Can you define how you determine that boot is slow and process launching is slow?
If you cannot tell how long anything is taking...
I meant I can't see anywhere in the CPU-X on how long it's taking. Thought that's what you meant. I haven't timed the boot or bringing anything up, but it's probably taking a good minute or more to boot as well as opening up any browsers or files. I can handle the boot being that way if everything else would be fast, but it takes so long that I click on things again thinking it's not going to open. The computer I'm currently on is super fast.
These are not bad specs. Not a beast, but not what I would think would show excessive slowness.
Are you using an HDD or SSD (Hard Drive or Solid State Drive)?
I agree that is very frustrating. Is it any / all applications slow to launch or just specific ones?
All that I've tried so far. I'll admit it hasn't been very many - guess I'm not that patient! lol
You have been extremely helpful so far - need to go out and feed the barn critters. I'll be back later - hopefully you have some more good help to get things sped up to the way it should be! Thanks so much!
I just realized there was more to your post here than I saw earlier. Looking for HDD or SSD but cannot find where that is yet.
It is intel, but cannot find whether it's HDD or SSD...
lsblk -d -o name,rota
The output will list your drives - a 0 indicates an SSD and a 1 indicates an HDD.
HDD - is mechanical hard drive - and boot or app launch on a low rev Hard Drive can be very slow. This is checking if there is a hardware reason that may account.
Another possibility for slowness is if errors are accumulating. Which would be unusual on Zorin OS Lite, but possible...
Ordinarily, I would check I/O and Top processes, or check if anything you installed (software) after installation was causing issues... But since you say that this is a Fresh new Install, these seem less likely to show a cause.
And you actually installed twice. You wondered if installing Pro might resolve the issue, so reinstalled, using Pro. Which... makes me think it was not an installation issue.
No, using Pro Lite or using regular Pro will not help you performance-wise.
Pro does not lock performance or other features behind a paywall.
I am already a bit stumped.
Zorin OS Lite should be snappy on that machine.
i7 CPU at 2gHz, with 8 gigs of RAM, should be fine. I think Core could work, even, thought it might struggle a bit compared to Lite. But it would still not have a greater than three second delay on App Launch for most apps.
I can think of hardware causes: Failing Hard Drive.
Software side: I would normally try a fresh install - with other troubleshooting focused on the things you did after an install that do not seem to apply, here.
Or trying a different kernel.
We might try a different kernel, next.
First thing:
Can you use terminal and run:
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
Then fully reboot the computer and test. During that process, please report back if you see a grub menu - this shows a list of OS's installed and an option to select which to boot from (Zorin OS included) after it finishes the motherboard splash screen.
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@artcountry1 Your PC model number indicates that it is a Hewlett Packard notebook.
Now we know what make it is, if you press F10 at boot time this will take you into the BIOS and all the relevant info should be there including how much memory is allocated to graphics if any. Have you ever changed the hard drive? I suspect if it has never been changed you most likely are facing a failing hard drive.
Weclome to the Forum!
Let me ask some Questions:
- Is this a Dual-Boot System? I mean, have You installed Zorin beneath Windows on Your Machine?
- Are Secure Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS turned off?
- Is Your BIOS in UEFI or Legacy Mode?
- What Tool did You use to create the bootable USB Stick?
You are not impatient.
Many would have given up. The hardware in your computer should be able to run Zorin very well.
You are in the most friendly Linux forum I have ever been in; and I have tried to have Linux as daily driver since 15 years and been in lots of forums.
I have an old Lenovo 10” laptop with i3 CPU 1.8Ghz , 3½Gb RAM and a slow HDD drive 328Gb. From 2011.
Installed “Zorin-OS-17.2-Core-64-bit” on it (full install).
Boots in almost 2 minutes.
Loads browser in 15 – 20 seconds, but when browsing it is as fast as my newer computers.
Maybe something went wrong when you were installing Zorin.
I would listen to advice from “Aravisian” as to me they sound the way to solve problems (though I would try first to re-install Zorin and patiently wait till it finished, then update what pop’s up to be updated and maybe Zorin would be faster than Windows XP was more than 20 years ago and XP certainly was not slow.
