How do you solve lag on a Linux Mint PC

[Deleted User]

I have recently gotten a new PC but after reinstalling the OS several times I had a problem with the packages not installing during the installation and now I am noticeing some heavy lag spikes while doing daily tasks I was wondering if it could be a package that is not installed correctly or if I should just find a new Linux distro in general as Linux Mint on a DELL laptop seems to be a bad combo thanks to anyone who can help on this issue

 

[FAST6191]

Same way you solve it on any other computer.

Figure out what is causing it and go from there.

Standard one is see what is running and see what is going.
Mint will include a task manager, though you can also use the "top" command in a terminal to get one. I don't know what we are suggesting for hard drive load these days and what mint has (iostat, iotop or just continually reading the sda or whatever part).

If said program is gobbling all the memory or CPU then figure out why that might be (plugins, bugs*, and then either take steps to negate it or add more memory/CPU (or speed up what there is).

*skype here for instance always uses a full core when I stop a call. Have to close it down and load it back up.

Depending upon what you are doing then "swappiness" is a command you might want to look at. This will change what Linux does as far as using swap (a portion of the hard drive it sets aside to use) vs normal memory.

For individual programs there is also the niceness vs priority https://askubuntu.com/questions/656771/process-niceness-vs-priority
Linux does not always prioritise the same things as other operating systems. Some choose to assign priority to the UI so even if the program hangs the UI will still respond which might be what you are seeing.
If it is a full lock up you have seen do remember ctrl, alt and usually F1 through F8 will give you other terminals you can log into and that usually survives the UI crashing or locking.

Is your hard drive OK? A dying hard drive can tank performance.

Likewise is your CPU fan clear? My laptop slowed right down a while back and after I took out about half a hamster of dust it was lovely again. The fan going all the time might be a sign of this.

You can also select CPU priorities

It might well be that the drivers available for your particular flavour of laptop don't work well with mint of the present day.

What desktop environment are you using? Some of the full fat mate and cinnamon stuff is a bit slower than the likes of XFCE (or even more cut down things like LXDE). All should be easy enough to install and select from (usually when you are logging in as a user from a GUI).

This can go on for a while and it is fairly standard between operating systems, though might go under different names.

 

[Deleted User]

Same way you solve it on any other computer.

Figure out what is causing it and go from there.

Standard one is see what is running and see what is going.
Mint will include a task manager, though you can also use the "top" command in a terminal to get one. I don't know what we are suggesting for hard drive load these days and what mint has (iostat, iotop or just continually reading the sda or whatever part).

If said program is gobbling all the memory or CPU then figure out why that might be (plugins, bugs*, and then either take steps to negate it or add more memory/CPU (or speed up what there is).

*skype here for instance always uses a full core when I stop a call. Have to close it down and load it back up.

Depending upon what you are doing then "swappiness" is a command you might want to look at. This will change what Linux does as far as using swap (a portion of the hard drive it sets aside to use) vs normal memory.

For individual programs there is also the niceness vs priority https://askubuntu.com/questions/656771/process-niceness-vs-priority
Linux does not always prioritise the same things as other operating systems. Some choose to assign priority to the UI so even if the program hangs the UI will still respond which might be what you are seeing.
If it is a full lock up you have seen do remember ctrl, alt and usually F1 through F8 will give you other terminals you can log into and that usually survives the UI crashing or locking.

Is your hard drive OK? A dying hard drive can tank performance.

Likewise is your CPU fan clear? My laptop slowed right down a while back and after I took out about half a hamster of dust it was lovely again. The fan going all the time might be a sign of this.

You can also select CPU priorities

It might well be that the drivers available for your particular flavour of laptop don't work well with mint of the present day.

What desktop environment are you using? Some of the full fat mate and cinnamon stuff is a bit slower than the likes of XFCE (or even more cut down things like LXDE). All should be easy enough to install and select from (usually when you are logging in as a user from a GUI).

This can go on for a while and it is fairly standard between operating systems, though might go under different names.

