[ale] So, which is it? Mint, X, or Firefox

[Greg Clifton]

Perhaps your software issues are just coincidental with hardware issues. I
would check the CPU fan/heat sink. Most older laptops have a fine pitched
copper finned heat sink that makes an excellent dust trap. So you may be
having heat loading issues that are appearing to be software related but
are not. If so a good blast of compressed air may solve the problem. It
could also result from pump out of your thermal interface compound, which
would necessitate removing the heat sink, cleaning it and the CPU top and
reapplying a new coat of "goo." You might be able to check the thermal idea
by watching the temps on the BIOS screen. If they are high and the system
spontaneously reboots from BIOS, that is likely your root problem.  It
could also be a failing power supply. I assume you have the problem whether
the laptop is plugged in to the AC or not. If so it could be the internal
DC-DC power supply. If that should be the case, time to look for a "new"
laptop, something used on Craig's List might work.

Alternatively, "when Momma anin't happy, ain't nobody happy," so you might
be a smart man to give up the Android tablet without too much resistance.

Happy New Year (maybe)
Greg Clifton


On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 6:26 PM, Sergio Chaves <sergio.chaves at gmail.com>wrote:

> Alers,
>
> Need help before wife start asking for my Android Tablet :-)
> Background:
> Old VAIO laptop PCG-K23, 1 Gig RAM - good for downloading recipes, etc.
> Running Fedora - up to 12 - never an issue
> Had Mint 12 running. Everything fine till last upgrade/update.
>
> The problem:
> After the las update, X started to restart on its own.
> Googling it points me to (several) problems with Firefox 17.
> Install Chromium. Problem persists.
>
> Install Mint 14 with MATE. Problem persists.
> Downgrade to Firefox 16 as it cured the issues for most. Not me.
> Install Chromium again, it will not even load, gives me the "sorry" page.
>
> TOP shows - with Firefox 16 running:
> KiB Mem:    961700 total,   854236 used,   107464 free,    48272 buffers
> KiB Swap:   979964 total,      268 used,   979696 free,   434460 cached
>
> Syslog shows:
>  chromium-browse[2797]: segfault at f94a47be ip f94a47be sp bfe0df3c error
> 4
> Jan  2 17:39:53 laila-PCG-K23-UC kernel: [ 7192.640141]
> chromium-browse[2819]: segfault at f94a47be ip f94a47be sp bfe0df3c error 4
> Jan  2 17:39:56 laila-PCG-K23-UC kernel: [ 7195.537858]
> chromium-browse[2826]: segfault at f94a47be ip f94a47be sp bfe0df3c error 4
> Jan  2 17:39:58 laila-PCG-K23-UC kernel: [ 7197.249233]
> chromium-browse[2834]: segfault at f94a47be ip f94a47be sp bfe0df3c error 4
> Jan  2 17:40:08 laila-PCG-K23-UC kernel: [ 7207.453878]
> chromium-browse[2841]: segfault at f94a47be ip f94a47be sp bfe0df3c error 4
> Jan  2 17:40:21 laila-PCG-K23-UC kernel: [ 7220.015492]
> chromium-browse[2848]: segfault at f94a47be ip f94a47be sp bfe0df3c error 4
> Jan  2 17:57:39 laila-PCG-K23-UC x-session-manager[2483]: WARNING:
> Detected that screensaver has left the bus
> Jan  2 17:57:39 laila-PCG-K23-UC mdm[2453]: WARNING:
> mdm_slave_xioerror_handler: Fatal X error - Restarting :0
> Jan  2 17:57:40 laila-PCG-K23-UC acpid: client 2463[0:0] has disconnected
>
> Is the screensaver crapping out that is  causing me to lose my Tablet?
> She prefers Mint because it is(was ?) a more user friendly distro.
> Also, she misses the auto-complete on search field on FF17. Reinstalling
> FF16 did not solve the problem.
> Adding this rule, *browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled - true, *in
> about:config did not work.
> Help!
>
> Sergio
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20130103/0fca6ab3/attachment.html>