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ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 9 hours agoZorin is working out really well for me, esp on my older machines with slower processors and less RAM that choke a little on fuller distros. I enjoy the KDE Plasma distros, for example, but they’re a little too heavy for my older boxes and I was getting a lot of video stutter and unexplained shutdows, etc. I don’t get that with Zorin or Mint. For me Mint works just as well as Zorin and picks up all my hardware just as handily, it just feels a little basic for what I’m used to. But Zorin hits just right in every direction for my needs. It’s a good distro for Windows noobs, that’s for sure.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I still get freezes. Then when I try to power off and power back on, it won’t boot. Then a day or two will go by, and it boots.
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Just for clarity, when you say it won’t boot, where in the boot process does it fail? Do you get as far as loading the BIOS, do you get a little way into the OS and then it crashes, or does it just not start at all?
I ask because depending on how far it gets into the boot process, you may not be looking at a software problem at all. Generally speaking, you have to get past the BIOS and into the bootloader before assuming the problem has to do with your choice of OS.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
The way it normally boots is first it shows the dell logo, then a black screen. Then a Z at the bottom of the screen. Then the Z turns into the word Zorin, and then it boots.
The way it doesn’t boot, is the dell logo shows, then the black screen, but it just hangs there forever. The Z never comes. It just stays on the black screen before the Z.
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
The Dell logo is the BIOS loading, the black screen is your bootloader and the beginning of your OS loading, and of course the Z is Zorin loading. While it could be hardware, to be honest where it’s hanging for you makes me wonder about how well your Zorin video driver suits your actual hardware, based on some similar issues I had with Fedora doing the exact same thing that you describe.
I am still learning Linux myself so I am not the best person to tell you what to do, but I know where I’d start if I were in your shoes: use the lshw command (see below) to get the details on your actual hardware, specifically the graphics chip; see if anyone else is having similar problems with the same graphics hardware; and in the meantime put Mint on a LiveUSB and run Mint for a while to see if it performs better or ends up doing the same thing.
That’s just beginner tips off the top of my head; I know you will get better advice if you run your problem by the Linux communities, esp because they can tell you how to capture the load process to see exactly what’s causing it to hang, and I’m just guessing. But at least you now have some hints of where to start.
Quick primer on lshw: To use lshw to see your hardware specs, type at a command prompt:
sudo lshw -shortIf it says it’s not installed, to install it type
sudo apt-get install lshwThat will get you started, I hope. Either way, whatever you do will get you further toward a solution, whether that solution is a different distro or tweakling this one. I hope this helps.