One advice : Do not interrupt while installing system or booting.
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I'm confused as to whether the first and fourth letters are a lower case "L" or a capital "I". Should be a lower case "L" but typing that in shows an odd letter. Tried other letters but nothing comes up to tell me if it's HDD or SSD.
Also, I didn't actually do 2 installs - was just wondering if I should redo the whole thing. I bought the USB stick from Privacy Academy. It doesn't come with the Pro version, so I upgraded to it, going with Lite version since it said that it was compatible with older computers. Still wondering about starting over, but doesn't look like that will help me if it's a failing hard drive. It definitely was slow before I put Zorin in.
I do not have a dual boot - I completely erased the Windows and let Zorin do its thing. I don't have anything installed on it at all. The only thing I have done to it is to change the background (not even my own photo - just picked something else that was already there) and changed the font size.
I am now somehow in a GRUB screen. I tried pressing F10 to get into the BIOS, but that didn't work. I need to press ESC to get in there. I pressed it, but somehow didn't bring me to the BIOS. Got the GRUB screen instead. So, if any of you are on here now... what do I do from here? How do I get out of it?
Well, it says GNU-GRUB at the top. No list of OS's though. Tried to put some of the suggested commands in but it says incorrect command or syntax error. TAB tells me all sorts of possible commands. And there are a bunch!
And you are so right about this being a friendly forum! I'm blown away on how much help I'm getting! I'm sure you can tell I need it! lol I did find that my computer is 10 years old. Being a laptop, can another hard drive be put in if that's the problem? And if so, is that even worth it...
Maybe download Zorin core version or if you have the Pro version then that, and install it. The hardware in your computer will have no problems running that version.
If you download from a Windows computer use Rufus to create the install on a USB stick and let that do the wonder of installing Zorin on your i7 computer that will easily be able to handle that. An i3 Lenovo from 2011 can run it without problems. Not quick booting, but when surfing the net it is as fast as a new computer. Never do anything while installing, just wait till finished. Then follow instructions.
Good luck.
I realize that I am a bit late to the topic, but I would run the following two commands in Terminal and post the results:
systemd-analyze
systemd-analyze blame
Do not need to post the the full blame list. There will probably be a sharp change between the one or two items holding it up.
Thing that I did to knock out 30 seconds or so was to uninstall snapd and all related apps. I reinstalled the apps that I need using sudo apt, if I remember correctly. The second thing that I did was to turn off my AMD 8670M GPU. It was not working with Zorin and definitely was causing issues with the boot.
I still have an excess of boot time of about 1 minute extra time that I cannot find, but it is not on my blame list as there is a 1 minute difference between my blame list and the actual boot time.
Note...this is only related to the boot issue.
Yes. You should be able to replace with HDD or SSD, I recommend SSD. It may take some work - or it may be easier on you to hire a tech.
But this is something you can do. You must remember to be patient; believe in yourself and double check each step before committing to action.
I would say, look up guides online if you have never done it before. If you see that you must get dangerously close to something that you do not want to risk; Then you might consider a tech. Believing in yourself is great, so is knowing your risks and limitations.
It is worth it for many reasons. Partly due to not being wasteful with still working technology that contains rare elements and is bad for landfills.
I would definitely try this.
Something may have gone wrong during the installation.
Good! Glad it would be worth it - I hate to waste anything myself. This is something I would hire a tech for, though. Don't want to attempt that myself... What's the average cost for such a thing?
I will do a reinstall first, though, and see if that changes anything. I really was wondering if I did something wrong or if maybe something was corrupt on the USB stick. Seems like a failing hard drive is most likely after reading what you all say and the fact that it was so slow when it was still a Windows OS...
I'll let you know how it goes whenever that gets finished. I so appreciate all the help I've gotten here and I know I came to the right place!
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You must ask the tech's in your area. I could not begin to provide reasonable accuracy that may apply to you. That could cause headaches.
Makes sense. Thank you.
Problems with reinstall already. I went into the BIOS to change the boot order so it would go off of the USB like I did the first time, but it's not going off the USB. Just loading Zorin like usual. Do I need to do something different now to do a reinstall of Zorin?