Solved REALLY, REALLY Slow start up. What to do???

[wizardfromoz]

Sleep well.

 

[Condobloke]

if you are all backed up to your satisfaction, Sherri....consider doing a fresh install of LM22.1 xia

It is quicker and takes away any chances of a mess

 

[bob466]

If ANYONE suggests an SSD....

Yeah, I'm lookin' at you @Condobloke and @bob466 !!!

As I've said before SSDs are 10 times faster than HDDs...even on my 13 year old Laptop...don't knock it till you've tried it.

As for cleaning Mint or any Distro...as we say...Linux isn't windoze...there's very little to do and Linux dosen't slow down or fill up with crap either...this is all you need to do...
https://www.linux.org/threads/do-you-really-need-to-clean-mint.43752/

Hope this helps.

 

[bob466]

Speaking of Boot times...on my spare 500GB SSD yes I did say SSD...I have Mint Cinnamon 22.1...when I type my password and hit Enter...Desktop appears in wait for it...2/3 seconds...something to think about.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I don't want to admit I forgot about this but people helping me need to know ...

• This PC was in storage for 7 months. I got it out this past Sunday. I cleaned up the dust (minimal).
  • I looked online for anything I needed to be concerned about after a long period of storage. The only thing I found was that I should wait for things to warm up before using any app with intense graphics.
• It took a few hours to download and install 7 months of updates.
  • Downloads were very slow.
  • Reboot was required at least one time
  • I got a message that some files could not be installed
  • I thought those files were installed after all other updates were successful.
    • As of now, I'm not sure if they were or not.

I'm going to recap and add to the issues I'm experiencing...

Issues
* See a note at in BLUE text in the section on Zoom​

• Very slow start up!!!
  • This code was entered into the terminal
    • See Post #24 for the results
  • Start up applications shown here are all disabled
    • Disabling them did not help
• Even after PC has been running for several hours apps are very slow to open.
  • After clicking on the app icon the circle thingy spins for a long time then stops, the app does not open.
  • After another extended period of time, they usually open after the second attempt, sometimes more
  • These apps are the ones I most often use, all have this issue
    • Zoom
    • Firefox
    • Libre Office
    • Software manager
  • If I close them and later open them again, they open right away

• I download and installed NordVPN
  • I am NOT using it
  • I have connectivity issues if I try to use it.
    • The connectivity issue isn't consistent
  • I don't want to mess this problem right now.

• Last night I experienced additional problems with Firefox
  • I was browsing this site
    • I opened a link in the thread in a separate tab
  • From the tool bar in the browser, I right-clicked on the GMail icon to open it in a new window
    • My email address is prefilled
    • After clicking 'Next', a new tab opened with a second instance of the GMail
      • I could not switch to the second tab.
      • I could only see a preview of the page when I hovered my mouse on the tab.
  • I went back to the window with this site open and a second tab
    • I couldn't switch between those tabs either.
  • I closed both instances of Firefox
  • I reopened Firefox and still had the same problem.
  • I closed all open programs and rebooted my PC
    • Firefox worked fine

• Libre Office
  
  • The tool bar is barely visible
  • 

• Zoom
  
  • Not fully functional I am now experiencing a new issue in Firefox. I cannot turn off the bold text or change this text back to normal
  • * I added that heading before going on to Audio issues with Zoom.
  • The text was normal again.
  • I changed to bold.
  • I WAS able to switch from bold the normal in the heading
    • Now the text is bold again and I cannot change it
    • Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
    • Today, the audio didn't work.
    • I opened a YouTube video, no sound
      • Still no audio in Zoom
        • When I clicked play, I heard the video AND Zoom

After exiting the above unordered list, text has returned to default settings.
dddd ddddd < I can now switch back and forth between bold and normal settings.

This is my idea of how to proceed from here​

• Skip Stacer for now
• Check my disk health
• Back up my Time Shift SnapShots
• Create an installation drive for Linux 22 and install it.
• Create a VM for Zoom.

I think this is it, all together in once place!

 

[Condobloke]

• Skip Stacer for now

Agreed

• Check my disk health

Absolutely. Most important.
You can use a usb stick with either Linux Mint 21.3 or 22.1 on it...boot to it.....and then install Gsmartcontrol ....so that you can access the HDD for testing. (it must be accessed when it is not being used)

• Back up my Time Shift SnapShots

As you are moving to LM22.1 there is probably no need for the Timeshift snapshots on LM21.3 ?

• Create an installation drive for Linux 22 and install it.

You mean a bootable USB stick?....Yes.
Download from here, ....or download it via torrent....whatever is easiest for you. You dont need to have a vpn running to download an .iso via torrent.

Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia" - Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system.

www.linuxmint.com

• Create a VM for Zoom.

