Help! Cannot install any version of Linux on 12 yr old machine

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Hello,

I'm hoping someone here can suggest something to solve this problem because I'm completely stumped.

I'm fairly new to Linux but not new to building PCs. The machine I'm trying to install on is one I built in 2011 using what were then bang up to date components. It currently consists of:

Intel i3 2120 processor
Gigabyte GA-H67M-UD2H m/b (no graphics card, just the onboard Intel graphics)
8Gb of DDR2 RAM
WD Caviar 500Gb HDD
Crucial BX500 120Gb SSD

The HDD has Windows 7 on it which had been running absolutely fine all the time I had used it up until about four years ago. At that point I built a new machine and this one became spare. I decided it would be useful to start learning how to use Linux as part of what I do is to run websites on LAMP servers. So I put the SSD in it, installed CentOS 7 and disconnected the HDD. So now it would boot into CentOS 7. But I never really used it much, and a few days ago I decided it would be better to put a more user friendly Linux version on it - ultimately I want to have Apache running on it so I can use it for web development purposes.

I tried the latest version of Linux Mint Cinnamon. Downloaded, burnt onto a USB stick with Etcher, inserted into old machine, changed the BIOS to boot from USB first, and tried to install. But, it would crash before getting to the end of installation. When I say crash, the keyboard and mouse would become unresponsive and screen would be frozen.

Linux Mint has the option to install in compatibility mode so I tried that. Doing that will get me through the install process, but then after reboot it will crash soon after the desktop appears. Either within a few seconds, or after trying to open something like Firefox or the file manager. It would be random, not at the same point each time.

So I thought maybe this isn't the OS for this machine, let's try Linux Mint Mate.

Nope, same thing.

I tried an older version of Linux Mint. Same thing.

So then I tried Ubuntu Desktop. The same thing is happening - crashing during the install process. And same with Manjaro, same with Xubuntu. Again with Xubuntu, it will crash during the install process unless I install in "safe graphics" mode, then it will install but crash after reboot.

I've used two different USB sticks so I don't think that's the problem.

So by now you're thinking it's a hardware issue. Well I ran a BIOS memory test and it's fine. And, if I unplug the SSD and reconnect the HDD, it will boot into Windows 7 and that will run very happily and do tasks like playing Youtube videos, encoding things with Handbrake, etc etc.

So now you're thinking, maybe it's the SSD failing.

Nope. The last thing I have tried is installing Xubuntu in dual boot mode alongside Windows 7 on the HDD. It still crashes soon after the desktop appears.

How can it be that this hardware will happily run Win7 but none of the Linux distros I've tried? It's not an unusual hardware combo. Can it be something to do with the onboard graphics? Where do I start trying to find the cause? I've tried turning all sorts of things on and off in the BIOS - quick boot is disabled, legacy USB has been disabled and enabled, nothing makes any difference.
 


Welcome to the forums,
first, you said you tried 2 versions of mint and one Ubuntu, when booted did you get the live desktop where you can test it on your machine?
if no, then there is a problem with either your download, your pen-drive or your method
if yes and everything was working, then it's probably an installation problem,
see my basic guide " how do I install" [link in my signature]
I see you have 2 main drives, did you select which to install to?
 
Additionally you won't have windows quick start on a w7 machine but may need to switch off secure boot
 
Welcome to the forums,
first, you said you tried 2 versions of mint and one Ubuntu, when booted did you get the live desktop where you can test it on your machine?
if no, then there is a problem with either your download, your pen-drive or your method
if yes and everything was working, then it's probably an installation problem,
see my basic guide " how do I install" [link in my signature]
I see you have 2 main drives, did you select which to install to?

Thankyou. The only way I can get to the desktop is by installing in compatibility mode, so far I have only done that with Linux Mint and Xubuntu. With Linux Mint it seemed that once installed, the desktop is fine and does not crash, until I reboot. All other versions have crashed during the install at different points, almost always when selecting one of the set up options.

I do have two drives physically in the machine but I always unplug one or the other so there is only ever the HDD or the SDD available, not both at the same time. When installing to the SSD I always select to erase everything and do a clean install.
 
ok, so..
1,do not unplug the second drive, especially if it still has windows on it
2, can you choose to boot from the bios? pick your distribution [make sure both drives are connected first]
3, you should get a grub screen, it will say
linux ???????
linux??? [advanced mode/options] highlight and open]
scroll down to repair/fix broken and highlight,then enter now let it run untill it finishes and enter,
at this point it will either load your chosen linux or not boot to linux [don't worry] go back to step 2 and this time highlight the linux build and enter, it should boot in,
you will now need to repair grub [see this article https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-repair-the-grub2-boot-loader-on-linux/]
 
Right well I haven't done that yet but since my last post I have re-installed Mint 21.1 Vera (whatever happened to be on the first USB stick so I think this is Mate). Using the option to install in compatibility mode, it gets to the desktop, allows me to click on the Install icon, and finishes the install (this time I tried not checking the box to install codecs). I selected "continue to test" and continued to test. I had FF open and playing a Youtube video, whilst at the same time, browsing to my NAS and playing an mp4 video from there. Everything worked smoothly, both videos happily playing at the same time, no crashes.

I shut it down and rebooted. Literally as soon as I went to open FF to do the same thing again, it has crashed.
 
I note that in test mode (or compatibility mode) the desktop is in (I think) 1024x768 resolution, after rebooting it is in I believe the full native resolution of the monitor, 1920x1080.
 
Not sure, maybe a year or so.

