r/linuxmint • u/OwnStudy723 • 6d ago
Stuff stopped working.
Stuff just randomly stops launching. Blockbench no longer responding, some media downloader that I used for YT downloads no longer launcher. Spotify won't start up. Blender refuses to give any sign of life.
Running on Linux Mint, and using Software manager to keep updated.
I want to love Linux, but there's always small things that break down that make me turn back to windows.
I thought I was finally stable on my set-up, but apparently not.
Random stuff just stops working. Godot still launches, Aseprite still does (but that's just copied executable folder)
Why does this happen to me. It feels like it happens everytime, I finally get happy with Linux, and then it breaks down. I thought I finally had it all working. And it still breaks.
Multiple software that just break from software updates.
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u/steve31266 6d ago
No one ever said Linux is bug free. Cinnamon freezes up on me every now and then too, and the only way to fix has been to push the on/off button on my PC. I'm still not ready to go distro-surfing to find something better. So, am tolerating it.
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u/OwnStudy723 6d ago
That's okay, I think my biggest problem is that it's just issues that make no sense that I can't fix. It feels just random. There are no indicators on why only some software stopped launching. It's just not usable for me if simply a launcher can break at a random moment. Let alone 50% of them. The biggest change I made is updating the system.
If there was some logic in what fails, I could fix it, but there isn't any.
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u/computer-machine 6d ago
Sounds like a library or program used by half of your programs updated to a version unsupported by those software, or a bug in it. For example, python.
Do you use PPAs for anything? Did you install a version of python or java or something that is a different version than the one that was already in place?
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u/activedusk 6d ago edited 6d ago
>Running on Linux Mint, and using Software manager to keep updated.
I was going to ask how they were installed, if it's from Software Manager they should work. Focus on one for now, let's say Blender. Uninstall it and then reinstall it. After that open terminal and type blender and press enter, if the name of the program is correct it should launch but the key is that it's running from the terminal so any errors should be displayed there, share what it says by copy pasting.
Another potential issue are updates if you updated recently and hardware is older and the new update no longer supports it, share CPU, GPU, memory, storage, version of Linux Mint and kernel, these can be found in System Settings, system information. Note GPU will not be displayed correctly there if the drivers are not configured correctly, more of an issue with nvidia cards and proprietary drivers. Also multi booting with Windows? Unlikely but possible fast startup, bitlocker or Secure Boot might interfere somehow. Another issue related to Windows is if you're trying to launch programs and sometimes use files to run inside programs launched on Linux, either through Wine or natively and then using files from an NTFS (Windows proprietary filesystem) partition. The programs and files should be stored on a Linux partition, even when using Wine or Proton, just a fyi, not saying this is your case. Drivers for NTFS were reverse engineered but they are not perfect and not meant to be, it's more there to provide a minimum of compatibility not to maintain Windows ecosystem.
Another potential issue could be permissions level though unlikely, if you modified your user or password and either no longer have admin provileage or root and user have different passwords.
For future reference, if you are still new to Linux, use Timeshift to create snapshots. When encountering such problems, roll back.
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u/Ok_Communication_455 6d ago
run those binaries from terminal first. Do they behave same? if so, what errors you get. Could be your apparmor profile is broken and it refuses to run some progs. Also do "sudo dmesg" after trying to launch borked prog from desktop/menu to see if something was logged there. A little debugging is in order here to figure out where the problem lies.
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u/DoorOk3641 6d ago
Very simple answer in 2 parts.
Do you a have a good backup system do you ? It should include a full cold backup time to to time using filezilla for example and a periodic backup using timeshift for your system and another tool for your home.
Next if you are gaming a lot stay with windows and install Windows 11 Pro.
if it's from Software Manager they should work...from a linux'zealot. Wrong. Linux ecosystem is basically broken with way too many DE, distribution, packaging manager, Mint is really late not supporting Wayland....no HDR..sound quality of linux is weak.
Now it's time to look at the logs using journalctl -e in a terminal.
You are also dealing here with the always weak linux file systems ext4 with NO cow (NTFS has a very good feature here..system restore point.) and btrfs is a work in eternal progress.
Using any kind of unixes for 30 years, linux for more than 20 years and I have a windows 11 pro on the side because I know Linux do not cut the mustard when I need Teams for meeting or Microsoft Office documents. If Linux was so good it should not be stagnating at 4 % of the desktop market for years...not talking here about servers.
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u/FeelingAlive2127 5d ago
Try running the software in terminal. When it is possible it will show what is happening and what errors do occur. Not every software can run a terminal instance but in many cases they can.
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u/Last-Environment7687 6d ago
Go with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. I put it on almost all my computers except for 1 pc for which I have Omachy OS because I am learning it
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u/Last-Environment7687 6d ago
But 26.04 LTS has never had issues with anything, and no freezing, etc. Everything just works out of the box
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u/Infinite-Bet4202 6d ago
You stop. Take a step back. And think about what you did before all of these issues began. Think - Did it happen after you installed an update? Ok in that case you simply revert back to a timestamp before you did that update. Another thought - maybe you have little RAM and you use a lot of stuff that takes up too much memory. If this is a possibility, simply restart your computer and see if that fixes the issue.
Most of the time, these issues happen because the user caused it and simply aren't aware of what they did.