Armory wont start after 0.96.1 upgrade

[imnotrich]

I had a similar issue after performing a fresh install of Mint 18.2 64 bit, kernel 4.8.0-53, GCC version Ubuntu 5.4.0-1ubuntu~16.04.4) 5.4.0 20160609.

HP Pavilion p6710f, AMD Athlon II X64 640 Quad-Core 3.0Ghz, PC3 10600 DDR3-1333 16gb, Crucial MX300 1TB (Grub, boot, Mint, Home), Crucial MX200 (W10), WDC 2TB Spinner, GeForce GT 730, XFX TS650.

Running bitcoind 0.14.2-Xenial1.

Armory 0.96.2.1-gcc5.4_amd64.deb installed, but would not launch via the Cinnamon Menu (thus no logs were created). I tried to launch via the command line and got an "illegal instruction" error.

Removed Armory via Synaptic, deleted all .armory related files, tried several prior versions of Armory same results. Would install but not launch. 0.95.1_amd64.deb would launch, but would not allow me to import a pre-existing wallet (said it was already scanning?) and after several hours would crash out or be shutdown because it started looping/using all my RAM and 400% of my CPU horsepower. A couple of times upon closing it told me there was a BDM error.

In my haste to find a solution I did not preserve any logs from 0.95.1 unfortunately. I now have Armory 0.93.3_beta_e59e10d38c installed and it successfully synced with the network, built databases, and is now scanning transaction history. Still 20 minutes to go.

Ideally though I'd like to run the newest goatpig version, mostly for reasons of security rather than the segwit stuff but
now that I have a working version what is the safest way to upgrade? Can I install the upgraded version without first removing 0.93.3? I fear if I remove Armory and related folders/files I'll be back at square one and unable to launch the program.

[HCP]

With a processor that old, you may need to compile your own copy of Armory. The "illegal instruction" error is generally caused by attempting to run Armory on older processors that don't support the instruction set that the newer binaries have been compiled for.

You'll need to clone the git repo for the latest version and compile it yourself.

[imnotrich]

  Solved, thank you!

I did have to get my fingernails dirty because Mint 18.2's default install doesn't include something like 15 packages I needed to compile etc., and the first few times I launched armory (from the command line, because sudo make install didn't create any menu entries) it didn't scan the entire blockchain - could only make it to 2016. After a factory reset or two all is good. My correct wallet balance is displayed and all transactions listed.

Back when hplip and Nvidia drivers were major command line projects I did learn some commands but this was my first experience compiling anything, btw - it was fun!

Wondering if not creating a desktop icon or menu entry was an intentional security feature, but I'm thinking about leaving it that way for now. 

Thanks again!

Rich H.