Linux mint is an annoying ********

[soldier1st]

i dont care about your pc experience. either you help or not. i dont care for your insults. installing windows is no option because its not a high end system and i dont even have a legal license.

 

as soon as i can have a working tool on linux making it possible to check the smart status of my hdd i will. then we can see if its ok or not. i will even post a screenshot for all the non believers here.

 

as above, i also think it could be the hdd. but then why the live system works just fine?! not just booting but also being able to install and running programs. this is the thing i dont get.

The live system works as it's not running from the hard drive, everything needed to run is either on the usb/dvd reader

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Exactly if you read the URL I posted: http://askubuntu.com/questions/131508/12-04-and-nvidia-card-problem-with-nvidia-geforce-7025 it its obviously the issue he is facing.. all he has to do is try the the driver that is supposed to fix it. If that doesn't work see if the open source driver doesn't have this problem. Otherwise you're screwed unless you just use shell/command line only, use Windows, or buy a newer cheap nvidia card that doesn't have this problem.

 

Edit: Why are people still saying its hardware etc? THE NVIDIA DRIVER HE IS USING DOSENT WORK WITH THE GRAPHICS CARD HE HAS ITS NOT A HARDWARE PROBLEM

The Nvidia driver not working doesn't explain why he can't install any distribution to HDD at the moment or why the live CDs are mysteriously working...

[simonlang]

Edit: Why are people still saying its hardware etc? THE NVIDIA DRIVER HE IS USING DOSENT WORK WITH THE GRAPHICS CARD HE HAS ITS NOT A HARDWARE PROBLEM

 

because they just dont seem to understand. i still cant boot anything except a 64bit live edition of lxle (or) ubuntu. i think this is incredibly weak from linux programmers. ubuntu 10 and early 11 i was running have shown it is NO problem hardware related but programming related.

 

windows is no option for me. i hate that OS and i dont wanna argue again. its just a no no.

 

i have booted lxle in live mode again and just for fun wanna check smart status of my hdd. how to? any good system tool to check the whole system?

 

i will try 64bit lubuntu now. this was the editioin which was working just fine till i wanted to give another linux a try (look my thread "what linux to go for" for the date") till then it was working.

 

trying to get lubuntu working again. i hope for the best. i love linux, lubuntu is amazingly fast and easy. i just wanted to try other distries to see what they can do. seems impossible tho.

[soldier1st]

If an older ubuntu worked, then use what works. he could try updating the kernel and see if that fixes his issue.

[simonlang]

The live system works as it's not running from the hard drive, everything needed to run is either on the usb/dvd reader

 

the live system still has to access the gpu and the hdd. i installed pidgin, some browsers and other stuff. i launched this. all on live edition. it did NOT crash. i could browse the web for about 15mins or so. having installed it, i could just click on firefox in the starter and then the whole system hang. again and again. sometimes i managed to run pidgin, entering my icq account, --> crashing again.

 

sorry for all. i probably look like an absolute newb now but for sure i am not. i am just describing what happens here. switching hardware drivers and so is a good idea but how could i if i just click anything in the start menu and the system stops?

[AJerman]

The Nvidia driver not working doesn't explain why he can't install any distribution to HDD at the moment or why the live CDs are mysteriously working...

Not necessarily true. Live CD boots use a lot of fallback drivers I believe. It could be fine on fallback drivers but once the more specific drivers are installed the issues start to occur.

 

Again, start posting logs if you want help. You're trying to get help with not much more information than "my computer crashed". When it crashes, can you change to tty1 or any other and get a terminal and pull logs? That would likely tell you exactly what the issue is immediately instead of repeatedly reinstalling new versions and watching them all crash. Is it just the UI that crashes or the whole linux subsystem? You've got to give some useful debugging information if you want any help back. There could be a LOT of things causing an issue and without logs it's too hard to narrow down.

 

Edit: 5k!

[simonlang]

 

Edit: 5k!

 

:punk: (Y) (Y) (Y)

 

the whole system hangs. i cant do anything. mouse impossible, keyboard impossible.... i just can press the reset button. thats why i still dont wanna exclude a hardware problem, BUT i will try to run x64 lubuntu now. if this works again its just the bug above and i am happy that at least one linux still works if even this fails it is hardware related, OK, but what hardware? hdd? or mainboard? i still would welcome any suggestion for a hardware/system checker for linux. thanks. and no, windows is just no option.

