Kernel Panic

[Christina]

Back again lol Had a failed update and when I try to restart it goes nuts and ends with a kernel panic hahaha I can boot an older version which I chose from the menu at startup and am using now but want to make sure I update correctly to fix the boot problem. Said it could not boot, something about missing file I think.....
I run Ubuntu 16.04 and all I catch at the end of the messages is something about not being able to mount.
So how do I update using terminal for this problem...

 

[Christina]

I just used software updater to try to update and it had me run a partial upgrade because some of the updates could not be done so I did and this time it booted but I still need to know how to update from terminal and would like to fix the problems on this computer..... runs slow as **** . Also, firefox crashes alot and both firefox and chromium are running very slow (course that could be my satellite internet )

 

[atanere]

I just used software updater to try to update and it had me run a partial upgrade because some of the updates could not be done so I did and this time it booted but I still need to know how to update from terminal and would like to fix the problems on this computer..... runs slow as **** . Also, firefox crashes alot and both firefox and chromium are running very slow (course that could be my satellite internet )

OK, that sounds like progress, right? It's booting now without selecting the older kernel?

I'm pretty sure that Ubuntu will automatically update the kernel unless you specifically tell it not to. When you ran the updater again just now, it may have self-corrected the problem it was having. It is probably best to just let that regular update happen unless you continue to run into problems.

But, these terminal commands should update the kernel if needed:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If you are willing to install a special app for kernel updates, this page looks interesting.

About crashing and running slow (not counting slow internet connections)... I don't find Linux to suffer from those system slow-downs nearly as much as Windows, but I would probably take the same approach: it might be time to re-install from scratch. But before that, you might be sure to disable some or all browser "plugins" or "add-ons" that you may have... those can also cause trouble sometimes. There are some other things too if you see serious slow-downs... the top command can show you the running processes that are using the most resources, and you might identify a problem app that you could uninstall. But it can be quite a challenge sometimes to find slow-down issues.

 

[Christina]

OK, that sounds like progress, right? It's booting now without selecting the older kernel?

I'm pretty sure that Ubuntu will automatically update the kernel unless you specifically tell it not to. When you ran the updater again just now, it may have self-corrected the problem it was having. It is probably best to just let that regular update happen unless you continue to run into problems.

But, these terminal commands should update the kernel if needed:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If you are willing to install a special app for kernel updates, this page looks interesting.

About crashing and running slow (not counting slow internet connections)... I don't find Linux to suffer from those system slow-downs nearly as much as Windows, but I would probably take the same approach: it might be time to re-install from scratch. But before that, you might be sure to disable some or all browser "plugins" or "add-ons" that you may have... those can also cause trouble sometimes. There are some other things too if you see serious slow-downs... the top command can show you the running processes that are using the most resources, and you might identify a problem app that you could uninstall. But it can be quite a challenge sometimes to find slow-down issues.

Yes, progress! No, I didn't have to choose lol. What is the 'top' command? How do I do that? Any idea which plugins or add-ons cause problems? I don't have many but I know flash player has been crashing and I do use ad blockers......

 

[atanere]

The top command lists running processes and shows CPU and RAM usage. Open a terminal, enter the command and watch it run. Use CNTL-C to make it stop and return you to a prompt. If you open the terminal full screen, you will see many processes that are running, but you will notice that almost all are 0% on CPU/RAM. The items at the top of the list are those that are the most active, and you'll see them changing from one to another as each gets a bit of time slice from the CPU. It can be a bit misleading, so don't let it worry you much unless you see high activity from one or more programs that you did not start yourself. But for example, I was running 2 browsers, Firefox and Opera, and it was obvious that Firefox was taking up much more resources than Opera (part of the reason I run Opera more often).

If you think plugins or addons may be a problem, you can start Firefox in "safe mode" so that all plugins are disabled for that session. If Firefox is running, you can get to safe mode by clicking the 3 horizontal line icon for settings, then click the Question Mark at the bottom to get the Help menu, then choose "Restart with Addons Disabled." If Firefox is not running, you can launch it from a terminal with this command:

firefox -safe-mode

or you may have to use this instead:

/usr/lib/firefox -safe-mode

If disabling your addons makes things better, then you can start to figure out which one is the culprit. I don't think that any one in particular is always bad, some are just bad for some people.

