sometimes system hangs after typing 'su' password SOLVED

[martinwprior]

I have installed Cinnamon from an iso download. sometimes the system completely hangs when I use the mate terminal to 'su'. It happens after entering the password. But not always! I have tried other terminals and the same happens so its not mate specific. Would anyone know where to start looking to solve this problem.

I was using KDE which generally was fine except when rebooting sometimes it would find my .config files and load properly but at others it would not. Sometimes I had to reboot 2 - 3 times.

I am unused to this erratic behavior. I usully find things work or they do not.

[dibl]

With such intermittent problems, I would want to do some hardware tests to make sure the hardware platform is stable, before playing with software settings.

Ideas:
- run dmesg and look for suspicious messages during boot
- run memtest overnight
- run fsck on the hard drive or SSD
- boot a different OS (or siduction) from USB stick or CD ROM -- play with the user login and root login
- use smartmontools to test the hard drive, if there is one

[martinwprior]

Thank you for the response. In the meantime I reinstalled Cinnamon and at the moment it seems stable but I will go ahead with your suggestions anyway. I have been using Siduction for many years and have always found it fast and reliable and with great support.

regards to all

[martinwprior]

I have had no further trouble after reinstalling Cinnamon. I have marked in closed. Thanks for the input.