Unable to Install inside Windows, Just Boots to Live CD

[livejamie]

Hey guys,

I have tried a few times to install the 64-Biit Cinnamon version of Linux mint inside Windows 7 64-Bit.

This is something I've done with success in the past and have never had any troubles.

What I usually do is I mount the ISO using Virtual Clone Drive and run the "Install within Windows" selection and go from there.

It tells me that installation is finished and that it wants to reboot.

When I reboot it says "Finnishing Linux Mint Installation 5" and then counts down and in a few seconds I'm presented the desktop and I'm in "Live CD" mode.

Everything works fine, but nothing ever installs. None of my settings get saved and it's pretty frustrating.

This is a nice, modern computer and I'm not sure what to do.

Any ideas?

[karlchen]

Hello, livejamie.

It tells me that installation is finished and that it wants to reboot. When I reboot it says "Finnishing Linux Mint Installation 5" and then counts down and in a few seconds I'm presented the desktop and I'm in "Live CD" mode.

This just means that mint4win has finished installation phase 1 which is performed under Windows.
After the reboot installation phase 2 will follow.
It runs under Mint 13 inside a normal live session. User mint has been logged on automatically.
You have to tell the installer explicitly that you want to install Mint 13 now, just as if this were no mint4win installation, but a normal installation. (After all a mint4win installation is almost a normal installation, the main difference is that the Mint filesystem will live in a large root.disk file on an NTFS partition.)

How to proceed with installation phase 2:

Click on the "Installation" icon on the desktop in order to proceed with the Mint 13 installation.
You will be prompted to configure some basic settings.
When prompted to specify the locations for the root file system (root.disk) and for the Grub loader, make sure that you specify the same device, like e.g. /dev/loop0 or rather /dev/loop2, because /dev/loop0 and /dev/loop1 should be in use at that time.
Later on a slideshow will be displayed.
During all this time the installer will perform the installation steps. They can and will take quite a while.
Once the installation has been completed you will be presented the graphical logon screen where you have to logon using your own account.

Kind regards,
Karl

[livejamie]

Oh really? Is this a recent change? Normally it would just install after the reboot automatically.

It's described here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20079/in ... r-netbook/

I've done the WUBI thing tens of times and haven't had this experience.

[livejamie]

I just tried Ubuntu's WUBI installer and it worked just perfectly.

The one response I got on the Linux Mint reddit community was a user who is reporter the same problem that I am:
http://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comme ... ?context=3

[karlchen]

Hi, livejamie.

I was surprised, too, when I noticed that the installation process did not continue automatically after the first reboot. Having performed a number of Ubuntu 10.04 Wubi installations and one or two mint4win installations (Mint 9), I had never seen a situation where the installer just launched a live system and then simply waited for me to double click the "Install Linux Mint" icon on the desktop.
I will not speculate whether the current behaviour is by design or by accident.

Cheers,
Karl

[hot cup of joe]

I had the same problem after attempting to install twice, little did I know it was installing Linux Mint in my HDD#2, so i changed the boot-order and 'voila' Linux Mint was up and running flawlessly, the problem now is now when i boot the HDD#2 and I get to the GNU GRUB its has 2 copies of Linux Mint (both working) installed, I at the least wanna get rid of one copy, please help (this is my first time using Linux Mint and yes Mint is installed alongside my copy of Windows)

[crankster]

Was this a recent change with version 13? I dont remember having to install it this way with versions 9-12. It had me scratching my head for a while until I figured it out. I looked and couldnt find any documentation refering to this change. I would think that something like this would have been documented to avoid confusion. If is its documented could someone please post a link for me.

I've loved mint from the first time I tried it but have to use windows to run business software that I was unable to get to run in Wine so to make thing easy I install it with Mint4win that way I can easily uninstall and install new releases.

Thanks for all the hard work. Cinnamon looks great!

[livejamie]

I've created a bug report for this problem:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1009232

Feel free to add any pertinent information.

Thanks

[karlchen]

Hello, livejamie.

Filing a Launchpad bug about the behaviour of the Mint 13 mint4win installation is all right.
Yet, the content of your bug report seems to suggest you either have not read, or not understood, let alone followed the workaround step which had been posted a few posts above in this thread: here.

• According to the Mint 13 release notes and confirmed in several reports in this forum, Mint4win installations of Mint 13 can only be done for the 64-bit editions, not the 32-bit editions.
• The Mint4win installation of Mint 13 64-bit can be completed successfully. The only (minor) nuisance and unexpected thing is that after the first reboot the Mint 13 live system is started, but that the actual installation of Mint 13 to the harddisk is not launched automatically. - As a workaround, you have to double-click the icon labelled "Install Linux Mint" on the desktop. Once you have done, the second part of the Mint4win installation will start and succeed.

Kind regards,
Karl

[livejamie]

Hi Karl,

I understand that there are workarounds, and I truly appreciate people trying to help, but it's bad behavior to assume that every single user is going to take the time to come to the forums here and search for a workaround.

It's a pretty big bug and should still be fixed.