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I'm committing to Linux, but it's so unstable. Any suggestions? (self.linux)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by Showroom7561 to c/[email protected]

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Hey folks. I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with Linux for over 20 years. Usually, my attempts to use it are either thwarted by issues installing, issues booting, or general problems while using it... leading to “catastrophic failure” that I can't fix without digging into hours of research and terminal commands.

Windows 11 (even 10) are rock solid for me, even as a very heavy multitasker. No crashes. No needing to reboot, unless I'm forced to with an update, and really no issues with any hardware or software I was running.

But with Linux, I just can't believe how unstable it is, even when I do the absolute basic things.

I'm trying to learn why this is, and how I can prevent these issues from coming up. As I said, I'm committed to using Linux now (I'm done with American software), so I'm open to suggestions.

For context, I'm using a Framework laptop, which is fully (and officially) supports Fedora and Ubuntu. Since Fedora has American ties, I've settled with Ubuntu.

All things work as they should: fingerprint scanner, wifi, bluetooth, screen dimming, wake up from suspend, external drives, NAS shared folders, etc. I've even got VirtualBox running Windows 11 for the few paid software that I need to load up from time to time.

But I'm noticing issues that seemingly pop out of nowhere on the software/os end of things.

For example, after having no issues updating software, I get this an error: "something went wrong, but we're not sure what it is."

Then sometimes I'll be using Firefox, I'll open a new tab to type in a search term or URL, and the typing will "lag", then the address bar will flicker like it's reloading, and it doesn't respond well to my mouse clicks. I have to close it out, then start over for it to resolve.

Then I'll open a different app, sometimes it might open, sometimes it won't.

Or an app will freeze for no obvious reason, and I'll get a popup asking to wait or quit.

Another time I left my computer while I went out for a walk, came back, and it was like I just rebooted... all my work was gone, and it was starting fresh from the login screen.

I'm trying not to overload things, and I'm doing maybe 1/5th of what I'd normally be doing when running windows. But I don't understand why it's so unstable.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

FWIW, I'm not keen to switch away from Ubuntu, because I do still want official support if there's ever a problem with getting hardware to work.

UPDATE: Wow, I did not expect to get so many responses! Amazing!

Per suggestions, I ran a memtest86 for over 3 hours and it was clean.

I installed Fedora 41 and am now setting it up. Seems good so far, and elevated permissions can be authorized with biometrics! This was not something I had to. Ubuntu, so awesome there!

Any specific tips for Fedora that I should know? Obviously, no more Snap packages now! 😂

UPDATE 2: Ok, Fedora seems waaaay more stable than Ubuntu (and Mint). No strangeness like before... but not everything works as easily. For example, getting a bridged network adapter to work in virtualbox was one-click easy on Ubuntu... not so much on Fedora (still trying to get it working). And Virtualbox didn't even run my VM without more terminal hackery.

But the OS seems usable, and I'm still setting things up.

One thing I have noticed, however. When I search for how to fix or do something, nearly all websites and forums reference Debian/Ubuntu commands, so the fragmentation there is a little annoying

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Like @[email protected] just said, run memory test.

What hw do you have in that laptop?

something went wrong, but we're not sure what it is.

Check the system journal with

sudo journalctl -e

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I work on Linux and use Linux at home. I'll try to go through the problems you mentioned:

Just run the update command again in the GUI or terminal. If it doesn't work, we'll have to dig into apt with verbose logs but I haven't had apt break on me for over a decade unless I deleted something I shouldn't have.
Is Firefox installed as a snap/flatpak? That only happens with me occasionally when I installed flatpaks, they're just slower. Canonical can be a real arse about this stuff, they might switch packages to snaps without telling you and you might only come to know about it once you dig deeper.
All of these issues seem to related to your storage medium. Is the SSD OK? Open up the process monitor, sort by ascending order of disk writes/reads and open your applications one by one to see which one of them is the culprit.
Rebooting suddenly is not normal. Unfortunately, you'll have to go through logs for this one. Simple ones are dmesg and journalctl, we can dig deeper into them if you want to.

If I had my hands on your laptop I'd be running a vulnerability scan by now but I don't think the problem is serious enough to warrant it.

[–] Showroom7561 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thank you.

