My favourite portable died, and another one was on the blink, so decided to get a couple of new Dells, both running Ubuntu, which is the least intuitive programme in the universe, but if they run Ubuntu they should run Mint Right? No!! Once again Mint struck out. We circumnavigated this on our other 2 machines with Mandriva last time neither of which are being replaced by a Dell, but I infinitely prefer Mint and again it just doesn't work. It seems loadsa people have the same problem, and clearly the developers know about it as it is in the 17.2 release notes, but no solutions offered. If one installs any version of mint, including 13, and yes I have them all, the screen freezes on start up after install, if one gets that far. With 17.2 I loaded it without GPU support in the end and it ran fine from the disc, soon as I installed it froze on startup. OK, so then I did nomodeset, took out quiet splash etc. yada yada, still the same! How come the dog Ubuntu can still run happily but not Mint? These are Celron processors with an Intel graphics card so what on earth is wrong with Mint there!!!!! Not happy.

Hi.

Do you checksums?Got links?So they're new???
We could use tons more info here, check the second link in my signature. (Unless your just venting?)

Best wishes and have fun!

Hi...

As a suggestion, it looks like this model from Thinkpenguin.com would work with Mint preinstalled. Cheaper model here. Give them a call to make sure. Is it possible you can return the Dells?

Regards...

I get that more info would be helpful, but all I can tell you is the machines are Dell Inspiron 7551 with Ubuntu as standard. The one I've been playing with works fine in safe graphics mode from the disc, but not from the hard drive. It starts, runs up to the first screen and locks there. Just out of interest I downloaded Ubuntu and tried that and it also locks, so there is something in Dell version not in the others, but if the machine won't run from the hard disc one cannot even update drivers. Very puzzled.

OK additionalson this The machine lights up and says checking for media, then says media found, then says Start PXE over IPv4, then starts loading Mint after 3 minutes or so. We get to the log in screen and I can log in but the mouse doesn't work after log in I can't seem to do anything. I dont know if that helps anyone at all.

i cannot find a machine by that name.

more effort & real information from your side are required for us to be able to help you solve your problem.

edit:
maybe this link explains how to provide information:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1422475&
and of course the first one in my signature.

Hi, thanks for trying to help. I have been playing with it all morning, it is just the touchpad. I plugged in an all in one keyboard on USB and can use it with that touchpad. Went into Synaptic package manager and tried to enable it by using other drivers but ended up with broken packages. Repaired those, restarted and ended up with a linux login screen. Still working on it will keep you informed.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/modenumb.htm(10)

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=22Dell+Inspiron+7551%22+LINUX+

All the Dell's I have put Linux on have been fine but they were always a few years old so?
If I had problems back in the day I would try a different distros... for example what all your distros are made from Debian (I usually use at lest the Jessie version, Wheezy is more "stable" but old so I find needs way more tweaking) then up date the apt source.list to include contrib and non-free (for proprietary software, drivers and such) https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList#Component ...

Wondering where you get your copies of Linuces from; do you download .iso and then use CD or USB to burn the image if so do you check them for errors asked in my first post? I also find Linux magazines distros to be amazing out of the box (so to speak. )

Keep at it,,, Rome wasn't destroyed in a day...

Wondering where you get your copies of Linuces from; do you download .iso and then use CD or USB to burn the image if so do you check them for errors asked in my first post? I also find Linux magazines distros to be amazing out of the box (so to speak. )


These are all downloaded and verified distros but nothing either they can't drive the graphics, network or touchpad, and often 2 of the 3. Mint 17.2 only has the Touchpad problem, and I wrongly accused it of freezing at the outset of this post. I've found a lot of solutions on the net but none work, and in synaptic package manager I found what was described as being the ideal package but it won't install because broken packages need to be fixed first. I click to fix them but apparently nothing happens until I attempt a reboot at which point the system falls over. And yes I did verify the disc before using it. Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

And yes, sorry folks it's a Dell Inspiron 3551, I really should take the trouble to put my glasses on.

Just a couple of comments...

You can run the Gnome interface on Ubuntu - makes it look like a computer instead of a cell phone. There are many descriptions of how to install the old interface - or just ask. This will work on top of the initial Ubuntu install and thus should not impact any hardware drivers.

Ken

2 members found this post helpful.

Edit:Fixed I think. I don't know why the >br was inserted in my forum link earlier. I double checked now and it seems OK.

My link only covers preinstalled Ubuntu versions of your laptop.

Thanks so much for the help on that guys, though the link doesnt work. And we may change the interface on the second machine, and I'll see if Dell can send me a copy of the original Ubuntu to install. Thanks for the help I'll keep you posted.

Do you know which version of the kernel Mint installs for you? Have you updated all your packages?
The touchpad was flaky on this laptop until I grabbed a newer kernel and with kernel 4.0 it works even better.

Thanks for that, though I can only seem to find 3 variations, could you let me have the exact number and I can patch it in from terminal?