Let’s get serious. 
Is this the exact image?
$ sha256sum ubuntu-mate-16.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso
39cb4d4069dd79a9104b8c1c5d0d4a5b009779eec55fafeceafcf43c7ebcaba4 ubuntu-mate-16.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso
I’ll install fresh in a VM and see if I notice any instability. There’s always the remote possibility something is corrupted in your memory stick, too.
I have been continually upgrading with patches since I started (about every other week) and I do not see any of those problems at all.
I can't remember the last time it crashed on boot up and I use it almost daily.
I only use wifi on my laptop, so I would notice that one for sure.
I seldom use the USB, but I have never seen that problem.
Based on my limited experience, I would say that the latest distro has the problems, not the original. The latest distro and the old distro + patches being different is not unusual, but in fact common in my experiences.
Here is the info I have from when I downloaded the package.
Cheers, Fred
I agree. I wonder if it may be the latest sub-version of 16.04 that is the problem. Mine is 16.04.2
Theoretically, 16.04.2 should be the same as 16.04 or 16.04.1 updated. I think everyone would agree on this. In fact, I installed the original in April 2016 but updates changed /etc/os-release to say 16.04.2.
So why would they behave differently with all the symptoms you see on hardware that worked fine on an earlier version?
1.) Something is wrong with the 16.04.2 image. I tried it specifically and see nothing unusual for a VM. Changing to compiz crashed the clock but this isn’t unusual. I did notice shutdown took a long time quite often and wonder if this means anything - I routinely change the timer to 15 seconds per this.
An update along the way had a different final result than a fresh image install. Something just isn’t the same. Developers have any ideas?
Symptoms seem somewhat global in nature. Kernel? Systemd? What would set these up differently?
A gremlin got in, somehow, in installation or hardware. A zillion unlikely possibilities but the probability isn’t zero. Try again?
What’d I miss?
The installation scripts may have changed based on what's been updated between the point releases. The problem may be there. Or something has been missed by the point release packagers, on the DE configuration files, between an update and a fresh install.
I know... I'm shooting at the dark 
But there are scenarios.
I am at 16.04.2 through all my updates, but I agree I got there a much different way.
I would back down to the last know good one (16.04.x) then do the updates to see if it is an 16.04.2 image problem.
It doesn't sound as if it was slowly going bad, you just decided to do a new image. Right?
My Lenovo is factory stock except for an SSD, which obviously has nothing to do with anything.
Cheers, Fred
Hi Fred. Yes, you are correct. There was nothing inherently wrong about the previous installation. It had simply become flaky for reasons entirely related to my own incessant “tweaks”. This is a usual thing for me. That is to say, mess around with a distro to the point of destruction and then do a reinstall.
However, this new install has had a few problems right out of the box
I’m doing okay with 16.04, running the rev-75 kernel. Once it starts up, it’s good. I only had to reboot 3 times this morning to get past some … stuff that systemd thought was needed. I’d really like for Ubuntu-MATE to boot up the same way every time. When things are lucky, it takes maybe 3-4 seconds to get from grub to login, and everything is working fine so far as i’ve used things. [Haven’t used bluetooth for months, not sure if i’ve ever used it since installing Ubuntu-MATE.] But it is kind of a PITA to have to reboot your laptop 3 or 4 times to reach the login screen; something is broken, when you power up your system and it acts different each time, something is just flat broken. And since 16.04 is an LTS release, isn’t it limited to security fixes or something?
I’m not sure what level of fixes one ought to expect. I tried 17.04 but didn’t get past much because i didn’t have my reading glasses and it was displaying text at some absurd resolution like the native resolution of this laptop which is 3200x1800. But once a linux version is “out”, it’s basically nearly frozen, except for a lot of updates like firefox and language translation, at least that’s how it looks to me.
There are times when i’m stumped on something, i’d be able to at least test and report bugs if that didn’t get me hooked on some black-hole time-sink, but i looked the other day for something with nightly iso builds but wasn’t very determined in my digging, seeing as how occasionally i get something figured out and want to code it up before it evaporates.
I can always just suspend it while i’m not using it, but i believe that does still use some battery for dumb things like polling the lid switch or who knows what, but i prefer storing li-ion batteries in a disconnected state, just in case one decides to go melty.
It's probably is because of 16.04.2 -- the second point release introduces a hardware entitlement stack, which is a manual upgrade for existing 16.04 or 16.04.1 installations which I guess is why it didn't cause problems. New 16.04.2 installations use the 4.8 kernel (as used in 16.10) so brand new hardware gets improved support (or in this case, possibly the cause of Wi-Fi problems). It also ships a newer version of X... otherwise, it's all the latest packages at that time of release.
@stevecook172001 Since 16.04 (with updates) and the 4.2 kernel worked better for your system, I'd suggest installing 16.04 (or 16.04.1 potentially) and see how that goes.
Cheers Lah7. I am going to reinstall with the 16.04.1 version later today and will report back.
Steve Cook. Go back to Ubuntu MATE 14.04. All problems will be solved. Ubuntu doesn’t know how to write good code anymore. The state of all Ubuntu derivatives is a disgrace compared to previous years.
Okay, having just reinstalled Ubuntu Mate 16.04.1, I can report the following:
All problems encountered with the latest 16.04.2 ISO have gone.
These problems included:
USB peripherals not being picked up. Most notably, my Logitech USB webcam.
Power manager crashing on virtually every login
Mate panel crashing on frequent logins
Qbittorrent not working
wifi frequently disconnecting during a session
wifi re-enabled at the start of every new session irrespective of it being disabled in previous session.
All of these problems are gone.
At least for the moment.
From what i know. There are still problems with the wifi, if you use amd video card or intel you will have video tearing(this problem with video tearing is from many year ago, personally i have a fix on my site for both video cards) . The problems with the panels crashing are again old, i posted a new bug for 17.04 with mate 1.18. But what i will love to see is some bug reports with the problems that you have, if they are posted here they will not be fixed. The ideea to roll back to a older version of the lts it’s not going to fix anything in the long run, you are just postponing the problems. If you find a bug please reported on the Launchpad and in time it will be fixt. Don’t forget the problems that you may have it can be just yours because of the pc configuration, so if you not report it ,it will take a long time until a user with the same problem will post it. All the best
14.04.1? Don’t you mean 16.04.1? By the way, my install of 16.04.2 has newer kernels than my upgraded 16.04.2.
Yes I do mean 16.04.1. My silly mistake. I have rectified the post.