Just run the update command again in the GUI or terminal. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to dig into apt with verbose logs but I haven’t had apt break on me for over a decade unless I deleted something I shouldn’t have.

Nothing needed to be updated. One package was “deferred”, and that was the "ubuntu-drivers-common".

Is Firefox installed as a snap/flatpak? That only happens with me occasionally when I installed flatpaks, they’re just slower. Canonical can be a real arse about this stuff, they might switch packages to snaps without telling you and you might only come to know about it once you dig deeper.

Default Firefox, and I just checked, and it's listed as Snap package.

All of these issues seem to related to your storage medium. Is the SSD OK? Open up the process monitor, sort by ascending order of disk writes/reads and open your applications one by one to see which one of them is the culprit.

Full chkdsk was performed before installing Linux on my SSD. In the Western Digital utility (in Windows), everything tested OK, too. No issues in the S.M.A.R.T. logs, either.

Rebooting suddenly is not normal. Unfortunately, you’ll have to go through logs for this one. Simple ones are dmesg and journalctl, we can dig deeper into them if you want to.

I don't know if it actually rebooted, or if it just closed everything and returned on the login screen. I wasn't home when it happened, I just came back to that :(

But that was days ago. And it hasn't happened since.

I'll be running a proper memtest shortly, and will post an update once that's done.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

SSD

One question - you said above that you installed "through an external SSD" - do you mean as the install source, or is the installation running from an external SSD? I ask because occasional USB bus stability issues might explain random hangs.

Another random one - did you follow the post-install guidance from Framework for your Ubuntu version and PC model? I know they had some with WiFi stability issues and recommended disabling WiFi power save. That might contribute to the Firefox address bar behavior.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Great guidance here and I know you want to stick with Ubuntu, but but if you tire of trying to fix it try a different distro before you give up.

Lots of people swear by Ubuntu, but for others (like me) it's nothing but trouble. For instance, I get errors when running the latest version of Ubuntu on a current laptop that runs Debian 12 perfectly, and a previous Ubuntu load on one of our laptops (tried with a new SSD) had so many issues that I gave up and restored the Mint backup.

By contrast, we have 2 different laptops and one old desktop that run Linux Mint almost flawlessly. "Almost" means a system lock up every 3-4 months and the inability to wake from sleep for the desktop. Debian 12 was a bit more difficult to get fully working, but since the initial install it has been been completely stable with zero problems. We have one laptop that is running Windows 11 and it has more problems than any of the Linux machines.

Fixing problems is a great way to learn, but if it's not the way you want to spend your time you may be heading down the wrong path. Unless you have a hardware issue you should be able to find a distro that has few or none of the problems you've been fighting.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Id switch to mint, most windows like and all the knowledge youve learned will work on it. If you want true stability go Debian.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Just want to chime in that there is a Linux Mint Debian Edition. Nice stability, sidesteps criticisms of Ubuntu, and has the polish of Mint

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

If you want to try a distro that can just work for you, instead of reading about it, do this:

Aurora if you don't do gaming.
Bazzite if you play games.

They are both from the Universal Blue family of distros which are based on Fedora Silverblue.

They are all immutable and atomic. They won't break. They will be more stable than windows. It will be easy. And it will come with batteries included.

Also, if you do gaming and are also a developer, there's bazzite-dx which will be releasing soon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Which is based on Fedora and OP wants avoid American ties (on an American laptop)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The following is genuine curiosity, no sarcasm or anything negative is intended:

Why is it American? In name? Because technically it isn't. Or at least not different from any other distro. I mean, isn't the Linux Kernel mostly American? How about SystemD? I believe we don't need to keep listing stuff...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

These are more questions for OP. But Fedora is based on RHEL which is owned by IBM. I don't really fault OP for wanting to avoid American products in this current era. Linux however seems more of a trans-national product.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Exactly.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I use Zorin OS 17 (based on ubuntu) on a desktop AMD based system and a framework laptop 16 for about a year now and even before that used an older version of Zorin OS for about 4 years on a shitty lenovo laptop and never had any stability problems. Even the lenovo still runs reliably.

The only problem I've had on the desktop is that the linux driver for an ntfs formatted drive constantly corrupted my data on that drive to the point where some of the data got lost. All other drives are formatted with ext4 and work without any problems. Maybe your problems could be similar?

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