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



The fan speed is 0. Maybe it's a temperature related problem?

Well that's not right as I have the case open and can see both fans spinning normally. CPUID on Win7 has the CPU fan currently at 1250rpm and case fan at 1150rpm. The fans aren't using PWM, those readings show as 0 (in the BIOS, fan mode is set to auto). CPU temp at around 52c for core 1, 47c for core 1. This is with a music video playing in Firefox.
 
Well that's not right as I have the case open and can see both fans spinning normally. CPUID on Win7 has the CPU fan currently at 1250rpm and case fan at 1150rpm. The fans aren't using PWM, those readings show as 0 (in the BIOS, fan mode is set to auto). CPU temp at around 52c for core 1, 47c for core 1. This is with a music video playing in Firefox.
That can well be. Linux is sometimes a bit confused about the fan controllers on a mainboard...
 
That result that you got from memtest, in my opinion, is too quick.....judging by published results that I see.....and that especially applies to the 5 minutes !

The bulk of tests that I have read about all appear to be around 1 hour, for completeness.

Feel like purchasing an 8gb memory stick?....to try on its own..?....and either blow or brush the memory slots out first.
 
If it's the memory then all four dimms would have to be faulty because I've tried all four of them separately 2Gb at a time and got the same results, crashing either at the login screen or after logging in and trying to open things. But they would also have to be selectively faulty, knowing to work when running Win7 but not when running Linux.

I don't get it. It did seem like the sort of fault that would be caused by bad memory but they seem to be fine - except for the one odd thing that I cannot put the newer dimms in slots 2 and 4, they have to go in 1 and 3. Don't know why - all four are what Kingston specified at the time of purchase for this motherboard on their website.

If I'm buying new memory I may as well be buying a whole new m/b, cpu and memory for it, I don't want to spend any more on old hardware. The idea was to put it to good use by putting Linux on it.
 
Well, I just asked ChatGPT....

"There are several hardware faults in a PC that could cause Linux to crash while Windows does not. Here are some possibilities:
  1. Incompatible or faulty hardware drivers: Linux may not have proper or compatible drivers for certain hardware components. If the driver is not optimized for Linux, it may cause crashes. Windows, on the other hand, has a large driver database, and many drivers are pre-installed, so it may not experience these issues.
  2. Memory issues: Linux may be more sensitive to memory problems than Windows. If a memory module is faulty or not configured correctly, it could cause crashes in Linux, but Windows may still function without issues.
  3. Overclocked components: Linux may be more susceptible to instability caused by overclocked hardware components, such as the CPU or GPU. Windows, on the other hand, may be more forgiving of these overclocks.
  4. Power supply issues: Linux may be more sensitive to fluctuations in power supply, which could cause it to crash. Windows may have more tolerance for these power supply issues.
  5. BIOS/UEFI issues: If the BIOS or UEFI firmware is outdated or corrupted, it may cause Linux to crash but not Windows.
Overall, Linux is more sensitive to hardware issues than Windows due to the way it interacts with the hardware. It is often used on servers or high-performance systems, where the hardware is carefully selected and tested for compatibility, to minimize the risk of hardware-related crashes."

Hmmm.
 
That result that you got from memtest, in my opinion, is too quick.....judging by published results that I see.....and that especially applies to the 5 minutes !

The bulk of tests that I have read about all appear to be around 1 hour, for completeness.

Feel like purchasing an 8gb memory stick?....to try on its own..?....and either blow or brush the memory slots out first.

Okay I was a bit out with that, I just ran it again with 8Gb in and it was just about 33m to get the first pass.
 
There's a gremlin in the works.......somewhere !
 
I found this, because I left memtest running for another pass and it got much slower

Seems that from version 4 the first pass has been made faster so maybe that's why you thought it sounded too quick.
 
maybe...?.....you have nothing to lose by letting it run

Any chance it may be worth blowing out the slots again?....have a close look through a magnifying glass....or similar?......discoloured 'tooth'/'teeth' on one of the sticks?

This would be driving me bonkers !
 
My 11 year old Laptop 4GB of Ram...i5 CPU...64 bit and integrated Graphics and came with w7...it's had several versions of Linux Lite and several versions of Mint cinnamon running on it for years with no problems.

The only thing I changed was I swapped the HDD for a 500GB SSD...My Tower which I built 10 years ago has had only three changes...a power supply...fan and a 500GB SSD...it also was running w7 till 2015.

The Tower has been running Mint Cinnamon from 17.2 to now...nearly 8 years with no problems...I can't work out what is causing your problem as I've never had it.
m1212.gif


As for ChatGPT...I've never heard of it...total BS...both my computers are proof of that...sounds like something m$ would say.
m09004.gif
 
@Lord Boltar , the OP's inxi -G output was already included from inxi -Fxzd command output displayed in #10 on page 1.