There may be a similar way to start Chrome or Chromium if use addons with those, but I didn't look for those yet.

 

[Christina]

The top command lists running processes and shows CPU and RAM usage. Open a terminal, enter the command and watch it run. Use CNTL-C to make it stop and return you to a prompt. If you open the terminal full screen, you will see many processes that are running, but you will notice that almost all are 0% on CPU/RAM. The items at the top of the list are those that are the most active, and you'll see them changing from one to another as each gets a bit of time slice from the CPU. It can be a bit misleading, so don't let it worry you much unless you see high activity from one or more programs that you did not start yourself. But for example, I was running 2 browsers, Firefox and Opera, and it was obvious that Firefox was taking up much more resources than Opera (part of the reason I run Opera more often).

If you think plugins or addons may be a problem, you can start Firefox in "safe mode" so that all plugins are disabled for that session. If Firefox is running, you can get to safe mode by clicking the 3 horizontal line icon for settings, then click the Question Mark at the bottom to get the Help menu, then choose "Restart with Addons Disabled." If Firefox is not running, you can launch it from a terminal with this command:

firefox -safe-mode

or you may have to use this instead:

/usr/lib/firefox -safe-mode

If disabling your addons makes things better, then you can start to figure out which one is the culprit. I don't think that any one in particular is always bad, some are just bad for some people.

There may be a similar way to start Chrome or Chromium if use addons with those, but I didn't look for those yet.

This is what I got:

 

[Christina]

I don't think it is just firefox although that is the first one that seems to have problems especially with an unresponsive script....... maybe it is just my computer..... when I restart it runs ok for awhile.... how do I reinstall properly? Should I do it from the website or from the usb drive? Will that uninstall old stuff? Is opera better than chromium?

 

[atanere]

The top command shows you have 5 instances of Chromium running. That shouldn't be a big deal, I don't think, but you might try running just a single instance since slowness is an issue.

A full re-install would have to be done from a USB or DVD, and you'd tell it to use your whole hard drive... so everything that is on it would be erased. I like to do that because it makes everything new again, but that's drastic and not everyone agrees with my philosophy about that! But it also a good time to experiment and try a different distro. Since you're using Ubuntu now, you might could try Linux Mint, or Linux Lite, or something else to expand your horizons a bit.

I don't know that I'd say Opera is "better"... I have used it for many years and I'm fond of it. But I like Chrome/Chromium and Firefox too... I use all of them. On my Android phone I also use the Dolphin browser.

Trying to solve a "slowness" issue can be difficult. Sometimes it is just a perception... you think it is slow, but it could be that it is working fine for your computer hardware, your RAM, your particular desktop (Ubuntu Unity is not the fastest, but it should be adequate at least). Like you mentioned before, it may be that the "slowness" is the Internet, and not the computer at all. You said the computer starts off okay... so maybe just more frequent reboots is a simple solution (because, for example, a true cause could be a bad RAM chip, and we will likely never discover that). If you have a hardware problem, like a bad RAM chip, then re-installing Linux or installing a new distro will not ultimately help that, but it might lead you to realize there is a hardware issue. Trying to sort through all the possibilities can be fun, or frustrating, depending on how you look at it.

 

[Christina]

The top command shows you have 5 instances of Chromium running. That shouldn't be a big deal, I don't think, but you might try running just a single instance since slowness is an issue.

A full re-install would have to be done from a USB or DVD, and you'd tell it to use your whole hard drive... so everything that is on it would be erased. I like to do that because it makes everything new again, but that's drastic and not everyone agrees with my philosophy about that! But it also a good time to experiment and try a different distro. Since you're using Ubuntu now, you might could try Linux Mint, or Linux Lite, or something else to expand your horizons a bit.

I don't know that I'd say Opera is "better"... I have used it for many years and I'm fond of it. But I like Chrome/Chromium and Firefox too... I use all of them. On my Android phone I also use the Dolphin browser.