[fatbeerguy]

:punk: (Y) (Y) (Y)

 

the whole system hangs. i cant do anything. mouse impossible, keyboard impossible.... i just can press the reset button. thats why i still dont wanna exclude a hardware problem, BUT i will try to run x64 lubuntu now. if this works again its just the bug above and i am happy that at least one linux still works if even this fails it is hardware related, OK, but what hardware? hdd? or mainboard? i still would welcome any suggestion for a hardware/system checker for linux. thanks. and no, windows is just no option.

 

So you think your HDD is an issue because of this hang? Did you not consider its frozen because the screen is no longer updating because X has been screwed by the broken nvidia driver?? Your original issue was caused by what I linked, I don't see why you've now magically got some sort of HDD issue?

[simonlang]

no no. i dont think there is any hardware issue at all because till few days ago everything was just fine. however, because so far none other linux worked i think there could be the small chance of a hardware issue. the hdd is already over 6 years old. i would have loved to at least check the smart hdd status. thats why i am asking for help in this regard. i wonder why they even implement smart status sensors if you cant read them out on linux.

[fatbeerguy]

no no. i dont think there is any hardware issue at all because till few days ago everything was just fine. however, because so far none other linux worked i think there could be the small chance of a hardware issue. the hdd is already over 6 years old. i would have loved to at least check the smart hdd status. thats why i am asking for help in this regard. i wonder why they even implement smart status sensors if you cant read them out on linux.

 

What do you mean by none worked? You where using a screwed graphics card driver - so yeah it isn't going to "work".

 

And of course its possible to read the SMART data, here is my output of smartctl -a /dev/sda

 

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE

  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0

  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   128   104   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       6591

  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       306

  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0

  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   056   056   000    Old_age   Always       -       32167

 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       146

192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       110

193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       3415391

194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   105   094   000    Old_age   Always       -       42

196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

 

Edit: And the part of the data you're likely after when you run it:

 

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Green

Device Model:     WDC WD10EADS-00M2B0

Serial Number:    WD-WMAV50000084

LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 000000009

Firmware Version: 01.00A01

User Capacity:    1,000,203,804,160 bytes [1.00 TB]

Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical

Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]

ATA Version is:   8

ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated

Local Time is:    Thu Sep 12 20:43:10 2013 BST

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

SMART support is: Enabled

 

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

 

Btw your BIOS will tell you if the SMART check failed.

 

[AJerman]

It's just highly unlikely it's the HDD. That's not an HDD type of an error. Screen distortion like the picture you posted typically comes from GPU issues which is why people are looking at that more. And assuming that because something worked before, it should still work, isn't good logic for Linux. I can't tell you how many times an updated driver has been worse than a previous version. Now I personally would probably lump drivers into "hardware" even though it's really the software for the hardware, but that's almost certainly where your issue lies.

 

As for checking SMART status. Why don't you download a diagnostic boot CD to test it if you're having trouble in Linux? I know UBCD and Hiren's BootCD both have tools to thoroughly check your HDD from SMART status to full drive checks. I still very much doubt it's an HDD issue though myself.

[Aergan]

You're likely overheating your onboard graphics when X.org launches with compositing or compiz enabled. If you're using the open source Nvidia driver then switch to a newer kernel release.

If you're somehow using a non-legacy nvidia driver then uninstall it, try the open source version.

Install a package called tlp to reduce the GPU clock speed / power manage it if the driver is failing you at this.

 

If it's not the GPU driver then it's likely your SATA controller on nForce. Try reinstalling *buntu / Mint / whatever with whatever it's not currently set to in your BIOS e.g. AHCI -> IDE emulation or IDE emulation -> AHCI.

I have ran Ubuntu Server 12.10 for a bit on an nForce 4 board using AHCI and it was not pretty.

 

Bare in mind though that you are on legacy hardware, expecting X.org acceleration, full hardware support with a modern kernel and you didn't pay for support.

[ViperAFK]

Based on the screenshot from the OP, almost certainly a video-driver related issue...

