I think my first attempt to install Mint went haywire

[dderolph]

Yesterday, i downloaded Mint and burned it to CD. I left the CD in the CD drive overnight (computer shutdown). When I turned it on this morning, the computer launched the Mint installation since the CD drive was set as first boot device in the BIOS.

Since I've installed Ubuntu several times, I expected a similar experience when installing Mint. But, Mint just installed without ever stopping to ask me questions, to allow me to manage drive partitions, etc.; it just installed. Or, gosh, maybe I'm wrong and it was actually running off CD. But, it took 8-10 minutes from when i started the computer to when I was able to interact with Mint.

Anyway, believing that Mint had installed on the hard drive, I figured I'd see it on GRUB's boot screen. But, it is not there. Prior to this encounter with Mint, I had Window 7 RC and Ubuntu installed. So, I was seeing, and still get, the boot screen where I can choose Windows or Ubuntu, but Mint is not there.

I confess I did not burn the CD at the slowest speed of 8x using for the ISO file I downloaded using Ubuntu. I also did not check the MD5 sum. I've done in the past but can't recall the procedure for checking the MD5 sum.

Should I re-download Mint? Or, can i still do an MD5 check on yesterday's download? Or, should I try burning the file I downloaded again and burn it at the slowest speed?

[vincent]

I think I know the source of your confusion. If I understand correctly, Ubuntu gives you a list of choices when booting from the Live CD, to choose whether or not you want to run it as a Live Session, install it, boot from HDD, run memtest, etc. Mint offers the same things, except it automatically chooses to boot into a Live CD Session, and if you want the other options, you have to press any key when the CD boots to the "Automatic boot in 10 seconds" stage. Unless you click on the "install Mint 8" icon on the desktop and follow the prompts (Mint uses the Ubiquity installer, which you are probably familiar with), you won't actually install Mint on your computer.

[dderolph]

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply. I don't have time at the moment to put the Mint disc in my computer and try this again but will report back later tonight or tomorrow when I've had a chance to do this.

[shawnoram16]

I know little thing about this but i can suggest you. The Input/output error has been around since 7.04 maybe longer. Many have gotten around this error by Trying Different Media type at install. If the installation fails you could also try Linux in a virtual machine. Virtual-box has Linux Support with 3D desktop effects if your computer can handle this.