Re: [tlug] Help with Mint

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 9:12 PM, Thomas Blasejewicz <nyuwa@example.com> wrote:
> The machine has been sitting here for a few days, during which I did not
> use it.
> Today I tried to start it up and get:
> "Cinnamon has crashed. It is currently running in fallback mode. Do you
> want to restart Cinnamon?"
> Which does not do anything.


Whenever we reboot a machine (or re-login) and it doesn't come back
up, the cause is from when we last shut it down.  It's actually from
when the last time we changed a configuration or upgraded a package.
The effect of that change or the upgrade doesn't take effect until we
re-login or reboot.

Though it isn't necessary with a Linux machine, I try to logout or
reboot more often than I really need to.  At least, if a problem
happens, I don't have to look as far back in my upgrade logs.


> Is there any way of getting this thing back on line, or is this just
> another case where I have to reinstall everything from scratch?


Bruno's suggestion is a good start.  Probably rule out the possibility
it's a profile issue first before panicking.

So, you get a login window?  If so, then that's usually a good sign.
That means the system is fine (it boots into the interface fine), but
after you login with your username and password, things start looking
funny.  Then, as Bruno says, it could be a profile problem.

Create a test user and see if that works.  If so, then move all of
your own files and data first.  And then start using the new account.
You may later find out you need something from the old account (i.e.,
in ~/.* files and directories).  After some time, when you realize you
don't need anything anymore, then you can delete that old account.

Ray