properly configured do you think it will support streaming video ? It was with XP.
ramblin
 
Posts: 6
Joined: 2017-07-25 20:45

[stevepusser]

The only way to tell is to give it a try. The answer will depend on what is used to stream the video (Flash sucks), the resolution of the video, the codec, and the video driver/hardware combo.

For olde timey machines, you'll probably get the best performance by using something like vlc, mplayer, or mpv to stream the video instead of through the browser. SMTube can use any of these to stream Youtube video, for example--Kodi also has addons. Possibly the video can be downloaded first using something like ClipGrab, then played back with any player.

[ramblin]

Thanks guys, I`m going to mark this issue solved. I have come a long way since this afternoon. Got most everything working. Work on wifi next, thanks

[dasein]

Possibly the video can be downloaded first using something like ClipGrab, then played back with any player.

This might work. As you point out, the only way to know is try. (But the power consumption still isn't worth it.)