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Troubleshooting

Solutions for black screens, slow virtual machines, programs that do not start, no sound, no Wi-Fi, full memory and lost files.

troubleshootingproblemsblack screensoundWi-Fi

Start with the self-test: it often tells you exactly what is wrong.

Black screen after the boot menu#

  1. Wait two minutes: a slow USB stick or a VM can take that long the first time.
  2. Restart and choose Workstation (KMS / no nomodeset) in the boot menu. This uses the graphics card's own driver.
  3. In VirtualBox: Settings → Display → Graphics Controller: VMSVGA, Video Memory 128 MB, 3D acceleration off.
  4. Choose Workstation (verbose / no Plymouth) to see the messages, or DEBUG: Text Console to log in as user / user and look at the logs: journalctl -b -p err.

The screen resolution is wrong or too small#

Settings → Display. If the resolution you want is missing, start with Workstation (KMS / no nomodeset). In VirtualBox the window does not resize automatically (no Guest Additions); see VirtualBox.

Blender or a renderer does not start#

  • "Illegal instruction", or Blender closes at once: the processor (or the virtual machine) does not offer SSE4.2 or AVX. Check with grep -o -w -E 'sse4_2|avx' /proc/cpuinfo | sort -u. In QEMU add -cpu host; in other VMs choose "host CPU" passthrough. On a real computer from before about 2011 these programs cannot run.
  • Blender starts but the viewport is black or very slow: in a VM this is normal for EEVEE (software OpenGL). Use Workbench or Cycles (CPU).
  • Start it from a terminal to see the error message: type blender and read the last lines.

Everything is slow#

Where Fix
In a VM give it more memory (8 GB+) and processors (4+). Close programs on the host.
Live session from USB use a USB 3 stick in a USB 3 port (blue), or install Animux.
During rendering normal: rendering uses every core. Lower the priority: nice -n 19 blender -b …
Blender viewport use Solid shading while animating; lower Viewport subdivision levels.

Watch what uses the computer: System → Task Manager or htop.

Memory is full / programs crash in the live session#

In the live session, files you save are kept in memory. Delete old renders, save to a USB drive instead, or install Animux. Check: free -h and df -h /.

No sound#

  1. Click the speaker icon: is it muted? Turn the volume up.
  2. Sound Engineering → Sound Server Configuration → PulseAudio Volume Control → Output Devices and Configuration: choose the right device (speakers, HDMI, headphones) and profile.
  3. A JACK program (Ardour, Hydrogen) is silent: start it with pw-jack ardour.

No Wi-Fi#

  • Click the network icon at the top right. Is Wi-Fi enabled? Is the network listed?
  • Some Wi-Fi chips need firmware Animux does not have, or are switched off with a key (airplane mode) on the laptop.
  • Show the chip: lspci -nnk | grep -A3 -i network and search the web for its name plus "Debian 12".
  • A USB Wi-Fi stick or a cable (or phone USB tethering) always works.

A USB stick or disk does not appear#

Unplug and plug it in again; look in the file manager's left panel. A Windows disk from a computer with Fast Startup may be locked: shut Windows down fully (hold Shift while clicking Shut down).

I forgot my password (installed system)#

Restart; in the start menu choose Advanced options → recovery mode, then root and type passwd your-login-name. Then reboot.

"No bootable option" after installing (UEFI)#

An Animux installed on a UEFI computer or VM up to r16 may not start when the disk is moved to another computer or VM, or when the firmware forgets its boot list: the screen says No bootable option or device was found. The installer wrote Animux's start file only to EFI/Animux/, not to the standard fallback place EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI.

To start it once: open the firmware menu (press a key at that message, or F2/Del at start-up), choose Boot Maintenance Manager → Boot From File (the name differs between makers), then the disk → EFI → Animux → grubx64.efi.

To fix it for good, in Animux open a terminal and type:

sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --removable

From then on the disk starts on any UEFI computer. (Tested in VirtualBox with an installed r16. Animux r16.1 (_25) and later do this when installing.)

A program froze#

Close it with the × button and wait. If it does not close: System → Task Manager, select it, End Task; or in a terminal pkill -f programname. In Blender, File → Recover → Auto Save brings back recent work.

I lost my files after a restart#

In the live session, nothing is kept after a restart. See The live session. Files deleted in the file manager are in the Trash until you empty it.

The fail2ban service failed#

On r16 (_21), fail2ban shows as failed at start-up (Debian 12 has no /var/log/auth.log); it does not affect anything else. Fixed in r16.1: it reads the system journal instead. To fix it on r16, in a terminal:

sudo apt install python3-systemd
printf '[sshd]\nbackend = systemd\n' | sudo tee /etc/fail2ban/jail.d/animux.conf
sudo systemctl restart fail2ban

(Tested on an installed Animux: afterwards sudo fail2ban-client status sshd shows the jail.)

Still stuck?#

See Getting help.