First of all, please excuse me if this is the wrong category. I am not sure whether this is a hardware issue or not.
On the first of November, Zorin ran into a number of issues that I have been unable to fix. Namely, my WiFi adapter suddenly not being recognised, local music and DVDs not playing, my PC tower not recognising my monitor (this thankfully fixed itself), and some slight lag when using the terminal or playing offline gaames.
I have updated my drivers, restarted my network services, scanned my directories for malware using ClamTK, disconnected and reconnected my power sources, and checked for any WiFi switches on my tower, but I have had no luck.
I use Dell, Intel, my Firewall is up, I don't recall downloading anything just prior, and secure boot is disabled.
My hardware is the following:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9b43 (rev 05) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6th-10th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 05) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation CometLakeS GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] (rev 05) 00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 05) 00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th/8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model 00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH Thermal Controller 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller 00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH Shared SRAM 00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH CNVi WiFi 00:15.0 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller #0 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake HECI Controller 00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SATA AHCI Controller 00:1b.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCI Express Root Port #21 (rev f0) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 06bc (rev f0) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation H470 Chipset LPC/eSPI Controller 00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH cAVS 00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH SMBus Controller 00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH SPI Controller
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] (rev a1 01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1 01:00.2 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 USB 3.1 Host Controller (rev a1 01:00.3 Serial bus controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 USB Type-C UCSI Controller (rev a1 02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller 980 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 2600 (rev 21)
I would really prefer not to have to switch OS or reformat, so if either could be avoided, that'd be great.
Did You tried it with switching to Xorg? To do that, go to the Login Screen, not the Lock Screen. Simply reboot for that. On the Login Screen, click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. When it is appeared, You should see a Gear Icon in the bottom right Corner. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in.
Because of Your Wifi: Do you have takea Look in the ''Additional Drivers'' Tab if there is a Driver for it offered? Could You post the Output of sudo lshw -C network please?
Because of Videos and DVD's: Do You have installed the Codec Packages? Open Gnome Software, scroll down to the end and click on the ''Codecs'' Button. Then You see an Overview with Codec Packages. Install them.
After that, You can install over the Terminal additional Software to get Codec Support:
Even when you don't use the VLC Player, it can offer additional codec Support. The ubuntu-restricted-extras Package is a bit special. When You install it a Windows pops up with a Licence Agreement. This is because this Package is a Bundle which includes Microsoft Fonts. And for these is the Licence Agreement. Navigate with the Tab Key to Ok and press Enter to accept.
Firstly are you running Zorin 18 or Zorin 17? Firstly, at login time, when you select your user, a cog appears lower right. Click on it and change this to 'Zorin Desktop on xorg', then login.
Any improvements? Zorin by default sadly uses Wayland which is not compatible with nVidia graphics.
*No login screen appears. It immediately boots up without any password required. (Update: it turns out that I just missed a setting, ha! Unfortunately, I haven't noticed an improvement when switching to Xorg and don't see an additional option button anywhere. Am I misunderstanding?
*I've already tried changing my driver. It isn't possible while offline as far as I can tell.
*I'm not sure what is meant by Gnome Software. I can only find a software application and the described content isn't there.
Please note that this all happened suddenly, and just prior it was working as intended. I do suspect that some kind of update is to blame because I have no clue what else it could be.
Switching to another kernel seemed to fix most of it! Thank you. Unfortunately, I am still dealing with some monitor connectivity issues, or, I assume—it appears blank and shuts off—and I can't always get the Grub menu up when pressing shift.
If I could set it as my default kernel, that would solve the Grub menu issue. How would I go about that? And do you have any graphics card recommendations, in case it needs swapping out?
Here are Instructions (it is explained as ''older Kernel'' but works with every Kernel):
An AMD Graphics Card would be good in my Opinion. The Drivers are already in the Kernel. Don't get directly the newest Model on the Market because the Support for these have to first landing in the Kernel but besides that You can choose.