NO, it's not just you.
Several members that I have helped here at LQ have had consistent crashing with the Cinnamon DE.
Most of which the members just went ahead and installed the "Mate" DE and haven't had any more problems since.

-::-Before you perform a fresh installation you might want to install Mate-::-

If you decide to install the Mate DE just use your Software Mgr <or> run this as 'root':
http://mate-desktop.com/
http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-insta...namon-edition/

Thanks Ztcoracat. I need to back up my drive first, so I'll need to buy a large thumbdrive when the weather improves.So I won't need a live dvd, etc.?

The bad block test might take a while to complete I would let it finish. I will time it on my t500 and post back how long it took.

I was about to suggest this option as well, Mate desktop is based off of gnome 2 and cinnamon is based off of gnome 3. If you do not know what gnome desktop was I included a links for you since you are using mint now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_(software)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MATE_(software)

To answer your question no you will not need the dvd to install mate desktop just use the code that Ztcoracat posted.

I would like to check one thing and I forgot, please post back the output this command below if any. I looked back at my t500 install notes and I could not play DVDs till I ran this which will fix and issues with packages that did not install correctly. Does not mean this is your issue though.

OK Thanks I will do it tomorrow -- I'll give myself the day to copy files and then install mate.

If your able to investing in an external HDD say 500 G's or a 1 TB would be ideal for frequent backups.

My 500 GB external Toshibia HDD has served me well over the last 4 years of backups.-

Yes I agree, a bit of advise do not purchase external drive enclosures. I have had three of them two from amazon and one from staples. Even with them not active once turned on the drive circuit board fails even my replacement.

Update my bad block test was taking long time. I was worried about the HDD getting to hot so I stopped it.

1 members found this post helpful.

thanks for the advice. I do have a one TB external hard drive [Samsung "Story"] but it's slow. I was going to use the thumbdrive to copy the files and later copy them to the Story. But maybe I'll just backup to the Story. What do you mean by external drive enclosures?

When I tried to start the BadBlock test it did nothing for 45 minutes. But when I went to close the terminal it said that something was going on in the background and closing would terminate it. In the end I closed it. Was I too impatient?

Hi guys,
I took your advice and backed up on my external drive. It's not a fast one, but a fancy backup drive with backup software, etc. When I used to backup on Windows I could leave the machine working all night. However, it seems that in Linux the drive is just a passive receiver. I couldn't even copy files over by grabbing the icon. So I used the terminal to copy.

I went to bed thinking all the files would be copied by the morning. Well no. I had copied Home to the external but it only copied a few of the folders: document, download, and desktop. It left video and pictures. So this morning I started backing up the picture folder [43 gigs] and it took ten and a quarter hours! Also, I did not leave the machine to copy on its own because I was afraid it would turn off when it goes to sleep, and all would be lost. So I had to stay at the computer all day to make sure the files got copied. I had a ten-minute window of opportunity to dash down to the kitchen. Is there a way to ensure that Linux does not turn off after a set time during a backing up process? Amway I now have 14 more gigs of video to copy.

I looked at the references you gave me to remove the Windows recovery partition but I reckoned it would take me several days to read and understand and then it looks difficult. So i decided to forego for the moment its removal. I don't want the partition because I won't be going back to Windows 8 or any Windows. Well back to my backing up.

Hi Ztcoracat,
I just "installed" or thought I did mate via root. Here is what I got:

But I don't think anything has changed. Am I right?

Oh, I forgot. when I went to close the terminal it said that there is still a process running in the terminal. But I can use the terminal.

After running apt-get update && apt-get install mint-meta-mate reboot.

Than.....
to find out if the Mate desktop was installed run this:
The output should say "Mate"

I got the following:
$DESKTOP_SESSION
org.Cinnamon already exists on bus and --replace not specified

Should I have uninstalled Cinnamon first?

You can remove Cinnamon after Mate is installed.

Run this:
OR>

Log out, select Mate from session and log back in. You should have the Mate DE.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=114206

IF it didn't install use your Software Manager to install the Mate DE.

hanks Ztcoracat. It wqas all quite strange. First I used the command and it did what it did before. It went so far and said ready to install mate manually. Well, that stumped me. So next I entered and it installed it. I re-started and entered and it still said cinnamon. So I did what you suggested and used the Software Manager to check and found that Mate was installed. So I then uninstalled Cinnamon through the manager. Restarted but when I entered the ETC command again I got the same information. However everything looks differently so I am sure it is Mate.
Here is what I get:
When I entered $DESKTOP_SESSION I got:
However, as I say, the desktop look is definitely different!
Unless you tell me that there is something wrong I'll play with the display and try VLC tonight.
Thanks again for all your help.