VM ...probably a good idea. I had zoom on my PC for a short time and could not wait to get rid of it. Very intrusive.

Does that PC have sufficient ram to run a vm without dramas ?

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I'm a little confused...

Also, a hard drive check could be a good idea

In software manager: Gsmartcontrol

Install that on the usb stick that you have for Mint 21.3

• You want me to install GSmartControl on the same thumb drive with the Linux Mint 21.3?
  • My boot drive has 21.2.
  • Should I make another boot drive with 21.3 or does it matter?

So, boot the usb stcik you have with Mint 21.3 on it.....go to menu/Software Manager...type in the above gsmart etc...install it

• Boot into Linux Mint 21.3 LIVE ? From the USB thumb drive?
• Then install GSmartControl again?

I'm going to wait for clarification..


In the mean time, Since I am confused I used 'Disks' to check my drive.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Does that PC have sufficient ram to run a vm without dramas ?

I have 11.66 GB of RAM

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@Condobloke

I'm going to create a new bootable thumb drive with

Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia"​

 

[Condobloke]

Should I make another boot drive with 21.3 or does it matter?

Put it down to lack of sleep...see below

I'm going to create a new bootable thumb drive with

Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia"​

Way to go !!....When you have it booted (but NOT fully installed) install Gsmartcontrol and test the hdd.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I'm really glad I'm using this instead.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

After staring at this for a while and starting to really ponder the idea that chemotherapy killed some brain cells too...

Way to go !!....When you have it booted (but NOT fully installed)

I think I understand this part.

• Download an ISO image of LM 22.1
• Create a bootable thumb drive.
• Boot into LM 22.1 Live

Right here is where I get confused

install Gsmartcontrol and test the hdd.

• Do I download Gsmartcontrol before or after I boot into LM Live?
• Exactly where am I supposed to install it?
• It sounds like I'm installing Gsmartcontrol on the USB drive.
  • This doesn't seem right.
  • I'm not at all saying this is what you mean, it's what makes sense to me. But hey, I'm a born-again-Newvbie! What do I know!!!
    • In addition to the ISO image...
      • Save the Gsmartcontrol installation files on the same thumb drive
      • Boot into LM 22.1 Live
      • Once in the Live desktop open the menu and search for Gsmartcontrol
      • Install Gsmartcontrol in the Live LM 22.1 Desktop?

I'll stop here!

21 minutes left on the download.
I already formatted the USB drive

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Just checked...
I don't have to format the USB drive. This is Linux. I did erase the old files so everything is squeaky clean for a fresh install!

 

[Mike-BTU]

Ok, it's slow. The question is why?

Do you know how hard each CPU core is working? We need to establish that, and I don't recall this being discussed here. Perhaps there is a process hogging all the CPU time, thus slowing everything down.

Please run top -id1 in a terminal.
Or better yet, htop.

What percentage is each core loaded?

 

[Mike-BTU]

It remains slow even after startup?

A couple of things that come to mind, that I have seen:

Perhaps there's a bad connection somewhere, but let's take one step at a time.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Ok, it's slow. The question is why?

Do you know how hard each CPU core is working? We need to establish that, and I don't recall this being discussed here. Perhaps there is a process hogging all the CPU time, thus slowing everything down.

Please run top -id1 in a terminal.
Or better yet, htop.

What percentage is each core loaded?

At the moment I'm downloading an ISO for LM 22.1
I used the Torrent on the LM site to download. I've never used one before. I think it's finished, it's not giving me anymore estimated time left.

I'm not sure though.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Perhaps there's a bad connection somewhere, but let's take one step at a time.

If you mean a physical connection in the tower, there is nothing visible. I just cleaned it Sunday and checked everything because it was in storage for so long. Nothing looks brittle or damaged

 

[Mike-BTU]

If you mean a physical connection in the tower, there is nothing visible. I just cleaned it Sunday and checked everything because it was in storage for so long. Nothing looks brittle or damaged

I meant the plug-in connections on the motherboard, drives, and accessories. Even the RAM.

First, have you checked your CPU core usage percent? Was I clear when I wrote that?

 

[Mike-BTU]

apt install top htop
...if necessary.

You can do that, and run htop in a terminal, while you're downloading or doing anything else.

 

[Condobloke]

burn the .iso to a thumb drive....use balena etcher?

Then boot to the thumb drive.....so you get a LIVE version of 22.1

Open software manager on 22.1....(it will take a while....first time opening)......search for and install Gsmartcontrol.

SO, you will have a Live version of LM22.1, running in ram, with gsmartcontrol installed

Follow the blurb I put up before to test the HDD. (You can access linux.org from a browser (prob firefox) to then access Linux.org, and then to access that blurb again