Trying to solve a "slowness" issue can be difficult. Sometimes it is just a perception... you think it is slow, but it could be that it is working fine for your computer hardware, your RAM, your particular desktop (Ubuntu Unity is not the fastest, but it should be adequate at least). Like you mentioned before, it may be that the "slowness" is the Internet, and not the computer at all. You said the computer starts off okay... so maybe just more frequent reboots is a simple solution (because, for example, a true cause could be a bad RAM chip, and we will likely never discover that). If you have a hardware problem, like a bad RAM chip, then re-installing Linux or installing a new distro will not ultimately help that, but it might lead you to realize there is a hardware issue. Trying to sort through all the possibilities can be fun, or frustrating, depending on how you look at it.

Old as this laptop is it probably is a bad chip. Does that count every tab that is open? I only have one window open on chrome but usually 3-5 tabs. Internet is not the only thing that is slow, I am beginning to notice that when I click to open other things (like solitaire ) it usually takes a minute or so before the click is even realized..... Maybe I will try mint. I will have to use a usb because my dvd drive is still not working......
Thanks so much for all the help..... my son said you guys here were great..... he used to be on here quite a bit.....

 

[atanere]

Old as this laptop is it probably is a bad chip. Does that count every tab that is open? I only have one window open on chrome but usually 3-5 tabs. Internet is not the only thing that is slow, I am beginning to notice that when I click to open other things (like solitaire ) it usually takes a minute or so before the click is even realized..... Maybe I will try mint. I will have to use a usb because my dvd drive is still not working......
Thanks so much for all the help..... my son said you guys here were great..... he used to be on here quite a bit.....

I was just looking at the top command, and it looks like each open tab shows up as a separate process. This should not be a big deal though with just a few tabs as you are using. For programs to be excessively slow to open after clicking on them... that usually seems like memory issues (not enough RAM or too many things running at one time). You said it runs better when first booted up, so to run more poorly later also seems like it could be memory... not necessarily a bad chip, but maybe that you could just use more memory. Do you know how much RAM you have?

This will check your memory in megabytes:

free -m

Try running this command when you first boot up to see how much is used and how much is free, and then run it again later when the computer is slowing down and compare the results.

 

[atanere]

Oh, another thing you can do to actually test your RAM... when you boot up the computer, on the GRUB menu, is probably a selection for memtest86+ which will do some thorough testing. It may run for quite a long time just to finish one pass with all of its tests, but it may show you if there is a problem with one or more memory chips.

I have 8GB of RAM in this desktop, and it took about 45-50 minutes to complete one pass. I didn't have any errors so I hit ESC to quit at that point.

 

[Christina]

I was just looking at the top command, and it looks like each open tab shows up as a separate process. This should not be a big deal though with just a few tabs as you are using. For programs to be excessively slow to open after clicking on them... that usually seems like memory issues (not enough RAM or too many things running at one time). You said it runs better when first booted up, so to run more poorly later also seems like it could be memory... not necessarily a bad chip, but maybe that you could just use more memory. Do you know how much RAM you have?

This will check your memory in megabytes:

free -m

Try running this command when you first boot up to see how much is used and how much is free, and then run it again later when the computer is slowing down and compare the results.

This is after it has been up about 3 hours. Looks like I have plenty left but....
How do I find how much ram I have? I think memory is 3.5

 

[atanere]

This is after it has been up about 3 hours. Looks like I have plenty left but.... How do I find how much ram I have? I think memory is 3.5

The numbers are a little funny to read, but I'm pretty sure you have 4GB of RAM, even though it shows "3553" total. That's pretty common for a laptop and it should be enough if it's all working correctly. It's using just a small bit of swap space... that is hard drive space that Linux uses as a kind of RAM overflow, so it may have needed that space at some point before your snapshot and it hadn't been freed up yet. Was the computer running well at this point? Or poorly?

Check the free -m command after a fresh reboot and compare the numbers. There should be more free, more available probably, and used swap space should be zero. And run it again anytime you think it is running poorly to compare the numbers some more.

Also, when you get about a free hour or so to test it, reboot and run the memtest86+ from the GRUB menu. That should be a pretty good confirmation that the RAM chips themselves are okay.

If the free -m seems to show a lot of used memory and/or a lot of used swap space, it might be some program that could be "leaking" memory. But I don't think the numbers in your snapshot are too bad really. Maybe some other folks will have a better idea on this also.

