LinuxQuestions.org
Download your favorite Linux distribution at LQ ISO.
Home Forums Tutorials Articles Register
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 01-12-2015, 07:01 PM   #1
davo5003
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 9

Rep: Reputation: Disabled
Unhappy cinnamon crashes , stuck in fallback mode


i was suggested by a friend to use linux because my laptop was running slow. it worked fine for a few weeks but one day i turned my laptop on and i got a message that cinnamon has crashed & is running in fallback mode. i did what it suggested and tried to restart cinnamon but when i pressed the restart cinnamon icon the cursor just when back to the middle of my screen and the icon came back up again saying that cinnamon had crashed. ive searched on many forums looking for a salution to fix my problem but most of them i need to use my termenal which i cannot access.could someone please help me out with this problem. just a little heads up im not a computer programer or webpage designer
 
Old 01-13-2015, 11:10 AM   #2
DavidMcCann
LQ Veteran
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: London
Distribution: PCLinuxOS, Debian
Posts: 6,140

Rep: Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314
Welcome to LQ!

If you're running in fallback mode, you should still have a menu with the terminal in it. Of course, if you haven't, you can press Ctrl-Alt-F2 and log in to a non-graphical console.

A common reason for this is an update or something you installed. Have a look at this thread
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...f=198&t=159487

If your laptop was slow with Windows, you might have done better to install the Mate version of Mint. For making the switch, if you want to,
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...14206&p=639871
 
Old 01-14-2015, 01:46 AM   #3
davo5003
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 9

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
i tried the first thread but it say that the bash apt not recognised
 
Old 01-14-2015, 02:21 PM   #4
joe_2000
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2012
Location: Aachen, Germany
Distribution: Void, Debian
Posts: 1,016

Rep: Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308
Quote:
Originally Posted by davo5003 View Post
i tried the first thread but it say that the bash apt not recognised
The command there is wrong. Instead of
Code:
apt dist-upgrade
It should be
Code:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
However, I doubt that that will fix your problem. Try and take a look at your system logs. Maybe you can find a suspicious entry that points to the reason for the crash.
If you remember what packages you recently installed, try to remove them and see if that helps.
 
Old 01-14-2015, 05:44 PM   #5
ESPclipse
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 5

Rep: Reputation: Disabled
I would like to take this opportunity to describe the very similar (if not, same) issue I have been having. I experience the exact symptoms davo5003 describes, and I believe this issue has been caused by a failed attempt to update my graphics card driver from AMD. I downloaded and ran the latest driver software from AMD's site and blindly ran the software. It failed to install, though, likely because my old card is not supported by any of the included software in the package. So I restarted the computer and began experiencing failure launching Cinnamon.

So I ran: $apt-get autoremove fglrx
then: $apt-get install fglrx
because I read that this will reinstall the proprietary video drivers for my system (which I was originally using without qualm)
I tried to install the legacy drivers from AMD as well but that, too, failed to install.
I also did as joe_2000 suggested above, and still no success. Any sugestions? I can provide a little more info below, but let me know if you need to know more. I have been googling for hours and have not had a successful fix. I really wish to gain a positive impression on Linux-based operating systems.



$inxi -G -> Graphics: Card: AMD RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250] X.org: 1.15.1 drivers: fbdev,ati,radeon (unloaded:fglrx,vesa) tty size: 128x48 Advanced Data: N/A out of X
 
Old 01-15-2015, 05:57 AM   #6
davo5003
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 9

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
as i said when i first did this post im not a regular user of linux and im no formiluar with the system. when it crashed it was around sep last yr. i asked the person who suggested the running system to me to help me out with this problem and putting it bluntly he ignored me. so im stuck with a running system i have no clue about & and i can barely use. o either way im stuffed unless someone can actually go throught with it step by step.
 
Old 01-15-2015, 12:43 PM   #7
joe_2000
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2012
Location: Aachen, Germany
Distribution: Void, Debian
Posts: 1,016

Rep: Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308
When you say that cinnamon crashed it would be extremely helpful if there was a more detailed error message you could gather from either the upcoming message (consider posting a picture) or from your system's log files. They typically lie in /var/log.
You should probably have /var/log/Xorg.0.log or something like that.
Take a look at that and see if you can find more specific error messages.
 
Old 01-15-2015, 11:34 PM   #8
davo5003
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 9

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
i tried those command apt-get autoremove fglrx and sudo apt-get autoremove fglrx & it comes up command not found ???
 
Old 01-15-2015, 11:53 PM   #9
davo5003
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 9

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
[QUOTE=joe_2000;5301439]When you say that cinnamon crashed it would be extremely helpful if there was a more detailed error message you could gather from either the upcoming message (consider posting a picture) or from your system's log files. They typically lie in /var/log.
You should probably have /var/log/Xorg.0.log or something like that.
Take a look at that and see if you can find more specific error messages.[/QUOTE i have no
idea where to find these logs joe2000 it would be more helpful for me if u could discribe how to get into these logs so i can atleast try to see what im seaching for ??? like is it in the terminal??? who knows
 
Old 01-15-2015, 11:54 PM   #10
Rubian
Member
 
Registered: Dec 2013
Distribution: Arch Linux
Posts: 116

Rep: Reputation: 18
I would try downloading Linux Mint again and doing a fresh install. If you aren't sure about how to download and put the .iso file on a dvd, you could order one from www.osdisc.com. I would also look at Manjaro Cinnamon as a replacement.
On a side note, what model is your laptop?
Keep us updated with your progress. We are more than happy to help.
 
