Mint 17.2 : Unresolved (?) issues [GeForce GTX970M, Wireless-AC 3165]
 

Hello everybody,

I have been using Linux mint 17.2 for quite a while now and despite
all its issues I still like it. However, I am really concerned
about the following issues that stayed unresolved in my case :

- Cinnamon : Working in rendering mode and sometimes crashes. No matter which
driver I use [Xorg, Nvidia] for the graphic card (I know, Nvidia have issues working with Linux). I am just forced to use Mate.

- Wifi : I didn't manage to make it work, even trying to install the appropriate
drivers from a zipped file. I can't believe it is that hard to do, and start to think
that I might be retarded.

- Ethernet : EACH TIME, when I switch back from Linux to windows, windows doesn't get the ethernet connection and I have to "troubleshoot" it or restart the computer a second time to make it work. Did windows make something on purpose here, just to bother Linux users ?

- Software : I tried to install OpenFoam, which is a soft I used to work with
on Ubuntu 14.04. No working OpenFoam package found for Mint though. I followed this confusing
tutorial, which explains how to make it work on Mint.
But after the so called "installation", I had an xsession-error message :
"Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem or that you may be out of diskspace". Try logging in with one of the failsafe session to see if you can fix this problem." and then figured out I just broke the whole Linux OS.

So here come my questions :
- If Mint is based on Ubuntu, how come OpenFoam software can't be installed ? (stupid question)
- Forums say (here) I have to re-install Linux. Is there any other alternative ?
- Is there any drawbacks for me to switch to Linux 18 ? Will it resolve a few of the issues mentioned above like those concerning wifi and graphics ?
- I'd like to have sleeping mode when laptop lid is closed. But now I'm afraid using Ubuntu commands/tutorials for this, is it safe ? How can I know which Ubuntu commands would work on Mint ?

Hoping my OS will work again one day,
I thank you in advance for your replies.
Hope I posted in the right section.

---------- Specifications ----------
- Wifi : Wireless-AC 3165
- Graphics : GeForce GTX970M // Intel(R) HD graphics 530
- Ethernet : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
- Dual boot : Windows 10 // Linux Mint 17.2
- And I have enough disk space on both !

you could try upgrading to LinuxMint18,
But - - do Test All that Hardware, with the Live Environment,
- before you perform an actual installation. .. ..

iya,

Welcome to LQ.

What make/model is your computer. How old is it?

I agree with pierre2. Try testing with a Live DVD of Linux Mint 18 MATE.

Do backup every piece of personal data before you make a fresh installation.

Those commands in Ubuntu should all be the same in Linux Mint.

Another OpenFoam problem:

http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...mint-18-a.html

Thanks,

I am on my way to backup and install Linux 18.
I have a relatively new SAGER computer,
which have been released in october 2015.

I'll get back to you to show results of :
- Live environment hardware compatibility
- lspci and lsusb command outputs for detailed hardware specs.
- OpenFoam tricky install as shown in the cfdonline link.

Thank you for your answers and sorry for my late reply.
_iya

Installed Linux Mint 18 Mate. Nothing to say about it so far. Wifi & graphics work perfectly. Ethernet problems when switching to windows are gone.
Nvidia driver version 361 works like a charm and seems far better than previous versions in terms of stability (and comes with an Nvidia GUI).
The trick for OpenFoam didn't work, however I managed to install Openfoam v.4 by forcing installation of package dependencies with dpkg.
Computations as well as visualisations with paraview worked fine.
Linux live environment didn't detect incompatible hardware in my case. However, hardware scan results are shown below (we never know).
Though, as these problems might still exist on mint 17.2/17.3, should I mark this post as solved ?

Thank you for your answers and bravo to developers for their work on mint 18 :)
_iya

==================================================================================
lspci output :
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Skylake Integrated Graphics (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204M [GeForce GTX 970M] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5287 (rev 01)
02:00.1 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 3165 (rev 81)

lsusb output :
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 5986:066d Acer, Inc
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:0a2a Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1c7a:0603 LighTuning Technology Inc.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c077 Logitech, Inc. M105 Optical Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub