Any fellow Linux users on here?

[Outdated]

I also ran into something new and unwanted recently as I got a screen that popped up citing that Cinnamon had crashed and offered me "fallback mode" which I had never even heard of before. I wisely chose "fallback mode" and it cleared the error screen and allowed my session to continue, unlike the whole system freezing up.

This is a direct response to issues with graphics acceleration. Fallback Mode is using the CPU to handle graphics instead of using the features in your graphics card. Also known as Software Rendering Mode. That gives a huge clue as to what's going on.

Did you try nVidia's own driver instead of using the one supplied by Mint?

 

[Judge]

Did you try nVidia's own driver instead of using the one supplied by Mint?

Not yet. That's sounding like yet another "Hail Mary" given all the other drivers I've tried.

Who knows...I might end up going to AMD/Radeon.

Most of all I'm looking for some substantial feedback from the System Reports just to try to identify- or isolate what the problem really is instead of all this guesswork. Logical deduction simply isn't working for me.

But each time the system freezes and I can't access the System Reports it becomes "Catch-22". So while I can see when it freezes, in rebooting I lose the chance to find out why, and in some detail. It's maddening.

Though here's ONE event that I was able to record the System Reports data and acted on it. However while this error didn't pop up again having to updated the driver, the freezing itself continues.

[SOLVED] Crash reports: eglinfo.x86_64-linux-gnu - Linux Mint Forums

 

[Outdated]

Not yet. That's sounding like yet another "Hail Mary" given all the other drivers I've tried.

The very reason I started using nVidia's own driver was because I couldn't get Fedora to run my card's acceleration normally. It would only boot in Fallback Mode. This was about 7 or 8 years ago though.

There's plenty of documentation that goes with the real driver, and it has direct conflicts with the xorg/nouveau driver. It's installer will halt and refuse to go further if it finds nouveau on your system. Nouveau must be removed and blacklisted from being reinstalled before you can install nVidia's driver.

So the issue might actually be with xorg rather than Mint.

Now that I'm reading that back to myself, maybe removing and blacklisting Nouvea is all you need to do here too.
How to disable/blacklist Nouveau nvidia driver on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

 

[Judge]

The very reason I started using nVidia's own driver was because I couldn't get Fedora to run my card's acceleration normally. It would only boot in Fallback Mode. This was about 7 or 8 years ago though.

There's plenty of documentation that goes with the real driver, and it has direct conflicts with the xorg/nouveau driver. It's installer will halt and refuse to go further if it finds nouveau on your system. Nouveau must be removed and blacklisted from being reinstalled before you can install nVidia's driver.

So the issue might actually be with xorg rather than Mint.

It's another reason that separates Pop!OS from Linux Mint. With Mint, you have to install an Nvidia driver after installation. With Pop!OS the ISO flash drive you create is already dedicated to Nvidia drivers.

But I can't pinpoint what the actual problem is, and going to a native Nvidia driver involves a lot work. I need to know absolutely if it's a driver issue....and so far the possibilities remain all over the place.

 

[Outdated]

But I can't pinpoint what the actual problem is, and going to a native Nvidia driver involves a lot work. I need to know absolutely if it's a driver issue....and so far the possibilities remain all over the place.

Try blacklisting Nouveau and see how you go. There's a fair chance that that's been the issue all along.

With Ubuntu there's a tickbox during installation for using third party proprietary drivers, so it installs what's specifically needed.

I just checked my system and it has nouveau installed. Then I realised what an idiot I am because this machine has a Radeon card.

 

[Judge]

Try blacklisting Nouveau and see how you go. There's a fair chance that that's been the issue all along.

With Ubuntu there's a tickbox during installation for using third party proprietary drivers, so it installs what's specifically needed.

I just checked my system and it has nouveau installed. Then I realised what an idiot I am because this machine has a Radeon card.

But if that were true, I would have had this issue since day one. Not so?

It only began to happen while I had been using Mint 21.3 for a while...and never before that.

 

[Outdated]

The nouveau driver was originally created for the Intel built in graphics, it's architecture is very similar to older nVidia cards.

 

[Outdated]

But if that were true, I would have had this issue since day one. Not so?

True, but you've tried everything else. Removing Nouveau only takes a few simple commands in a terminal, and can easily be undone again if necessary.

 

[Judge]

The nouveau driver was originally created for the Intel built in graphics, it's architecture is very similar to older nVidia cards.

I've run the Nouveau driver a number of times on both my new and old hardware platforms. The only difference being less performance depending on the application. But it didn't involve freezing that I can recall.

