I apologize this is going to be a bit vague as I can’t really provide specifics at the moment, but I’ll try to do my best with what I know off the top of my head.
I recently picked up an old Dell Optiplex desktop from 2013 and refurbished it (new paste, switched out an HDD for an ssd etc) with the intent to sell it for a profit. It has no GPU, just using integrated graphics but I figured it’d be a great machine for basic web browsing and such. I figured I’d do an OEM install of Mint, but the only problem is the gui will not properly display after booting without nomodeset in the grub config. I don’t feel like that’s an ideal form for it to be in when I sell it to someone.
I’ve tried a couple different things to fix it, I made sure all the proper drivers are installed, tried i915 flags, I’m ashamed to admit it but I was turning to chatgpt for quick support and it seems to think that ivy bridge chips just don’t play nice with up to date kernels. It suggested I downgrade to mint 21.2 so I can use a 5.15 kernel which would hypothetically work. I’m out of ideas so I might give it a try I’m not super knowledgeable, but I figured I’d turn to real people before going forward with that, I’d much prefer selling something running the current release.
The CPU is a Intel i5 3470. I can provide more precise specs and information that’s helpful later when I can check. But for now I’m open to ideas if you’ve got em.
Selling a 2013 pc for profit means scamming someone, especially counting the time you already invested. Just sain…
I think it depends a lot on context.
Wiping the dust off an old, low-spec ex-office PC, getting it barely functional, throwing a couple of RGB lights in it and trying to pass it off as a competent gaming rig for a high price would be completely unethical, I agree. But salvaging an old PC, actually refurbishing it into something useful for light day-to-day use, and selling it as such with a small markup to cover parts and labour seems completely fine to me.
You and I may have the skills needed to take a worn-out old PC and breathe new life into it easily, but not everyone who’d be happy with a modest secondhand system can do that.
As it happens, until just a few years ago I was running my high-end games on what started as a secondhand commodity PC with an i5-3470, without complaint.
/shrug that’s gotta be the most being scam I’ve ever heard.
I’d check the HDMI cable actually. I’ve had PCs fail with some hdmi cables, so try another one, from another brand (or whatever cable standard you’re using).
That’s one of the first things I did actually, I’ve found basic things that I don’t usually consider tend to end up being the problem for me in the end, however it’s not the case this time.
Also if you can use displayport at least try that. DRM-ladden HDMI tends to have issues with Linux. My little server running Ubuntu Server for instance refuses to display anything over HDMI to my HP monitor. Plug DisplayPort, poof no problem.
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When you say “won’t properly display” it is too vague. Just from my experience ‘not properly displaying’ can mean a solid black screen, a black screen full of RGB noise, or a display that is blurry and stripped but you can actually interact with the OS. Could you clarify this?
Oh yes sorry I should have specified. It’s not just a black screen or anything it’s as though I unplugged the hdmi cable or something. I’ll see the Linux mint logo for a bit, it’ll fade to black, then my monitor just says “no signal” and turns itself off. The computer is still on, it’s not like it shuts itself off, it just doesn’t output anything.
Do journalctl and look at what’s happening.
journalctl -xb-1i believe gives it for last boot (if it even gets that far?)Also
dmesg.And just in general, to see recently changed logfiles to look at after a reboot:
sudo find /var/log -mmin -3for files modified within last 3 minutes for example.
Honestly I really don’t think it’s an issue to ship it with nomodeset… is it?
I was considering doing that as a last resort. My understanding is that nomodeset just pretty heavily nerfs GPU performance, you can’t do GPU acceleration, things will be a lower resolution etc, and again this machine doesn’t even have a dedicated GPU so for the use case I imagine the device in that shouldn’t really matter. I’ve been using it with nomodeset just fine and everything looks great and I don’t feel like I’m getting a lesser experience, but if I can get a permanent fix that works I’d rather go with that.
I for one appreciate your integrity in trying to set things up such that they’re working properly before you pass the machine off to someone else
Best of luck my friend!
Can it play Youtube in HD without lagging?
I guess that would be roughly my bar for what I’d feel OK with passing on to someone clueless.
Your bar is high! Does it boot to a GUI? That’s mine, and it sounds like it doesn’t – so no YT.
In that case I’d give it away for free. Or sell it without an OS to someone who knows what they’re getting and leave them to figure it out.
Me, I’m big on free, but I recently noticed something… What was it?.. Someone told an anecdote about something they valued, and it seemed clear that it was because they paid. And it got me to thinking money is effectively now what church was thru the 1990s. And, like, is that weird and probably dysfunctional? Yes. Does that make it less true? No.
OK?
I think 2013 gear and low-end hardware can still be useful in 2026. And that it can be win-win to give old gear a new home.
But it wouldn’t be honest selling stuff that can’t physically handle what a reasonable user would expect from a PC to someone who is not capable to install an OS themselves and doesn’t understand what the limitations are.
Not too dissimilar to marketing CMR HDDs as “NAS drives”, which I hope we all agree is a scam.
And just so I don’t get misread on that part, “HD” = 720p.
I’ll get downvoted for this, but use Claude for Linux troubleshooting, not ChatGPT. It’s much better at both Linux and PC troubleshooting. Also, are you sure that your refurbishments are compatible with the board and remaining components? Might be worth trying to do a Windows 10 install (don’t actually install, just go through the steps) just to see if you get a GUI from that process.
Also, check and take this to LinuxMintForums.com as that’s more specialized. But try and get more info before you go over there. They’ll want full details.
I guess that compatibility could be worth checking, but besides the swap for the SSD it is all the original components, I’d assume there wouldn’t really be any issues with that. I’m not gonna turn anything down though it could be worth just giving that a quick try.
I’m not sure about your CPU but I’ve had times when similar issues play out differently on different distros (I guess due to differences in kernel buikdconf, modules, or drivers) so while it’s a long-shot you could give that a go.
Try also the LTS and Zen kernel flavors.
I’d try Arch, Debian, Fedora (or perhaps some other rpm-based alternative that doesnt deprecate so quickly)
Like someone else said, anyone who hasn’t had your exact issue will need logs and details to give more helpful advice.
