[RESOLVED] Dell Demension 4550 & Zorin slow

I did have some issues installing zorin on my pc, due to my nvidia something or other.. and I don't even know how I fixed it, but I seem to be using some other drivers. As long as it works I'm not concerned.

But I was concerned that windows xp was fast on my pc but zorin was not.

Tonight I watched a video on zorin 8 and something the guy mentioned a fix for something called tearing, what ever that is, actually fixed my slowness. Now I am happy to say that zorin works as smoothly as windows did.

Here's what he did. Click on zorin menu/ system tools/ preferences / Compiz config settings.

In the right window, Scroll down to Workarounds and click on work arounds. Then scroll to where it says ( Don't wait for video sync and put a check mark in the box to the right of it. The next box under it was checked already I think, it is on mine, but anyway that sped things up a whole lot for me. Whether it works for you or not, I don't know but just in case someone wants to try it.

If anyone knows a good reason why this should not be done, JUST HUSH.. JK, let me know because so far it's solved a huge issue for me and I'm not even sure why.

Could we rename this thread with [SOLVED] in front?

Well not exactly solved. the slowness was solved by that, but I still had to reinstall the whole system because i updated software and it messed everything up. got a white screen instead of my desktop afte rebooting..

I've reinstalled it twice just this morning.. and it's already screwing up. am doing a repair thingy right now..

One more time, and I'm done with this OS, I really like it but it's just one headache after another.

When you boot, press the 'TAB' to edit the boot command and enter the following:

Code:

forcevesa acpi=off nomodeset

Keep us posted!

That didn't work, and made a beeping sound the whole time you depressed it and nothing showed up, nor do the three options at the end of that screen do anything..

And it doesn't say on the screen how to make them work.

The only way I can get to a usable desktop is to hit advanced, then version hit 3.11.0.-15 generic(recovery mode > safe graphics mode), because 3.11.0-19 generic (recovery mode > safe graphics mode), throws errors when I am in it.

A good explanation of that screen alone would be nice, especially if it's where it can do the most good ( on the screen )

By the way under graphics in About this computer it says
graphics Vesa: NV17 () Board. What does that mean?

NV17 is GNU/Linux code stating it has found an nvidia graphics card with GNU/Linux code 17. 304 driver was more stable for me in the past but on 8 I think the GNU/Linux Nouveau driver is the best to use - no 'black' windows appearing with overlay of windows. Think I might try Zorin 8.1 Core at the weekend to see if any improvements over 8.

NV17 is GNU/Linux code stating it has found an nvidia graphics card with GNU/Linux code 17. 304 driver was more stable for me in the past but on 8 I think the GNU/Linux Nouveau driver is the best to use - no 'black' windows appearing with overlay of windows. Think I might try Zorin 8.1 Core at the weekend to see if any improvements over 8.

Well the nouveau driver worked good but I don't know how it took over when it did. I didn't cause that. So I don't know how to make it use nouveau instead. I don't know what zorin 8.1 means?

I read that using your nvidia graphics is better, but for me, I just want something to work, so I don't have to jump through hoops just to login to a desktop that works.. lol

Zorin 8.1 was released not long since, I suspect to clear up any bugs that might have been encountered in 8 (too much like Windows eh? )

http://linux.softpedia.com/progDownload ... 47533.html

Zorin 8.1 was released not long since, I suspect to clear up any bugs that might have been encountered in 8 (too much like Windows eh? )

http://linux.softpedia.com/progDownload ... 47533.html

I just bought this dvd 3 weeks too, took 2 weeks to get here.. Argh figures there would be a more stable one ... not going to buy yet another dvd just to find out it's already too old by the time I install it..

At least I understand windows, if I could keep using xp indefinitely I would.

Hi,

for Nvidia, see this:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2490

Regards Wolfman

No luck with that either. In fact after doing

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

Now i no longer get a boot screen. Intead I get the desktop with a background and black bar accross the top that I have never seen before. And a white box asking for my password and a button to unblock. I do that and I am back to the desktop with just a black screen.

I know the desktop is behind it because I deliberately put a shut down button in the top right corner to the right of the clock stuff, when I was in safe graphics mode. That way when I booted normally, I could click around where that shut down is and click till I could get to the shut down or restart confirmation button. I did it three times.....

Anyway that code did something, but it did something I've never seen before, which is a empty desktop with a login box asking to unblock.

I also tried switching user, then got another login / unblock , did that and ended up at a white screen.

I am so so over this ....

I shut the pc off from the front of the case and restarted hitting the shift key to get back to the boot screen, then let it do it's thing with out choosing anything. I still get just a black screen that is blocking the desktop.

rebooted again and I get the log in screen if I don't hit shift, then go through the same s*** again. type in my password/unblock and go back to a blacks screen covering my desktop.. a round and around and around.. I am worried all this shutting down the wrong way is going to harm my hard drive, if reinstalling this thing over and over Doesn't do it first...

frustrated

OK, so what happens when you boot the machine with the DVD in your drive, gets to boot screen, press the 'TAB' key on your keyboard and add at the end of the boot command:

Code:

forcevesa acpi=off nomodeset

If you rmachine has a 'Power' tab in BIOS you can 'Disable' ACPI/NOAPIC there which will not require 'acpi=off' at boot time. You did say you purchased the DVD as your 'CD' does not 'burn' in another thread - I would contact Zorin support directly as you have 90 days support with a purchase (unless I am mistaken!)

Not sure what acpi means but in bios under power managment i have three things and what they are set at.

suspend mode ............... S3 ( options are 1 and 3 )
AC Power Recovery ....... OFF ( options are ON Last and OFF )
Low power mode .............Disabled ( options are enabled and disabled

I'm assuming acpi partially means ac power. Other than that I see no other mention of acpi

Going to try tab with the zorin os 8 dvd in the drive.

If there is no mention anywhere in the BIOS of 'ACPI or NOAPIC' then use 'acpi=off' in that command line I posted!

A very good response on what acpi and noapic etc is and why it needs disabling at times:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/52096/wh ... olapic-etc

tried tab with zorin in drive, nothing happened, just see zorin boot menu

Of course I didn't set the drive in bios, should I do that? Won't that just start the install again?

zorin
Advance options for zorin
Memory test bla bla
Memory test blabla

Enter Boot E Edit selection C Command Line

Those bottom choices don't work or don't say how they work. I tried hitting enter, but zorin just starts up... I tried E for edit selection and nothing, C for command?? nothing argh

If there is no mention anywhere in the BIOS of 'ACPI or NOAPIC' then use 'acpi=off' in that command line I posted!

I can't get to the command line which I assume is the terminal? ugh The only way I can get to the terminal is to boot into recovery, then safe graphics mode to get a desktop I can see, then go to terminal.

Should I set the drive sequence in bios to the c drive then try tab???

Is your DVD Rom drive set to be the first boot option in 'Boot' part of BIOS? It appears that it is if you are getting that menu - usually there is a 9-10 second delay before the first menu option is chosen - press the TAB key as soon as you see the menu but wait for it to respond - you should get a command line boot parameter with a flashing cursor for you to enter the code I posted.

no it's set to boot to the main drive, not the rom drive. That is what I am asking you. should I reset it to boot the the rom drive, then hit tab?

Yes - and as it is a Dell you may not need to hit F2 - can you hit F12 to go to one-time boot menu and select - 'CD-Rom Drive'?

When I did that I got zorin install screen, at bottom

> /casper/vmlinuz/ file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper initrd=casper/initrd.gz quite splash --_

Now what? Is that the end of the commadline? is that where I put this:

forcevesa acpi=off nomodeset

Yay! It sure is!

at the very end? after the --_

? and what do I do after I enter that code? I have to change the bios back to boot to hard disk so what are the exact steps after I enter that code ?

Hi, just enter the code and press 'Enter' - and cross everything!

It looks like it's reinstalling? Geez, is that what I want to do?

It's a blue screen with just Zorin OS 8 and animated dots below that.. Did I have to reinstall? I never got a chance to go back to the bios and change it to boot to hard disk, so looks like your having me reinstall the whole thing?

If you chose the first option it is just booting into 'live' mode. The Zorin with the dots usually appears:

1. If you mistakenly entered in a Terminal Window:

Code:

sudo apt-get upgrade

2. If you install the proprietary nVidia drivers - you will lose the 'glowing Z'

Yupe looks like that is what you are having me do. It's back to a desktop that has Install zorin OS icon, a home folder and a trash folder.

So what is it that I am doing here? Do you want me to install zorin AGAIN?

I am so lost.

If you chose the first option it is just booting into 'live' mode. The Zorin with the dots usually appears:

1. If you mistakenly entered in a Terminal Window:

Code:

sudo apt-get upgrade

2. If you install the proprietary nVidia drivers - you will lose the 'glowing Z'

Mistakenly entered a terminal window? when? I just did exactly what you told me to do.

I am not sure what you are talking about. You said after I entered that code at the end of the command line, to hit enter. That is what I did, then I got the blue screen with just zorin os 8 and the animated dots and it was doing something, who knows what, I supposed reinstalling, I never got any options to choose from and like I said I wasn't able to change the boot sequence, so I am totally confused as to what you want me to do.

I dont' care about a glowing z, I just want this thing to work I don't even care if it's nvidia drivers, I don't understand any of that. I just want it to work.

All I know now is that I have a desktop with an install icon on it, not a terminal and I don't know what I am supposed to do now.

OK, so do you have any critical data from the original installation? If not, then I would advise making a fresh install - you said you tried installing nvidia drivers following Wolfman's Guide - that is what will happen at boot time - you get Zorin 8 and flashing dots - it has not installed anything, your are now in a 'working' 'live' environment. If you want it to work and you don't have any critical data, click on 'Install to Hard Drive' and take it from there!

never got a chance to put anything critical on it, already installed it 3 times.

so now you want me to click that install icon. ok hopefully install 4 will work.. ugh

will that code I put in there make it install correctly this time and use zorins graphic drivers instead of nvidia's which I am assuming don't work for me?

Hopefully that should be the case - when you reboot into Zorin (hoping no issues for you), open a terminal and enter:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then reboot once more.

After it installs don't I have to go to bios first and change boot sequense back to boot to hard disk first?

Other wise it will just take me back to the install screen, right?

And if so then when I reboot and have a desktop I can SEE, then I open terminal and do that code right?? just want to be sure so this is hopefully the last install I have to endure. lol

When the installation was done, it said to restart. I clicked that, then the cd rom drawer came out, so I assumed that meant to take out the cd, I did, closed it again, but nothing is happening.

The screen is black and the entire top half if the black screen has tiny blue dots covering it, and it's just sitting there.

Should I hit the off button on the tower and reboot to bios and change the sequence now? Not sure how people even more newbie to linux are going to flock to this OS if the steps aren't clear when installing it.

Hi, I think a lot of issues facing migraters will be old 'legacy' hardware - in these instances I recommend Trisquel (http://trisquel.info) or LXLE (http://lxle.net). I am sorry you have had such a raw deal - I would definitely advise you contact AZorin and zorink by PM as soon as possible as I have exhausted my knowledge (and my fingers! )

This is a night mare. I had to shut down the pc from the tower. Rebooted to bios, changed the sequence. The it booted to blue screen with glowing zorin log, then to the boot login thingy with

Zorin
Advanced bla bla

I let it just go to the top zorin item, but again it brought me to a black screen, and like before I suspect there is a desktop behind that black screen.

Now it just changed to another black screen saying removing any system startup links ... something something a bunch of text, not sure what it's doing.

Ok now here I am once again back to that black screen with a white box that says system running in low graphics mod.. ugh I'm right back where i started.. this is insane.

I agree with you entirely - you stated in another post the graphics came up as (NV17) - this is really old graphics (another recent poster had (NV18) = nVidia MX440 - I think your problems would be solved with a newer graphics card if the one you use at the moment (is I suspect) an on-board graphics chip.

well all the advertising of this OS said it would work on my machine. Or I never would have spent the money.. Now I am stuck with it, so why can't I get back to the nouveau driver that worked?

So you did have a working installation at some point then?

Yes I did, but then i updated software and something went' screwy, I logged back in and then I could only see a desktop if I went trhough recover mode and safe graphics..

Hi,

see this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2490

Also, you should install the Nouveau firmware package with the following command:

Code:

sudo apt-get install nouveau-firmware

What Nvidia driver package did you install?, you should remove that first with the following command:

Code:

sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current

NVIDIA-CURRENT IS ONLY AN EXAMPLE, YOU MUST WRITE THE CORRECT PACKAGE NAME, AS AN EXAMPLE:

Code:

sudo apt-get remove nvidia-304

let us know how you get on.

Update your PC after doing the above!.

Regards Wolfman

I tried all that wolfman except for the install nouveau-firmware. It's been 4 days of hair pulling and frayed nerves. I finally installed Mint 9 which someone one gave me in a cd a while back..

It installed very fast, recognized my hardware right off the bat. I had forgotten what a nice install that was, but for one reason or another I never got around to using it.

I can choose to install nvidia drivers if I want special affects which I don't like anyway. All I need is chrome browser, opera for my mail, and that's pretty much it. And a working operating system I don't spend more time configuring than using.

To be fair, I'm sure it's got something to do with my graphics card, but it works very well in windows and in Mint 9 so I can't see buying a new one just to get zorin working.

Actually zorin looks much like Mint 9 in the way the menus work, so I think I'll keep mint 9 for now. It had 500 updates to do but it was worth it not to have had one headache installing it.

If and when I can pick up a newer used pc, I'll try zorin again. But right now Mint is working so fast on this pc I think it beats out zorin for speed alone. Even windows didn't run this fast on this pc, I"m impressed. And I didn't have to monkey around with settings to get it to run fast.. hmm

Hi,

whether you have Zorin or not is basically immaterial, you have a running system and that is paramount.

Mint is a good system, sorry that Zorin didn't work for you, you are still welcome on the forum btw!.

Regards Wolfman

Just be aware that Linux Mint 9 is now obsolete (Like Zorin 6 and 7 Lite):

http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

Hi,

whether you have Zorin or not is basically immaterial, you have a running system and that is paramount.

Mint is a good system, sorry that Zorin didn't work for you, you are still welcome on the forum btw!.

Regards Wolfman

Thank you wolfman, I very much appreciate the understanding. I really liked Zorin, from what I did get a chance to see, so I won't hesitate to try it out if I get a bit newer computer. I don't go into debt on new ones any more, or anything for that matter. I've learned to appreciate just having something that's working, at my age.

Just be aware that Linux Mint 9 is now obsolete (Like Zorin 6 and 7 Lite):

http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

Oh hell, Swarendor, so am I, but my dogs still find me useful. Grin!

Since I can't burn disks for any OS, the fact that mint 9 turned up was a blessing.

The main thing is you are happy - that makes us happy!

I will mark this thread as [RESOLVED] - in the meantime you might like to PM the Zorin brothers and ask if they would kindly provide you with a refund!

The main thing is you are happy - that makes us happy!

I will mark this thread as [RESOLVED] - in the meantime you might like to PM the Zorin brothers and ask if they would kindly provide you with a refund!

Nah, was my fault. I relied on youtube for the advice on buying it. I should have googled Zorin Reviews and looked at bit more at user response who have older machines. I know better, but I was attracted mostly to the idea that you didn't have to be a linux expert to use it and it fit nicely in my tiny budget.

Mint has the option of right clicking on a file and opening with Administrator. Oops got side tracked.

Anyway I still would like to give it a shot on a pc that it's compatible with, should that become a reality.

I do appreciate your patience Swarf. You kept cool while I was in panic mode...

Well friend, as they say in Oz "No worries!"

Hi,

as a footnote, if you cannot burn disks as you mentioned earlier, use a USB drive:

https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/unetbootin/

Regards Wolfman

Hi,

as a footnote, if you cannot burn disks as you mentioned earlier, use a USB drive:

https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/unetbootin/

Regards Wolfman

You talking to me? I bought the dvd from zorin so didn't need to burn anything. I only have an external hard drive I used for back up for the last couple of years, it's since been formated. I don't have a usb stick if that is what you mean.

Hi,

yes I am addressing you!.

Regards Wolfman

Hi,

yes I am addressing you!.

Regards Wolfman

Ok just wanted to be sure..

boo2014 wrote:
Here's what he did. Click on zorin menu/ system tools/ preferences / Compiz config settings.

In the right window, Scroll down to Workarounds and click on work arounds. Then scroll to where it says ( Don't wait for video sync and put a check mark in the box to the right of it. The next box under it was checked already I think, it is on mine, but anyway that sped things up a whole lot for me. Whether it works for you or not, I don't know but just in case someone wants to try it.

In the Zorin Menu > System Tools > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager > Utility > Workarounds > Don't wait for video sync:
did not solve compiz from spiking my CPU to 100%. My System still runs slow when opening / closing windows or Zorin Menu. In my case, I have a Dell Latitude C640 using an [AMD/ATI] RV200/M7 [Mobility Radeon 7500] graphics card.

My Post listing a large range of issues, looking to be resolved, is at:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6943