[fatbeerguy]

Or as I've said 3 times or so already hes using the busted nvidia drivers that will randomly corrupt the output/crash on the exact hardware he HAS. If he won't try the new drivers or the open source drivers then there isn't anything anyone can do unless someone wants do donate him a geforce 9800gt or something

[simonlang]

ok this is what i get:

 

macstar@AMD-Athlon:~$ sudo smartctl -s on /dev/sda
smartctl 5.43 2012-06-30 r3573 [i686-linux-3.8.0-30-generic] (local build)
Copyright © 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===
SMART Enabled.

macstar@AMD-Athlon:~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl 5.43 2012-06-30 r3573 [i686-linux-3.8.0-30-generic] (local build)
Copyright © 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Blue Serial ATA
Device Model:     WDC WD3200AAJS-00VWA0
Serial Number:    WD-WMARW0013549
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 00024db22
Firmware Version: 12.01B01
User Capacity:    320.072.933.376 bytes [320 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   7
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Thu Sep 12 22:14:16 2013 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84)    Offline data collection activity
                    was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)    The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:         ( 8760) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:              (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)    Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)    Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:      ( 111) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   6) minutes.
SCT capabilities:            (0x303f)    SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   182   169   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       3866
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1583
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000e   200   200   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   082   082   000    Old_age   Always       -       13565
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0012   100   100   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012   100   100   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1578
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       498
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1588
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   110   103   000    Old_age   Always       -       37
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       4
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       42
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   051    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 3
    CR = Command Register [HEX]
    FR = Features Register [HEX]
    SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
    SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
    CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
    CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
    DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
    DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
    ER = Error register [HEX]
    ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 3 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 13445 hours (560 days + 5 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 51 00 c7 97 a3 eb  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0ba397c7 = 195270599

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  c8 00 80 58 97 a3 0b 00      00:39:00.676  READ DMA
  27 00 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:39:00.676  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:39:00.667  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 46 00 00 00 00 00      00:39:00.660  SET FEATURES [set transfer mode]
  27 00 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:39:00.660  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT

Error 2 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 13445 hours (560 days + 5 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  01 51 00 c7 97 a3 eb  Error: AMNF at LBA = 0x0ba397c7 = 195270599

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  c8 00 80 58 97 a3 0b 00      00:38:57.922  READ DMA
  ea 00 00 d7 d7 85 08 00      00:38:57.880  FLUSH CACHE EXT
  ca 00 08 d0 d7 85 08 00      00:38:57.880  WRITE DMA
  ea 00 00 cf d7 85 08 00      00:38:57.839  FLUSH CACHE EXT
  ca 00 40 90 d7 85 08 00      00:38:57.838  WRITE DMA

Error 1 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 13445 hours (560 days + 5 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 51 00 c7 97 a3 eb  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0ba397c7 = 195270599

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  c8 00 00 d8 96 a3 0b 00      00:38:55.332  READ DMA
  c8 00 00 d8 95 a3 0b 00      00:38:55.330  READ DMA
  c8 00 00 d8 94 a3 0b 00      00:38:55.328  READ DMA
  c8 00 00 d8 93 a3 0b 00      00:38:55.326  READ DMA
  c8 00 00 d8 92 a3 0b 00      00:38:55.320  READ DMA

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
 

 

 

honestly i am way too tired right now to read it through. what i managed so far is installing the 32bit version of lubuntu (had it on my other usb stick still).

it gave the similar bad screen as in post 1 once but: i managed to get into the software+updates section once and with additional drivers i selected "binary xorg driver and vdpau library nvidia 304+updates. (first the xorg x server driver was selected!) .

downloading, installing, running so far ok.

i hope this has solved my issues i will install few things now and just try if it stays stable or not.

 

whatever happens i am off to bed soon and you will hear from me tomorrow. thanks to everyone!

[fatbeerguy]

This just confirms that there is nothing wrong with your HDD, its your graphics drivers.. seriously read the Ubuntu bug report and it will all make sense.

[Karl L.]

This just confirms that there is nothing wrong with your HDD, its your graphics drivers.. seriously read the Ubuntu bug report and it will all make sense.

 

Although graphics drivers could still be a problem, the SMART data actually says the opposite: there is a problem with the hard drive.

 

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0

197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       4

198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1

 

As you can see from the parts of the smartctl output I quoted, there are 4 bad sectors that have not been reallocated. Since there are no reallocated sectors at the moment, there should be sufficient spare space to remap them, but they currently are not. Therefore the problems the OP has been having installing Linux Mint on his hard disk could very well be the result of writing data to faulty sectors on the hard disk. I recommend using HDAT2 to remap them.

[Growled Member]

Good catch, xorangekiller. :)

[Shiranui]

imho bios is the latest ver 9/19/2011 p.1.60

In your humble opinion, your bios is the latest ver 9/19/2011 p.1.60?

[simonlang]

running ubuntu 13.04 x64 now. i have replaced unity with cinnamon and installed nemo as default file manager. fast ennough and stable the whole day. :)

[Growled Member]

Glad you got it sorted. It's funny that Linux Mint out of the box didn't provide the same experience.