Old 01-16-2015, 10:25 AM   #11
DavidMcCann
LQ Veteran
 
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: London
Distribution: PCLinuxOS, Debian
Posts: 6,140

Rep: Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314Reputation: 2314
Is there any reason for not running in fallback mode? I've never used Cinnamon, so I haven't seen it: this computer is an office machine with no graphics card.

It might be better to switch to Mate. It's difficult for us to help, as the helper need to be someone who's used Mint and Cinnamon. It might be a good idea to join the Mint forum
http://forums.linuxmint.com/index.php
There are threads there with a similar problem.
 
Old 01-16-2015, 01:50 PM   #12
joe_2000
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2012
Location: Aachen, Germany
Distribution: Void, Debian
Posts: 1,016

Rep: Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308
Quote:
Originally Posted by davo5003 View Post
i have no
idea where to find these logs joe2000 it would be more helpful for me if u could discribe how to get into these logs so i can atleast try to see what im seaching for ??? like is it in the terminal??? who knows
Ok, sorry: So when you are in a console you can navigate to the folder /var/log by typing
Code:
cd /var/log
Then you can display the contents by typing
Code:
ls
If you see something like Xorg.0.log you can view it using "less":
Code:
less Xorg.0.log
Use the cursor and/or pageup and pagedown keys to navigate back and forth in the file. Type "q" to close it and go back to console. Typically you would do this right after an unsuccessfull login attempt and then go to the bottom of the logfile to look for error messages that look related to your problem.

Note that I am not at all sure that this is actually the right logfile to look at. There may be others you need to look at.

If you find that too difficult to do I am afraid your best bet would be a clean reinstall. If you go for that, make sure to backup the data before, which you can do using a live system. Open a new thread for that task if you need support with it.
 
Old 01-16-2015, 06:15 PM   #13
joe_2000
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2012
Location: Aachen, Germany
Distribution: Void, Debian
Posts: 1,016

Rep: Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308Reputation: 308
Just had another idea what you could try before reinstalling the whole system. You could just reinstall cinnamon.
On my laptop I also have a partition with Mint installed, and so I tried the following.

To get the installed cinnamon packages, in a console, I typed
Code:
aptitude search cinnamon | grep ^i
The output gave me this:
Code:
i   cinnamon                        - Cinnamon desktop                          
i   cinnamon-bluetooth              - Gnome Bluetooth support for the Cinnamon d
i   cinnamon-common                 - Cinnamon desktop (Common data files)      
i   cinnamon-control-center         - utilities to configure the Cinnamon deskto
i   cinnamon-control-center-data    - configuration applets for Cinnamon - data 
i   cinnamon-desktop-data           - Common files for Cinnamon desktop apps    
i   cinnamon-screensaver            - Cinnamon screen saver and locker          
i   cinnamon-session                - Cinnamon Session Manager - Minimal runtime
i   cinnamon-session-common         - Cinnamon Session Manager - common files   
i   cinnamon-settings-daemon        - daemon handling the Cinnamon session setti
i   cinnamon-themes                 - Cinnamon themes                           
i   cinnamon-translations           - Translation files for the Cinnamon desktop
i   gir1.2-cinnamondesktop-3.0      - Introspection data for CinnamonDesktop    
i   libcinnamon-control-center1     - utilities to configure the Cinnamon deskto
i   libcinnamon-desktop0            - Utility library for loading .desktop files
i   libcinnamon-menu-3-0            - Cinnamon implementation of the freedesktop
i   mint-artwork-cinnamon           - Default artwork for the Cinnamon edition o
i   mint-info-cinnamon              - Necessary information about the Linux Mint
i   mint-meta-cinnamon              - Set of packages installed by default in th
Some of these packages should be irrelevant to your problem, but just to see if it breaks anything I ran the following:
Code:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall cinnamon cinnamon-screensaver  cinnamon-session  cinnamon-session-common cinnamon-settings-daemon  libcinnamon-control-center1  libcinnamon-desktop0   libcinnamon-menu-3-0   mint-meta-cinnamon
I am writing this post from that install, so everything went smoothly. You may want to try the same thing on your computer.
 
Old 01-16-2015, 08:57 PM   #14
davo5003
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 9

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
i had a look and it said something about rpmdb changed outside of yum ???
 
Old 01-17-2015, 12:29 AM   #15
davo5003
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 9

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
well i dunno if i fixed my laptop properly but im not in fallback mode anymore all i did was update cinnamon & now it works again but this just might be a quick fix. i'll leave this post as unsolved just incase anything else happens. hopefully it wont happen fingers crossed
 
  


Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Stuck in Fallback Mode please help. ren4itoy Linux - Newbie 6 12-25-2014 10:44 AM
Linux Cinnamon crashed during update, now stuck in fallback mode Rogge Linux - Newbie 24 10-13-2014 08:03 PM
How can I get of Fallback mode with Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon? herder Linux - Newbie 2 10-07-2014 10:27 PM
Cinnamon crashes with Linux Mint 17 live CD - "you are currently in fallback mode" Gabethebabe Linux - Newbie 9 09-03-2014 10:31 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:24 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration