[SOLVED] Recent security updates have made Zorin unusable

Hi, the security updates that I was notified of in the last few days have messed up my system it seems. I always install any updates offered through Zorin and have trusted them, but the ones offered just now have got my CPU usage jumping from it's usual 0% when idle to a 20% average due to Gnome processes. If I so much as open a browser window, this jumps up to the 80 or 90s, and the mouse curser stutters all over the screen if I try to do anything. It's basically unusable and I've had to log back into windows from a seperate drive just to write this. Is this just the way my system alone is reacting to the new updates or is a fix on the way?

livingdead wrote:Hi, the security updates that I was notified of in the last few days have messed up my system it seems. I always install any updates offered through Zorin and have trusted them, but the ones offered just now have got my CPU usage jumping from it's usual 0% when idle to a 20% average due to Gnome processes. If I so much as open a browser window, this jumps up to the 80 or 90s, and the mouse curser stutters all over the screen if I try to do anything. It's basically unusable and I've had to log back into windows from a seperate drive just to write this. Is this just the way my system alone is reacting to the new updates or is a fix on the way?

That's not normal. And I would not be too quick to think that it is your system alone.
Highly likely that will be addressed soon, but I think the Zorin Team will need to be made aware of these issues, just in case.

Thanks for your reply. How do I let the team know? Repost in the feedback section?

livingdead wrote:Thanks for your reply. How do I let the team know? Repost in the feedback section?

Sorry, been a hectic day and I am currently visiting someone at a hospital. I already sent a PM to AZorin and included a link to this thread.

Hey, thank you for that, and I hope everything is okay at the hospital.

I concur with the living dead, although I won't be passing him my brains anytime soon. I hope that everything is ok Aravisian.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15302

No fix issued as of yet and my Zorin 15 being unusable is affecting my work now so I may have to just uninstall soon. Which is a shame, because I've loved using Zorin in one form or another for almost a year now, and as my main PC for about 6 months.

livingdead wrote:No fix issued as of yet and my Zorin 15 being unusable is affecting my work now so I may have to just uninstall soon. Which is a shame, because I've loved using Zorin in one form or another for almost a year now, and as my main PC for about 6 months.

Are you using Nividia?
Could you run the following in terminal on the troubled machine and relay the output here?

Code:

grep . /sys/class/drm/*/status

Are you logged in on that machine using Wayland? (Please check to verify from your login screen, just in case)

Also, in terminal, please run this:

Code:

find /var/lib/dpkg/info/ -name \*.list -mtime -7 | sed 's#.list$##;s#.*/##'

to find what was installed within the last 7 days. Maybe we can find the offending package and remove it. (If you installed the updates more than a week ago... Please change the "-7" in the command to include as many days back you need to go to reach the day you updated.)

I made a note that Linux kernel was updated to 5.3.0-26 on my Zorin15.1Core rig on 18/1/20. That would have been just before the OP here.
Has any attempt been made to try a previous kernel?

Thanks Zab, I've rolled back to Kernel 5.0.0-37, which was the only other prior one on my system. That seems to have done the trick and my CPU is back to staying between 0 and 1% when idle now, and I've changed the default kernel to the old one... Ahhhh, so relieved.

Aravisian, is it still worth me running the actions suggested do you think? I'm happy just having everything back to normal though right now.

My GPU is a Zotac GTX 1070 mini, if that could be any part of the problem with the new Kernel?

Thank you so much for your help though guys, it had been driving me crazy.

I've got a Zotac 1030 - only issue is funny screen at shut-down. The issue I have is that my Open Firefox hasn't got an indicator underneath it so if I click on it again I have to use Alt+ Tab to see what else I have got open.

livingdead wrote:Aravisian, is it still worth me running the actions suggested do you think? I'm happy just having everything back to normal though right now.

It is worth Knowing about in case you need to in the future, but it looks like Zabadabadoo nailed it. If you could hit edit on your first post and on the title- add "SOLVED" so others can see what the solution was on a search hit.

Aravisian wrote:

livingdead wrote:Aravisian, is it still worth me running the actions suggested do you think? I'm happy just having everything back to normal though right now.

It is worth Knowing about in case you need to in the future, but it looks like Zabadabadoo nailed it. If you could hit edit on your first post and on the title- add "SOLVED" so others can see what the solution was on a search hit.

Have used 'moderator's prerogative',

livingdead wrote:Thanks Zab, I've rolled back to Kernel 5.0.0-37, which was the only other prior one on my system. That seems to have done the trick and my CPU is back to staying between 0 and 1% when idle now, and I've changed the default kernel to the old one... Ahhhh, so relieved.

Yes 5.0.0-37 was the last kernel before the 5.3.0-26 one that got you.
The worry now is what happens at next kernel update, unless the underlying problem is traced.
You maybe need to keep an eye out for OS updates that aim to remove 5.0.0-37 if you remain reliant on it.

My apologies for the late reply.

The latest Linux kernel has been updated to 5.3.0.40 which should hopefully fix these issues and still have the latest security patches, so we recommend trying that version.
If you still experience this issue with the latest 5.3 kernel, another option would be to roll back to the Long Term Supported 4.15 kernel, which will continue to get security patches from upstream Ubuntu until April 2023. You should be able to install it by entering these 2 commands into the Terminal:
sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic
sudo update-grub

Afterwards, reboot your computer and open the "Advanced options" submenu of the bootloader (GRUB) to boot with the 4.15 kernel. If this fixes the issues, you should be able remove the HWE kernels (5.3 and the no-longer-supported 5.0) and make 4.15 the default option at boot by entering these 3 Terminal commands:
sudo apt remove linux-generic-hwe-18.04
sudo apt autoremove
sudo update-grub