It reads

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

G'day @redwhiteandblue and welcome to linux.org, or is it a nightmare? ;)

So much help suggested. Maybe getting hard to answer all questions, or to keep track of them.

I note that you did not answer @osprey at #14 on page 1, where he asked for output of

Code:
dmesg | grep -i microcode
dmesg | grep -i firmware

If you can see your way clear to provide that, that would be good.

@osprey you also said

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).

Mint does not have that package in the repos, it has

firmware-sof-signed:

firmware-b43-installer:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1:019-7build2

firmware-misc-nonfree:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: (none)
Version table:

firmware-microbit-micropython:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1.0.1-2
Version table:
1.0.1-2 500

firmware-ast:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 20140808-4
Version table:
20140808-4 500

firmware-b43legacy-installer:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1:019-7build2
Version table:
1:019-7build2 500

firmware-microbit-micropython-doc:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1.0.1-2
Version table:
1.0.1-2 500

firmware-ath9k-htc:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1.4.0-106-gc583009+dfsg1-1ubuntu1
Version table:
1.4.0-106-gc583009+dfsg1-1ubuntu1 500

firmware-tomu:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 2.0~rc7-2
Version table:
2.0~rc7-2 500

...but you can see there that firmware-misc-nonfree is referenced there. We can likely get it at pkgs.org if you think it is required.

@redwhiteandblue - you said you think you are back on Vera MATE. Two easy ways of checking, and you could let us know -

1. If you have an icon for Home on your Desktop, right-click it. If it offers an option to rename (not greyed out) you are on MATE.
2. Press your Start icon bottom left, if it offers a choice for Control Center, you are on MATE.

I also think maybe you did not get the context of what @osprey asked here, at #37 on page 2:

redwhiteandblue wrote:

Can I get to the CLI before the desktop loads, is there a way to do that?
To boot to a text prompt you press e when the grub menu appears. It brings up a configuration text, so you navigate down to the linux line (using arrow keys if it's not on screen), add 3 after a space to that linux line and press cntl+x to boot. It should boot to a prompt.

When, in your Grub Menu, you have your Linux Mint line highlighted, and you press 'e', you should get output that looks a little like mine. Several lines down is a line that begins with

linux

Mine looks as follows

linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-60-generic root=UUID=db09665e-ed5c-4fa5-bd13-e4b263effa5d ro noquiet nosplash

Yours may have

quiet splash

at the end.

What @osprey was asking for was for you to arrow down to that line and place a 3 at the end, so mine would look like

linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-60-generic root=UUID=db09665e-ed5c-4fa5-bd13-e4b263effa5d ro noquiet nosplash 3

then Ctrl-x or could be F10, to boot.

That will boot you to a prompt. The change only lasts for that current boot, and once you reboot, it reverts to the usual.

Finally (yay, they cry)

If it is still considered possibly a graphics issue, I have Linux Mint 21.1 'Vera' MATE in my stable (I run 84 Linux distros) and I have been using it to check options with nomodeset, and with xrandr to change the graphics config. You can let me know if you want to try those options.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Thankyou Wizard and g'day to you. I won't quote your post or this thread will fill up mighty quickly!

Yes I haven't got around to answering everyone's suggestions. But, here we go....

I'm using the shift key held down to bring up the Grub menu, and then selecting recovery mode I get the recovery menu. From here, dropping to a root shell prompt:

dmesg | grep -i microcode produces this:
Code:
[ 0.117561] MDS: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode
[ 0.140194] core: PEBS disabled due to CPU errata, please upgrade microcode

dmesg | grep -i firmware produces nothing.
 
This is Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon btw. That's the distro I'm going to try and install since it doesn't seem to be a problem specific to that.
 
But apt-get install intel-microcode tells me
"intel-microcode is already the newest version (3.20220809.0ubuntu0.22.04.1)"
 
Alright forget all that - booting straight to the desktop and with it allowing me to log in without crashing (in software rendering mode), I get
Code:
$ dmesg | grep microcode
[ 0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x2f, date = 2019-02-17
[ 0.968956] microcode: sig=0x206a7, pf=0x2, revision=0x2f
[ 0.968994] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.2.

and I just had to type that out as it's crashed before I could copy and paste it into a text file.
 
Searching for "firmware" gives:
Code:
[ 0.107665] Spectre V2 : Enabling Restricted Speculation for firmware calls
 
BIOS Says from post #10 - BIOS: Award v: F1 date: 11/12/2010 - so it is original BIOS

Latest is F5 1.47 MB 2011/01/28 - link in my post #52
 

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