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
I did a full memtest and chkdsk BEFORE installing Linux (I'm dual booting right now), and things were fine. Again, I only seem to be having issues in Linux, not Windows (native or through virtualbox!).
Even just now, Digikam is crashing, but it won't let me force quit (waiting just brings up the window again).
Which memtest did you use?
It was the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. Reboots into the diagnostics utility and tests. Same with the CHKDSK, all from the system recovery boot (no through the Windows GUI).
As others have mentioned I'd use a proper tester (aka memtest86+), it will probably take overnight.
Shit. Well, if I have to, I have to.
But this doesn't explain why it would affect only Linux (assuming bad RAM). That's the sort of thing that would cause Windows to go into a frenzy, and I simply don't have that experience with BSOD or crashes like that.
The differences in memory management and allocation could explain it. Linux is far more aggressive at cache IO I think.
It does seem like a hardware issue to me too...
It might be a driver issue... Windows does have the resources to test them more than Linux community, so - kinda hardware related - but Framework should be able to help here.
And as others have said, try memtest, I did on a laptop with similar issues to yours and found the RAM was the culprit. Personally, I recommend using this version, not the passmark version: https://memtest.org/
It'll boot from a USB stick
It will take hours.
For Linux use 'sudo journalctl -xe' (from memory) - it'll explain the issues it finds, as best it can. You'll probably see something in there
If you're dual booting with Windows open the event log viewer and check under System (from memory) and see if there's any red X warning logs... esp. Hardware ones.
Thanks. I've made the bootable memtest USB drive, and will test later.