Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

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lapaul

Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by lapaul »

I installed linux a few weeks ago and it was running fine. But then I noticed a little icon in the bottom right saying that I needed to installed updates. So I installed the updates and now when I start linux it says "Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode. Would you like to restart Cinnamon?". When I click yes to restart Cinnamon it does the same thing. And when I turn off and turn on my laptop again it still does the same thing. Also there is no power off icon anywhere so I have to turn off my laptop by pressing the power button. Any suggestions on what happened and what to do? The only thing I can think of why this happened is because when I installed the updates, all of them except for the last 2 were automatically checked, but I decided to check the last two also because they looked important, maybe I wasn't suppose to install those last 2 updates.
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Oldfiddler
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Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by Oldfiddler »

I had the same error message yesterday, although not after regular updates. In my case, I had installed a few items from Synaptic Package Manager, in an effort to reactivate the brightness function keys on the laptop. I removed one of the items and normal service was resumed. Part of my problem is, I'm sure, trying to run Rebecca Cinnamon 64 bit with a very small RAM, but that's another story.

Updates marked 4 and 5 are probably OK in most circumstances but they apparently can cause issues sometimes. I'm sure the real experts will be along in a while to tell you whether you can remove any elements that you updated or whether you will have to re-install. What they will want to know is exactly what you are running (Rebecca? 64/32 bit?) on what hardware, so you can save time by putting that up.
Co6aka

Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by Co6aka »

There's some problem involving the Nvidia 340.65 driver, between it and Cinnamon, I don't know what exactly yet. As soon as you log in Cinnamon crashes to fallback. Happens on every box with Nvidia hardware. I have one box with AMD video hardware and all is OK.
lapaul

Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by lapaul »

I know my laptop is 64 bit. I think it's Rebecca, I downloaded and installed it just a few weeks ago. How do I find out if I have a Nvidia driver? It was working fine before I updated it though, so I don't think it's the Nvidia driver, I think it has something to do with the updates I installed.
Oldfiddler
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Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by Oldfiddler »

Menu - Preferences - System Info will give you basic information about your computer and the system you are running.
Co6aka

Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by Co6aka »

Been working on this all evening... It doesn't involve the Nvidia driver, but rather some other updates; in my case they're bing pulled in from the Xorg-edgers PPA, where I get my Nvidia driver from. Haven't narrowed it down to exactly which lib, but it has something to do with one of the DRM-related ones. Meanwhile, here's a workaround:

1. Purge the Xorg-edgers PPA; the PPA will be disabled.
2. Re-enable the Xorg-edgers PPA.
3. Install ONLY the Nvidia driver (and of course whatever dependencies it pulls in.)
4. Disable the Xorg-edgers PPA.

Alternatively, install the Nvidia driver manually.

I'm not running Mint, but rather Xubuntu with Cinnamon from the nightly PPA, which now again works perfectly by following the above workaround. Everything had been working perfectly until late last week, so whatever was recently added to Xorg-edgers broke Cinnamon. IF you're NOT using the Xorg-edgers PPA but have a broken Cinnamon, then compare the versions of all DRM-related libs on the edgers PPA with the ones you have installed, and then try rolling back.
lapaul

Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by lapaul »

Oldfiddler wrote:Menu - Preferences - System Info will give you basic information about your computer and the system you are running.
Ok when I do that this is what it gives me:

Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon 64-bit
Linux Kernal: 3.13.0-37-generic
Processor: Intel Core i3-2310m CPU @ 2.10 GHz x2
Memory: 3.8 GiB
Hard Drive: 573.4 GB
Graphics Card: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
lapaul

Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by lapaul »

Co6aka wrote:Been working on this all evening... It doesn't involve the Nvidia driver, but rather some other updates; in my case they're bing pulled in from the Xorg-edgers PPA, where I get my Nvidia driver from. Haven't narrowed it down to exactly which lib, but it has something to do with one of the DRM-related ones. Meanwhile, here's a workaround:

1. Purge the Xorg-edgers PPA; the PPA will be disabled.
2. Re-enable the Xorg-edgers PPA.
3. Install ONLY the Nvidia driver (and of course whatever dependencies it pulls in.)
4. Disable the Xorg-edgers PPA.

Alternatively, install the Nvidia driver manually.

I'm not running Mint, but rather Xubuntu with Cinnamon from the nightly PPA, which now again works perfectly by following the above workaround. Everything had been working perfectly until late last week, so whatever was recently added to Xorg-edgers broke Cinnamon. IF you're NOT using the Xorg-edgers PPA but have a broken Cinnamon, then compare the versions of all DRM-related libs on the edgers PPA with the ones you have installed, and then try rolling back.
I'm a complete linux newbie so I have no clue how to do any of that or even what Xorg-edgers PPA is. I do think it has something to do with the updates because it crashed right after I installed them. Also, I don't think I have a Nvidia graphics card so I don't think installing the Nvidia driver would help me.

Also, my wireless connection isn't working at all. I was having the same problem before but then it miraculously started working without me doing anything. But now it's not working again. No networks show up in my Wi-Fi at all, and it says Unavailable but yet the buttons shows that it's on and my hardware switch is in the on position so I don't know why it's not working.
Wm. A. Weasel

Re: Cinnamon just crashed. Now running in fallback mode.

Post by Wm. A. Weasel »

I'm having a similar issue. Just installed LM 17.1 "Rebecca". While it booted up for the first time, I left the room for a few min. and when I came back it had the message about Cinnamon crashing, we're in fallback mode, did I want to restart Cinnamon. The next couple times it booted, the Cinnamon desktop came up, but within half a min. of mousing around and using applications, the same thing happened. I don't have an nVidia graphic card, it's an Intel 82865G. This is quite an old machine, built around 2005.

Looking at /var/log/syslog, it has lines in it saying
app 'cinnamon desktop' killed by signal 15
app 'cinnamon desktop' respawning too quickly
We failed, but the fail whale is dead. Sorry...
Any ideas? Thanks.

Update: I installed the latest Intel graphics drivers as explained at http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=168661 by JeremyB, but it didn't solve the problem. The behavior is the same.
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