Linux Mint 20 Install

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Just a few days ago I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon 20 on a new 870 EVO 1 TB SSD which now resides in what I refer to as my Win 7 computer.  This is a totally separate new SSD.  The install went well, but the first thing I noticed was that Linux was only reporting 3600 MB of RAM when I’ve got 4 GB.  LMC 20 is only 64 bit now so wondered what gives?

The second thing I noticed when I looked at “Disks” application was this:

And this:

This arrangement looks weird to me.  Is there any good reason why I need all these partitions?  And especially a bootable FAT partition?  LMC 20 is running fine as far as I know but the main reason I”m asking if this is okay is because it looks way different when I bring up Disks in the 32 bit LMC 19.1 I installed on my 2007 Sony Vaio laptop:

Just one nice partition did it all here it seems.

So, can anyone give me an answer as to what’s going on here?  Is this a normal situation?  Also the LM 20 not seeing all 4 Gigs of RAM.  I was expecting it to see all 4 Gigs.  Thanks in advance for any help on this, or at least put my mind at ease!

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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It is normal for it to report less RAM than the total installed in the system. Some of it is used for the integrated video, as well as some other things. My 4GB Swift was always reported as 3.7 GB in Neon.

The Windows 7 computer is using disk encryption, so that is what you are seeing in the second partition (stacked vertically). It’s only one partition, but logically the computer sees the whole thing and the logical volume that is created when the partition is unlocked as separate.

The other partition is an EFI boot partition. It is possible to perform a UEFI boot from a MBR disk, which is what I am guessing is going on here. Windows doesn’t allow it, but Linux is much more flexible.

I don’t see any reasons for concern here.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Charlie

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One other question:  I got LM 20 so I would be able to see the differences there may be between the 19 versions and the 20 versions.  I’m wondering if it’s worth it to update to any of the later 20 versions – 20.1, 20.2, or 20.3.  Are any of these better than 20?  Is there one that’s outstanding?  Just wondering.

Also, I’ve never updated my Linux Mint 19.1 laptop to a higher 19 version.  Is it a very large download in the way of megabytes?  I’ve got a relatively slow phone line DSL Internet connection.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Mint 19 versions go end of support in April 2023, so if it was me I wouldn’t bother with updating to a higher 19 version.

I’ve not made any sort of in depth comparison between 19 versions and 20 versions. I went from 19.2 to 20.3 several months ago. I chose 20.3 because it was the last 20 version to come out and I think it had already been out a while so that the initial bugs presumably had been squashed. But I can’t tell much difference between the 2 versions. Both my 19.2 and 20.3 versions were/are running Cinnamon and there are a few cosmetic changes, but nothing that’s a head scratcher. Biggest difference I noticed was that GIMP came with 19.2 but not with 20.3; but you can get GIMP using one of the repositories. There might be a couple other programs that do or don’come with 20.3, but probably nothing you can’t easily get.

If you’re concerned about a big learning curve between 19 and 20, don’t be. It’s nothing like going from Win 7 or Win 8.1 to Win 10

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Charlie

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I said it earlier but that was about a month ago, and that is that I’ve already installed Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon on a new 1 TB SSD in my old Win 7 desktop computer.  I’m just wondering if it’s worth it to update to any of the newer versions.  Update Manager is offering 20.3 now of course.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Sounded to me that one of your computers had not been updated past 19.1, and my opinion is that with your slow internet connection I wouldn’t bother going to a higher version of 19 since it goes end of support next April.

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Okay thanks, I was just wondering if LMC 20.3 had anything to offer in the way of improvement over LMC 20.

The LMC 19.1 is on an old 2007 Sony Vaio laptop and still runs great.

The LMC 20 is on my old 2012 Asus desktop that I’ve been running Win 7 on.  I just put the LMC 20 on a separate 1 TB SSD in that computer.  It still has the Win 7 hard drive and I switch between them.  It’s a bit weird I know but the Linux will be getting used more as time goes by.  Hope this clears things up a bit.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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DrBonzo

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Here’s an update on my Linux Mint 20:  I have the panel bar at the bottom and set to “Auto Hide”.  It does auto hide but it’s jerky and does not do it smoothly like it does on Mint 19.1  Does anyone know of a fix for this?  I’ve tried fooling with the settings but nothing seems to work.  I realize it’s just a minor thing but I’m so accustomed to LMC 19.1 working so wonderfully!

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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I don’t use Auto Hide, but I just checked it on my daily driver (Mint 20.3 Cinnamon) and it works fine – no jerkiness..

Check Driver Manager for display/monitor drivers?

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Everything else looks and works fine. I don’t understand why Auto Hide wouldn’t.  My monitor is an old Dell E170S.  Where do I get a display/monitor driver?

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Open Driver Manager and see what it says.

