Upgrading to Cinnamon V19 due to V18.3 issues

paxolin · 08-29-2018, 11:51 PM

I am currently using Cinnamon V18.3 which I am having various problems with.
It keeps locking up (not only since the upgrade to 18.3 though) and have kept a log of lock-ups, forcing me to switch the power off. So far it has been 42 times since I upgraded to 18.3 on 17-5-2018

More recently I noticed some errors whizz past on the screen – too fast to read & understand. I have also noticed now that if I run the Disk Usage Analyser it won’t read all of my Cinnamon partition, it hangs forever. See the attached image.

I thought perhaps I should try to upgrade to V19. Reading the details about how to do it has confused me as I’m not technical at all.
What I have managed to do though is d/l V19 and (took me nearly a day) using Windows created a start-up USB drive.
I can start that to check V19 runs, but there are still some problems:

Running the Disk Usage Analyser via the USB version 19, it sees my 18.3 partition as “68Gb volume” but has the same problem being unable to read it completely.
It will show my two Windows partitions OK.

On 18.3 I can alter the brightness via the keyboard controls, as it is way too bright. Running V19 on USB doesn’t do anything at all, it’s at full brightness permanently. Is that definitely only due to running it on USB, or can’t I adjust it at all with V19?
I have a Gateway ID57H Intel Core i5 with Gateway bios (I’m just quoting all this blindly).

If I decided to do a new install of V19, is it possible to install it where V18.3 is now, so it overwrites it and reformats(?) that area?
When running V19 on USB, if I click install, it asks me about the keyboard, then tick a checkbox to install third party software.
I haven’t gone any further than that in case it starts installing and I screw it all up.
I wonder if if will ask me if I want to ‘overwrite’ the V18.3 installation?
Or do I need to delete V18.3, go back to windows, then install V19 that way, installing all the software again?
Please keep any replies to the lowest technical level, thanks!

syg00 · 08-30-2018, 12:26 AM

It is possible to simply overwrite the 18.3 system with 19 - however you will lose everything in /home. Better to see if you can determine what the problem might be. When do you see the messages fly by - on boot, or during normal operation ?.
From Mint open a terminal (hit Ctrl, Alt, t keys all at once) and run these and post the output - they're quick displays. Copy-and-paste the commands and the output.

Code:

df -hT
lsblk -f -o +SIZE

paxolin · 08-30-2018, 01:00 AM

Does this tell you anything?

Code:

~ $ df -hT
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs  5.8G     0  5.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.2G  9.4M  1.2G   1% /run
/dev/sda6      ext4       63G   40G   20G  68% /
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.8G   33M  5.8G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.8G     0  5.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda5      fuseblk   476G  432G   44G  91% /media/watt/Data
cgmfs          tmpfs     100K     0  100K   0% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.2G   40K  1.2G   1% /run/user/1000
watt@PCMint ~ $ lsblk -f -o +SIZE
NAME   FSTYPE LABEL     UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT     SIZE
sr0                                                                        1024M
sda                                                                       698.7G
├─sda2 ntfs   Gateway   306224F96224C586                                  131.7G
├─sda7 swap             1e6c4cf2-5e03-49b0-9d23-ffe3b8ea8681 [SWAP]        11.9G
├─sda5 ntfs   Data      B03AFBF43AFBB606                     /media/watt/ 475.6G
├─sda3                                                                        1K
├─sda1 ntfs   PQSERVICE 5694E45B94E43EDD                                     16G
└─sda6 ext4             fc8ebdee-1c9b-4c3f-979d-6c83f11d534d /             63.6G

syg00 · 08-30-2018, 04:10 AM

You didn't answer my question.

It tells me your root isn't full, which was one point of concern. Given your previous threads, I am now inclined to agree a full re-install might be the best option. You'll need to subsequently install any packages you have manually installed, and you should get a backup of your /home. Should be plenty of articles on the net - probably several specifically for Mint.

paxolin · 08-30-2018, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

You didn't answer my question.

It tells me your root isn't full, which was one point of concern. Given your previous threads, I am now inclined to agree a full re-install might be the best option. You'll need to subsequently install any packages you have manually installed, and you should get a backup of your /home. Should be plenty of articles on the net - probably several specifically for Mint.

Sorry for the slow reply, my internet went down for a few hours yesterday.

Thanks for checking, and telling me my root isn't full - whatever that means? (I did say I'm not technical)
Why do I need to backup /home, if I am going to do a full reinstall? What is there that I need to backup in there, and why?
I understand when you say I will have to reinstall any manual programs though.

What about adjusting the screen brightness I mentioned? Is it not possible to change that now on V19?