 

[Outdated]

I was thinking more along the lines of a conflict between the two drivers, as stated in nVidia's own documentation. If you're using Nouveau by itself with no nVidia driver installed there wouldn't be a conflict.

 

[Outdated]

Just thought I should add that I'm only guessing here too, my ideas are no more valid than your own. But I feel the frustration you're going through because I've been there many times myself.

 

[Judge]

I was thinking more along the lines of a conflict between the two drivers, as stated in nVidia's own documentation. If you're using Nouveau by itself with no nVidia driver installed there wouldn't be a conflict.

If there was a conflict, wouldn't that occur immediately rather than randomly over a short or very long amount of time?

For me that's just too speculative to act on, given it's a situation that has always existed since I first installed Linux Mint 20 a few years back. I'm still looking for something hard to work off of rather than any intelligent hunches.

For now in real time I'm just looking for a crash that is actually documented.

 

[Outdated]

If there was a conflict, wouldn't that occur immediately rather than randomly over a short or very long amount of time?

In between replies I read a few more forum posts about nVidia's drivers, and lots of people are saying that with Ubuntu 22 onwards removing Nouveau is no longer necessary if using the nVidia driver supplied by Ubuntu.

But it is still necessary if using the driver downloaded directly from nVidia.

 

[Judge]

In between replies I read a few more forum posts about nVidia's drivers, and lots of people are saying that with Ubuntu 22 onwards removing Nouveau is no longer necessary if using the nVidia driver supplied by Ubuntu.

But it is still necessary if using the driver downloaded directly from nVidia.

I'm looking for anyone citing random freezes or hangs with the entire OS as a reason to change drivers. Otherwise it seems like a lot work just to switch to another driver I don't presently have which may or may not make a difference:

How to Install Nvidia Drivers on Linux Mint 22, 21 or 20 - LinuxCapable

Interesting too that Pop!OS22.04 is using an Nvidia driver (version 560) Mint doesn't even provide.

 

[Outdated]

I've never seen anything like that driver manager before, it appears to make everything a lot easier.

 

[Judge]

I've never seen anything like that driver manager before, it appears to make everything a lot easier.

No complaints with the 560 driver in Pop!OS22.04....everything seems to run fine in comparison. Though while Ubuntu based, it is quite different than Mint, and frankly doesn't have all the bells and whistles Mint has. But it get the job done, and I enjoy all the Gnome customization I have done to make it more Mac-like. Though it expires in 2027 while Mint expires in 2029.

In 60 seconds I can switch Mint to Pop!OS22.04...so it's always here if I really need it.

 

[Outdated]

No complaints with the 560 driver in Pop!OS22.04

I wonder if their naming convention is the same as Ubuntu's. With Ubuntu that number translates to April, 2022. Dates make more sense that arbitrary numbers pulled out of a hat.

 

[Judge]

I wonder if their naming convention is the same as Ubuntu's. With Ubuntu that number translates to April, 2022. Dates make more sense that arbitrary numbers pulled out of a hat.

Good question. I can only point out that the version numbers of Nvidia drivers were the same, however Pop!OS always seemed to have at least one of them higher than Mint, which wouldn't surprise me as up until recently Pop!OS always had a more advanced kernel.

Well, I just updated both Pop!OS and Mint 22.0 to Firefox 131.0. Let's see what happens...

 

[Princess Viola]

Interesting too that Pop!OS22.04 is using an Nvidia driver (version 560) Mint doesn't even provide.

Yeah, the 560 driver was still in beta when Mint 22 came out, so they stuck with the then-most recent stable driver of 550.

 

[Judge]

I was thinking more along the lines of a conflict between the two drivers, as stated in nVidia's own documentation. If you're using Nouveau by itself with no nVidia driver installed there wouldn't be a conflict.

Is this the correct way to blacklist this driver? (I've blacklisted stuff before.)

1) Create a file in /usr/lib/modprobe.d named "blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf".
2) Then add the following contents inside this file:

blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

Then go to the terminal to update the kernel with the following command:

sudo update-initramfs -u

And that if it doesn't work, I just delete the blacklist file I created and update the initramfs again ? Seems harmless to try compared to loading other proprietary drivers from Nvidia.

Again an interesting comparison to Pop!OS for the obvious reason. That the ISO flash drive doesn't even come with any video drivers other than Nvidia. And that it runs that 560 driver on this same platform just fine. You might just be onto something here...

Though presently this morning all continues to run well, not to mention so many recent updates may or may not have influenced the problem. In the meantime I also came across some claims that in Linux running Secure Boot can still wreak havoc with video drivers.

Maybe I should have installed Linux Mint 22.0 without Secure Boot, even though it's supposed to work just fine when engaged. Hmmmm....