Anyway, I went back to square one and re-installed CentOS 7 from the ISO from 4 years ago (CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1810.iso). This comes without a GUI so I then installed Cinnamon. I already did this the first time round. It's quite happy running that but only in 1280x1024 resolution, and display shows as "unknown".

So then I installed Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon again. Now I have got it to boot without crashing ONLY if I boot it in software rendering mode. And the desktop is in 1280x1024. When I click on display settings I get the message "1 Unknown Display" in red in the top left corner.

So this is something to do with graphics drivers, trying to run the desktop (or even the install process) in 1920x1080 is what is causing it to crash. But as for how to fix that, I have no clue. If I run Administration -> Driver manager it says No drivers needed.

How do I find the right driver or whatever I need to make this work as it should, anyone any idea?
 
Here's the output from inxi, I note that under "Graphics: Device-1" it says "driver: N/A"....should there be something there?

Code:
xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx-H67M-UD2H:~$ inxi -Fxzd
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-56-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.5 Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera
    base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: H67M-UD2H serial: <superuser required>
    BIOS: Award v: F1 date: 11/12/2010
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i3-2120 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1705 high: 1805 min/max: 1600/3300 cores: 1: 1804
    2: 1617 3: 1805 4: 1596 bogomips: 26340
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    vendor: Gigabyte driver: N/A bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: vesa
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting gpu: N/A resolution: 1280x1024
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 13.0.1 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 22.0.5
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
    vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-56-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169 v: kernel port: ee00 bus-ID: 02:00.0
  IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 111.79 GiB used: 10.16 GiB (9.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT120BX500SSD1 size: 111.79 GiB
  Floppy-1: /dev/fd0
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 108.98 GiB used: 10.15 GiB (9.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 512 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 194 Uptime: 36m Memory: 7.68 GiB used: 983.1 MiB (12.5%)
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 Packages: 2134 Shell: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13
 
What is output from..

lspci | grep VGA

and...

lsmod | grep video
 
What is output from..

lspci | grep VGA

and...

lsmod | grep video

Code:
xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx-H67M-UD2H:~$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx-H67M-UD2H:~$ lsmod | grep video
video                  61440  1 i915
 
Well that's very strange...on my 10 year old Tower...16GB RAM...i5 CPU...64bit and a 500GB SSD...I'm running Mint Cinnamon 21.1 with no problems at all...I'm also using the Graphics Driver that comes with Mint too.
m1212.gif


Did you install it correctly...https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

On Re-Boot I start tapping F12...this brings up the Boot menu and I select my Flash Drive and install from there...I doubt Mint is the problem.
m1512.gif
 
redwhiteandblue wrote:
How do I find the right driver or whatever I need to make this work as it should, anyone any idea?
....
video 61440 1 i915
Your post #10 shows you're running the vesa driver which is why the resolution is sub-optimal. Evidently your intel graphics card needs the i915 driver, so you need xserver-xorg-video-intel installed, and the firmware from the package: firmware-misc-nonfree, (or whatever the equivalent package is in mint). You could also check for intel microcode (as well as firmware) by running something like:
Code:
dmesg | grep -i microcode
dmesg | grep -i firmware
to check if the kernel thinks some of it is missing. If it's missing, you can usually just install it.
 
Well that's very strange...on my 10 year old Tower...16GB RAM...i5 CPU...64bit and a 500GB SSD...I'm running Mint Cinnamon 21.1 with no problems at all...I'm also using the Graphics Driver that comes with Mint too.
m1212.gif


Did you install it correctly...https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

On Re-Boot I start tapping F12...this brings up the Boot menu and I select my Flash Drive and install from there...I doubt Mint is the problem.
m1512.gif

No you're right, Mint is not the problem. Mint is just the distro I would prefer to be able to have working. If you read my first post you'll see I've tried about five different distros and every single one will crash somewhere during the install process *IF* I do not choose a "compatibility mode" or "safe graphics" option at the start of the install. Even CentOS 7, which doesn't have a GUI does this. When I do successfully install one, the desktop will run fine immediately after but it's in 1280x1024 resolution. When I reboot, it presumably detects my monitor and goes into 1920x1080 and then will crash very soon after the desktop appears.

So the problem is with Linux, this particular hardware combo, and something to do with the 1920x1080 screen resolution or maybe with the Intel on-board graphics hardware. But it works fine in Win7.

Is your old tower using the on-board graphics with no discrete graphics card?
 
Graphics: Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Gigabyte driver: N/A
This should say driver i915 [this is included in most distributions and Kernels and should self load]]

this is my inxi yours should look somewhat similar

Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel
 
This should say driver i915 [this is included in most distributions and Kernels and should self load]]

this is my inxi yours should look somewhat similar

Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel

Okay. But bear in mind that I did that in "software rendering" mode, so maybe in that mode that driver isn't loaded?
 
Is there any chance that your monitor is about to fail ?

Another member here had that experience just yesterday.

Got a spare monitor or a TV you can hook up to ?

I highly doubt it because as I said, it all works fine with Win7.

But, as it happens I have a very old AGNeovo monitor which still just about works so I've plugged that in via the DVI socket. This one is 4:3 aspect and only goes up to 1280x1024 so I will see how far I can get with it.
 
But, as it happens I have a very old AGNeovo monitor which still just about works so I've plugged that in via the DVI socket. This one is 4:3 aspect and only goes up to 1280x1024 so I will see how far I can get with it.

....and it's crashed in the "Welcome" dialogue.

So it's not the actual resolution that is doing it. It must be the hardware acceleration.

I will now try reinstalling by editing the start option and changing "quiet splash" to "nouveau.noaccel=1" as advised here https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boot_options.html

It's all fun and games!
 

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