 

[Christina]

The numbers are a little funny to read, but I'm pretty sure you have 4GB of RAM, even though it shows "3553" total. That's pretty common for a laptop and it should be enough if it's all working correctly. It's using just a small bit of swap space... that is hard drive space that Linux uses as a kind of RAM overflow, so it may have needed that space at some point before your snapshot and it hadn't been freed up yet. Was the computer running well at this point? Or poorly?

Check the free -m command after a fresh reboot and compare the numbers. There should be more free, more available probably, and used swap space should be zero. And run it again anytime you think it is running poorly to compare the numbers some more.

Also, when you get about a free hour or so to test it, reboot and run the memtest86+ from the GRUB menu. That should be a pretty good confirmation that the RAM chips themselves are okay.

If the free -m seems to show a lot of used memory and/or a lot of used swap space, it might be some program that could be "leaking" memory. But I don't think the numbers in your snapshot are too bad really. Maybe some other folks will have a better idea on this also.

Here are the screen shots from the free -m after computer got slow and at startup. What do you think? Also, I don't always get the grub menu so haven't been able to run test

 

[atanere]

Yeah, I'd guess that the memory issue is what's slowing you down, although it doesn't really look terrible. I tend to think that you should not need to use swap space with 4GB of RAM, so that kinda strikes me as a possible clue. Using swap is slower than RAM, but having it available keep the system from crashing when memory runs low.

The fresh boot has the most free memory and is not using any swap space on the hard drive.
Slowed system is down to less than 1GB of free memory, and it is swapping 112 MB.

When its running slowly, paste this command into a terminal and see what shows up with the highest %MEM:

ps --sort -rss -eo pid,pmem,rss,vsz,comm | head -16

This may show one (or more) programs that are using an unusually high percentage of memory, and this may indicate a "memory leak" or a runaway process.

 

[Christina]

Yeah, I'd guess that the memory issue is what's slowing you down, although it doesn't really look terrible. I tend to think that you should not need to use swap space with 4GB of RAM, so that kinda strikes me as a possible clue. Using swap is slower than RAM, but having it available keep the system from crashing when memory runs low.

The fresh boot has the most free memory and is not using any swap space on the hard drive.
Slowed system is down to less than 1GB of free memory, and it is swapping 112 MB.

When its running slowly, paste this command into a terminal and see what shows up with the highest %MEM:

ps --sort -rss -eo pid,pmem,rss,vsz,comm | head -16

This may show one (or more) programs that are using an unusually high percentage of memory, and this may indicate a "memory leak" or a runaway process.

Ok, I did the mem test (I think lol) here is what it looks like. Does it start over on it's own when done?

 

[Christina]

Yeah, I'd guess that the memory issue is what's slowing you down, although it doesn't really look terrible. I tend to think that you should not need to use swap space with 4GB of RAM, so that kinda strikes me as a possible clue. Using swap is slower than RAM, but having it available keep the system from crashing when memory runs low.

The fresh boot has the most free memory and is not using any swap space on the hard drive.
Slowed system is down to less than 1GB of free memory, and it is swapping 112 MB.

When its running slowly, paste this command into a terminal and see what shows up with the highest %MEM:

ps --sort -rss -eo pid,pmem,rss,vsz,comm | head -16

This may show one (or more) programs that are using an unusually high percentage of memory, and this may indicate a "memory leak" or a runaway process.

Running real slow today, here is the screen shot from above command. I only had 2 tabs open on chromium.......

 

[atanere]

Running real slow today, here is the screen shot from above command. I only had 2 tabs open on chromium.......

The memtest looked good... no errors is always a good sign. The other memory report sure makes Chromium look suspicious though. For only 2 tabs open, the output shows 8 instances from Chromium using over 39% of your memory. I'm no expert on this, but that doesn't seem right, does it?

If Chromium is your favorite and you want to keep using it, I would probably go into settings and disable all of the addons that you're currently using, then run it for a few days and see if it all behaves okay and doesn't slow the system down. If you see an improvement from that, then re-enable addons one-at-a-time and give it a few days between each one to see if you can spot one of them that is responsible for the slow downs.

Be sure your system is up to date... sometimes that can fix things. But since you just got the kernel issue fixed I'd guess that updates are not really the problem with slow downs.