Thank you very much for this amazing post. It has helped me allot. I think I may try to open it up, but the cooling fan seems to be okay the. Plus I fear I may screw something up if I open it because of static electricity. I will definitely try these methods you have posted above. I may also try running bleach bit, and see if this works. What i fear the most is that when I got the laptop it would not charge, and so I watched a few YouTube videos, and one of them said that the charging issue could be a driver, so I booted Driver Manager and I found a driver labeled broad-com wireless and without thinking I disabled the driver thinking it could solve the issue, and oblivious to the fact that it was my WiFi driver. And so After rebooting the WiFi was disabled and so I tried to reinstall the WiFi driver using the bootable USB that I created for the Linux Mint installation, but for some reason it would not work and it kept trying to access the internet to install the driver rather than installing it via the bootable USB. So reluctantly I decided to reinstall my Linux Mint OS but unfortunately this proved to solve nothing as the WiFi turned on during the installation but on reboot it failed so stricken with horror or something like that I decided to use the older Laptop to download a new Linux Mint OS .ios image but on slow WiFi the .iso image took a day to fully download. But at last it finished and so I made another bootable USB but it still did not solve my problem so after some figuring and much researching I managed to find the .deb file that had the broadcom driver in it and so i tried to install that but it still tried to use the internet to install the dependency files that were not installed but luckily after some searching I managed to find and install the dependency since the too where in the bootable USB but my main fear is that if the broad-com driver did not install then it is possible that other thing didn't either Thanks again. -Ryu

 

[FAST6191]

Don't think I have seen drivers cause something not to charge.

Such things are usually the battery is dead (common enough in old second hand laptops -- people tend to get rid of them at such points) or on some models (including some later Dells) that your charger is not official or the third pin it uses to say "I am legit" is being a pain and not connecting properly -- does it charge if you wiggle the connector or hold it more in?
It will tend to still power it in such situations (I have had a laptop suddenly start working again once I removed the battery, and seen similar in other devices) but not charge the batter.

Static wise I find the risk is overblown. Take it seriously but the extent some people go to with straps, mats and whatever else... nah.
Make sure you are wearing cotton (or at least not a wool top and a nylon bra... I shall skip that story), ground yourself before you start (or the whole time if you want to be super cautious and it is only a wrist strap) and if you get up and even if you are sure don't run your socks on the carpet while you are doing things.
I have probably pulled apart tens of thousands of things at this point and the only things I have ever killed with static involved the use of a Van de Graaff generator and intent on my part. Technically some things might have died in 5 years rather than 7 but eh.

And yeah broadcom is likely wifi. I would be shocked it if was that causing either slowndowns or not charging.

 

[Deleted User]

Don't think I have seen drivers cause something not to charge.

Such things are usually the battery is dead (common enough in old second hand laptops -- people tend to get rid of them at such points) or on some models (including some later Dells) that your charger is not official or the third pin it uses to say "I am legit" is being a pain and not connecting properly -- does it charge if you wiggle the connector or hold it more in?
It will tend to still power it in such situations (I have had a laptop suddenly start working again once I removed the battery, and seen similar in other devices) but not charge the batter.

Static wise I find the risk is overblown. Take it seriously but the extent some people go to with straps, mats and whatever else... nah.
Make sure you are wearing cotton (or at least not a wool top and a nylon bra... I shall skip that story), ground yourself before you start (or the whole time if you want to be super cautious and it is only a wrist strap) and if you get up and even if you are sure don't run your socks on the carpet while you are doing things.
I have probably pulled apart tens of thousands of things at this point and the only things I have ever killed with static involved the use of a Van de Graaff generator and intent on my part. Technically some things might have died in 5 years rather than 7 but eh.

And yeah broadcom is likely wifi. I would be shocked it if was that causing either slowndowns or not charging.

Okay Thank you very much the charger powers the laptop but the battery light just blinks orange so I may purchase a new battery anyway thank you so much and have a nice day

 

[funnytun]

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