Raphael/Cinnamon on USB thumbdrive - fail

[Optiker]

I'm a relative newbie...dabbled in Linux for years but never got to be very proficient. Trying to return to it now. I prefer it, but my wife doesn't wan to learn a new system, though I use LibreOffice exclusively, and she uses it more than MS Office.

I wanted to install a bootable Mint Raphael/Cinnamon on a thumbdrive so I could boot my old Alienware notebook to it when I want or need an alternate to Win10, which I'm not real thrilled with, or as a rescue OS if needed with my homebuilt Win10 desktop. I looked into it and ended up using "Universal USB Installer" to install from the downloaded ISO to a 16 GB thumbdrive. I set the boot order in BIOS to USB, optical drive, HD. The first time I tried to boot from it, it reached a point and failed with a message that X-Server (is that what the display system is called...something like that?) failed to run.

What do I do?

I know this isn't much info to go on, but don't know what else to send, or how to get it.

I asked for 1 MB of memory for persistent storage - though I don't understand the mechanics of that: what all is stored, where it is stored, etc. I thought that perhaps there may be persistent logs that I could provide that are stored someplace, but no idea where, and if not, no idea how to save that info at the time of the failure when the boot sequence is a command line process.

Any help?

Thanks!
Optiker

[austin.texas]

Does it boot on your Win10 desktop?

[Optiker]

austin.texas...

Haven't tried it. I'm reluctant for fear of screwing something up on my desktop. If I screw up my laptop, it's less of a problem, but if that will help pinpoint the problem, I'll give it a try. I did take a look at what's on the thumbdrive and don't see any obvious error log.

Thanks! I'll try it and get back.

Optiker

[Optiker]

austin.texas...

OK..tried it on my desktop computer, which is newer and much faster than the notebook. It did work, but I was shocked at how slow it was. It took several minutes to boot, and once it got to the desktop, the mouse was not working, but waiting another minute or so, it started to work.

The notebook computer is older and slower. The desktop system is homebuilt and only about a year old, so is fairly fast. The thumbdrive is USB ver. 2, so while probably not as fast as ver.3, should be fairly fast. I can't imagine how slow a live CD/DVD would be since it must be slower than a thumbdrive.

I guess that if it's going to be that slow, I'll not pursue it. If it was for my desktop, I'd consider adding a second, small SSD (I currently have a 256 GB SSD for my Windows C-drive) and dual boot, but that's not an option for the notebook.

Thanks for your help. Unless there are further replies with solutions to the speed problem, I'll consider this thread closed since I won't need to resolve the X-Server issue on the notebook computer.

Thanks!
Optiker

[austin.texas]

If it was for my desktop, I'd consider adding a second, small SSD (I currently have a 256 GB SSD for my Windows C-drive) and dual boot, but that's not an option for the notebook.

You do have the option of getting an external hard drive.
I have a Toshiba 500GB portable, similar to this - http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Ba ... B00N2S73UC
It takes almost twice as long to boot Mint 17 on my external hard drive as my internal hard drive, which is not too bad. There are very few occasions where that matters.
For more speed, you could get an external SSD. -
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=136

Use the thumb drive you have to install Mint to the external hard drive, in the same way that you would install Mint to an internal drive. Taking care to install Grub to the external drive, not your internal drive, which is the default location.
External hard drives are much more durable than flash drives, and it could also serve to backup your personal files from the existing hard drives.

[Optiker]

austin.texas...Thanks!

I figured that if an external HD has to connect via USB, it would be slower than a thumbdrive. I have a couple of spare 30 GB external USB HDs and will try that, but will also look into an external SSD.

Thanks again...will keep pursuing it.
Optiker

[Hackwood]

What did you use to install it on your flash drive? I have always had this problem if I use YUMI or Unetbootin. For me to get a persistent storage file I have to do so manually via grub and a casper/rw file. If persistence isn't something you need (all it does is save any changes you make, i.e. documents, settings, etc), then use YUMI to slap it on and you should be fine.

[Optiker]

What did you use to install it on your flash drive?

Universaql-UISB-Installer - see original post.

Thanks!
Optiker

[austin.texas]

Just to clarify...
If you use YUMI or Unetbootin or Universaql-UISB-Installer you are creating a live Mint USB, which is not the same as installing the OS to the USB in the same way you install to a hard drive.

Optiker, an external hard drive would not necessarily be faster, but it gives you more storage space, and is much more durable than a flash drive. Flash drives wear out with repeated writes.