I was using an older version of Armory on Linux Mint 18.1
How old? I forget exactly when, but some older versions of Armory had some database issues/instability that could cause ArmoryDB to choke. I'm not sure if it presented as a "Failed to spawn ArmoryDB" error.
I don't remember which version it was, but ya it was always a bit finicky even back when I was using it more often. I simplified things a bit, when explaining what I tried to do with the old version. Tried that, factory resets, deleting the databases folder... various attempts caused it to hang in various points so I decided to start fresh.
but have you sucessfully cleared the database while using Armory 0.96.5?
Every time it says "fails to spawn the DB!" and goes into offline mode.
Close Armory. Wipe the ~/.armory/databases folder. Then start Armory again. See if it lets you create a wallet this time?
No luck. Fails to spawn DB, goes to offline mode, creating a wallet crashes Armory. Specifically starting in Offline mode also crashes on create wallet (whether from the intro screen or the drop down menu).
ArmoryDB could also be choking due to being compiled with ASM code that your CPU doesn't support? You could
try compiling Armory yourself in case this is a problem?
Interesting idea. I'll give it a shot.
BTW, when launching in online mode (but failover to offline) the Dashboard is empty except for the two loading bars which have no activity. When launching directly to offline mode the Dashboard is as expected.
I also realized that ps -e | grep Arm reports the ArmoryDB process as defunct, but if I open in offline mode it reports no processes. So what is the name of the main Armory process?