You can try going to the Dell website and seeing if you can find a driver for your monitor. You say your monitor is old – how old is old?

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I bought it new in 2009 through the company I worked for.  The reason I bought it is because I had that same monitor with my computer at work and liked its clarity and great color.  It sat in its box until 2012 when I started using it with the new mid-tower computer I had built with Win 7 on it.  Have not had any problems with it.  It’s a standard 4:3 aspect ratio 17″ monitor which I prefer for computer work and it still works great.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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When you go to System Settings/Display, is the resolution set for one of the 4:3 settings or a 16:9 setting? Your system should detect automatically what the best setting is – probably identified as (recommended) – but you never know.

Still curious what Driver Manager says and/or whether there’s a new(er) driver on the Dell website.

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Linux detected the monitor and gives the correct description and resolution of 1280 x 1024 and does say recommended.  I ran the Driver Manager shortly after I installed LMC 20 and it didn’t find any drivers that I needed.  It’s only that Panel Auto Hide that is jerky, everything else looks and works just fine.

I’ve been really busy lately but will look into it a bit more when I get the time.  Thanks.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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DrBonzo

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Wow, searching the Linux Mint website sure takes a lot of patience.  I’m not the only one with Auto Hide problems, but I am the only one with Auto Hide that that moves with jerkyness!

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Hello Charlie,

Reading into your post about Auto Hide the taskbar acting like it’s doing the JitterBug.

Have you come across a fix? If not, you might consider a factory reset on just your Desktop unless you already tried that without success.

Dave

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Charlie

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[Charlie]

I saw that but it says “Restore all settings to default”.  I don’t know what is meant by “all settings”.  Does this just apply to the Panel settings?  If it does then I’ll try it.

Edit:  No, I haven’t found a fix.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Charlie.

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@Charlie, Have you tried backing up your panel settings in cinnamon, then once done Restore all settings to default and re-introduce your backed up settings one by one (then test) to establish what’s causing the issue?
Reads to me like it’s those pesky cinnamon applets (at a guess)

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Charlie

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So you can do just a Panel backup.  I’ll look into this.  I never had this problem with Linux Mint 19.1 which still runs great on a Sony laptop.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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not on cinnamon ATM but, within each of the panel settings, there are facilities to backup existing settings to re-introduce later.

Try this quickly as a temporary fix (for the session only)
Right click the panel, click Troubleshoot and then Restart Cinnamon

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Charlie

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Microfix wrote:

Try this quickly as a temporary fix (for the session only) Right click the panel, click Troubleshoot and then Restart Cinnamon

No this didn’t work sorry to say.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Microfix

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Have you tried the previous suggestion yet?

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Microfix wrote:

within each of the panel settings, there are facilities to backup existing settings to re-introduce later.

I can’t find these facilities to backup existing panel settings on the Mint Cinnamon GUI.  All I know of is the Backup program to backup my home and files, and the TimeShift program.

This doesn’t seem to be something I can get to by right clicking the Panel. or going into Panel Edit.  Can you please explain this further?  Thanks!

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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@Charlie,
ok, let’s take the clock in cinnamon as an example:
right click the clock on the panel
select configure
select Hamburger
select Export to File

That’s the clock settings backed up.
Do that for each item in your panel for re-introduction later.

Once all have been exported:
right click panel
select Troubleshoot
Select Restore all settings to default
log out and back in.

Then import all your exported files for the panel, job done.

TIP of the Day!
Did you know Dconfig Editor within synaptic package manager can also tweak lots of GUI and system settings within linux? It’s like TweakUI for Linux
seek and ye shall find…
Within Dconfig editor look under Org> Cinnamon for lots of settings to tweak.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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601Dave, Charlie

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Okay, that’s what I needed to know, as soon as I get the time I’ll try that out.  Thanks for the tip on the Synaptic tools!

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Okay!  It’s fixed!  Auto hide works perfectly.  I backed up the panel applets that I could and reset the panel back to default. It immediately worked correctly. One by one I added the saved configurations and none of them caused any problem.  This was really a learning experience for me to a baffling problem.  Thank you very much Microfix.  Haven’t looked at the Dconfig Editor yet but I will let you know what I find.

P.S.  What causes Cinnamon to go into “Fall Back” mode?  Prior when I was trying various settings it told me it had crashed and asked if I wanted to start it again which I did.  Seems to be okay now.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Microfix

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Good stuff, sit back and enjoy the experience..

Charlie wrote:

P.S. What causes Cinnamon to go into “Fall Back” mode? Prior when I was trying various settings it told me it had crashed and asked if I wanted to start it again which I did. Seems to be okay now.

Cinnamon GUI memory usage buffer boundary? that’s a question for the Mint devs, outwith my experience/ remit

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Charlie

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Still working okay.  I really like Linux Mint.  Topic is resolved.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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