Where's my Mint?

[NicholasKersov]

I installed Linux Mint 14 from a cover CD, following the instructions to the letter, hoping to achieve a dual booting system with my Windows 7 64-bit installation (installing 64-bit Cinnamon). All apparently went well, however, when I rebooted, it was straight into Windows with no option to use Mint.

I tried to reinstall, only to be informed that the system was already dual boot. So, where's my Mint, and how the heck to I get it to show up as an option at boot time?

Nic

[xenopeek]

Boot from the installation CD, and run the commands listed on this link to install and run Boot Repair: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot- ... _in_Ubuntu. You should be able to reinstall the GRUB boot loader to /dev/sda that way, and get your boot menu to pick whether to boot Linux Mint or Windows.

[viking777]

The simple answer would be that your grub timeout is set to zero so you don't see the menu. Press the Shift key during boot to see if the menu appears.
The difficult answer is that you have a Uefi motherboard and MInt is installed in non-Uefi mode or even vice versa - if that is the case I wish you luck

[NicholasKersov]

Boot from the installation CD, and run the commands listed on this link ....

Tried that, very carefully, and all I got was a message telling me 'Couldn't find PPA' and to check my internet connection. Net was fine, so no idea how to get past this.

Nic

[NicholasKersov]

The simple answer would be that your grub timeout is set to zero so you don't see the menu. Press the Shift key during boot to see if the menu appears.
The difficult answer is that you have a Uefi motherboard and MInt is installed in non-Uefi mode or even vice versa - if that is the case I wish you luck

Oh dear, I tried pressing shift, which did nothing at all. Motherboard is Gigabyte EP43-DS3

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2846#ov

Mint runs fine on this from the CD, and there was no warning at all that it would not work if installed proper. Indeed, the installation encouraged me to do so.

Nic

[viking777]

NIc, I can't tell if that is an efi board or not. They don't seem to mention it so perhaps it isn't. If it isn't then boot repair should work for you.

Here is a direct link to the software (there is nothing wrong with the ppa btw):

http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boo ... al_all.deb

Navigate to that link from your live medium download and install the software and then follow the tutorial xenopeek linked to.

[Rudemeister]

If all else fails, you can try installing easyBCD from Windows 7. That should get your dual boot functioning properly.

http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

[NicholasKersov]

NIc, I can't tell if that is an efi board or not. They don't seem to mention it so perhaps it isn't. If it isn't then boot repair should work for you.

Here is a direct link to the software (there is nothing wrong with the ppa btw):

Well, I could not download that from a system booted in a Mint live environment. So, I got is using another machine, popped it onto a USB stick, and tried again. This time, what I got was -

Error: Dependency is not satisfied: boot-sav

So once again there is not way for me to make any progress. You know, I really had high hopes that Linux had come of age, but so far this is almost a big a pain in the posterior as Microsoft!

Nic

[NicholasKersov]

[quote="Rudemeister"]If all else fails, you can try installing easyBCD from Windows 7. That should get your dual boot functioning properly.

I had already installed BCD under Windows 7, and it can't find any other OS! So now I have a system which apparently has Mint on it somewhere, but of which I can fin no trace, yet won't let me reinstall, and noting I've tried so far can rescue it. All this, from trusting that the bang up to date Mint cover CD could actually manage to install... like a computer program.

Oh, and at the moment I'm having to hang around waiting for this board to let me back in, as I apparently cannot post another reply so soon after my first one! Not impressed.

Nic

[viking777]

Error: Dependency is not satisfied: boot-sav

In that case try installing boot-sav first:

http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boo ... al_all.deb

Thousands of people have installed Mint14 without any effort (unless they have Uefi hardware in which case it is a monumental effort every time). You may have such a system, you still haven't said one way or the other, or you may have a faulty disk - I have had them from LXF before believe me, or you may be failing to carry out the instructions to install the ppa correctly, I don't know. (the ppa is the correct way to do this, not the way I am showing you, that is just a workround).

Edit. I am now posting this edit from the LXF live Mint dvd with boot repair installed to it, the ppa was added and updated normally with a single copy/paste/enter, the program was installed and run with another copy/paste/enter. There is nothing wrong with those instructions, I would try it again.

If you have a Uefi system you are 100% correct to be unimpressed - so is everyone else that has one, me included. The only people not unimpressed with Uefi on Linux are the people that write the code and have decided it is in a usable state - I can only presume they don't own Uefi systems.

[NicholasKersov]

Error: Dependency is not satisfied: boot-sav

In that case try installing boot-sav first:

If you have a Uefi system you are 100% correct to be unimpressed - so is everyone else that has one, me included. The only people not unimpressed with Uefi on Linux are the people that write the code and have decided it is in a usable state - I can only presume they don't own Uefi systems.

Okay, thanks for your suggestions. Will have another bash and see if I can make any progress. BTW, I've been building my own systems and trouble shooting for others for a couple of decades, and have dabbled with Linux before, but this is by far the most frustrating attempt.

As for Uefi hardware, I don't know for sure. Nothing I've been able to turn up on the manufacturers website tells me one way or the other. I do feel, however, that anyone who puts out a cover disk should include something in the installer which checks if there is an incompatibility.

Nic

[arealvel]

If you have Windows installed in UEFI mode you need to install Mint also in UEFI mode which is quite simple (You can also do the other way, which is disable UEFI for Windows boot). The point is both systems are to be booted in the same mode (either: UEFI or Bios-Legacy (MBR)).

Enter your Live DVD in the DVD drive, reboot, enter BIOS and in priority options start choose UEFI-LiveDVD(lector). Do a normal installation (with the option Something else).

If you have Windows installed in UEFI mode and you don't see in Bios priority options "UEFI-DVD(drive)" but just the entry to the "DVD(drive)", you have to install from a USB pendrive in UEFI mode.

Hope this helps.

PD: To see if you have Windows boot in UEFI mode: Enter Windows, Administration Tools, Comp Mangement, Disks Management and see if the first partition labels as "EFI System partition".