Mint 13 does not boot after installation

[cranfan]

I am trying to install Mint 13 on an old Windows XP machine (which just meets minimum requirements).

The installation reached a stage where a folder opened (I think called 'target'?) containing multiple further directories (including one called 'root' I think). At this point the installation hung with the mouse pointer as a spinning wheel, I could not drag the folder or close it, minimise it etc. I left it alone for 8 hours and then overnight. By morning the folder was moveable and I closed it and shut down the system. On reboot there is no option to start Linux it just launches XP.

The hard disk has however been partioned. My disk backup software (Macrium Reflect) shows the hard drive laid out as follows:

1 (c:) NTFS, used 11GB, available 22.82GB.
2 (none) ext Logical, used 6.85GB, available 14.02GB.
3 (none) unformatted logical, used 478MB, available 479MB.

I'm guessing this means the Linux installation and the grub are there?

How to proceed from here?

Thanks very much.

[kc1di]

Hello cranfan and welcome to Linux Mint,

you can go to this page and download and run boot repair that may fix the problem. though it's not normal to take that long to install Mint.

Here's the Page:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

follow the instruction on the page using the burn to cd method. And make sure you write down the web page it gives you when done as it contains important info in case the repair does not work.

Cheers!

[cranfan]

Thanks, I will try the boot repair disk.

Before doing this I would just add that I recall a message something like 'stage 1 firmware not found ...............'. I think this came up as the live CD was booting.

[kc1di]

not sure about that error message.
but give boot repair a try if that doesn't work I would suggest downloading and trying to install
mint 13 xfce , as it's lighter on the hardware.

[cranfan]

Mint 13 xfce sounds like a good idea as I only have 512mb of ram.
- Is there a procedure to follow when installing on top of an existing version, I don't want more partions on the disk?
- Will it still run these browsers - konqueror, epiphany, rekonq, lynx, firefox and chrome?

I will report back on boot repair, I'm waiting on a recovery backup which is taking forever on a slow machine.

[kc1di]

Mint 13 xfce sounds like a good idea as I only have 512mb of ram.
- Is there a procedure to follow when installing on top of an existing version, I don't want more partions on the disk?
- Will it still run these browsers - konqueror, epiphany, rekonq, lynx, firefox and chrome?

Xfce comes with fire fox and you can add Chromium or chrome. it will not normally run konqueror because that's a KDE specific browser Epiphany is a Gnome Browser though I think you may be able to get it running in xfce, but don't know that it would be worth it. Rekonq again is a KDE browser and won't work well with XFCE. Not that konqueror and rekonq can't be made to work but with only 512mb ram I would not bother. as they pull a lot of KDE packages with them.

when you get to the partitioning part of the install select something else and choose the partitions you want to use i would replace the mint 13 Cinnamon ones with the new ones and install there.

Good luck

[cranfan]

Thanks

I can't get boot repair to run.

Presumably you have to boot up the Mint Live CD first. Having done this I have tried both making a CD and using the install method (which results in a series of 'Failed to fetch' and 'Unable to connect to packages' messages).

How do you get the CD to start 'automatically' as described in the instructions? If I insert it, it appears on the desktop. If I open it in Terminal and enter boot-repair it says 'command not found'.

Thanks in advance.

[kc1di]

Boot Repair is a live cd you do not have to have mint running first just burn the ISO using almost any burning software to a cd and place the cd in the tray and reboot the machine. try the recommended repair first.

[cranfan]

John,

Thanks very much for your help and patience with this.

I had tried this and just tried it again, unfortunately the cd boots but then hangs on its 'boot menu' and does not respond to my keyboard. I have to shut down to proceed.

Obviously this is an old machine that runs slowly, I had hoped Linux might improve matters.

Is there any alternative route to install the grub?

I had problems getting the Xfce dvd to boot but would prefer to try and resolve the existing situation first anyway.

Thanks again.

Martin

[cranfan]

I got the boot repair live cd to run after enabling 'usb keyboard' in the bios, obviously it was not responding to the keyboard rather than hanging.

The recommended repair ran as far as - 'Please close all your package managers (...........) and try again' . I ran it several times.

I ran the report which is at http://paste2.org/p/2741467.

It says - 'Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.' ??

[kc1di]

Is this a real install or is it installed in windows or a VM ?
boot repair is tagging it as a live session. How did you originally install Linux Mint?

[cranfan]

This is just a normal install to a real hard drive.
There are no VM's on the machine.

[kc1di]

This is just a normal install to a real hard drive.
There are no VM's on the machine.

in that case seeing what I've seen so far , something is not right I would to a complete reinstall in fact you may want to check the download to make sure it was good.

[cranfan]

Okay so I have booted up the live cd again and gone into ‘installation type - something else’

I can see the existing partitions, 2 of which are the linux install – sda5 type ext4 and sda6 type swap.

How do I tell the installer to reuse these partitions. If I highlight them – do I choose Change or Delete or Revert?

Thanks.

[kc1di]

Okay so I have booted up the live cd again and gone into ‘installation type - something else’

I can see the existing partitions, 2 of which are the linux install – sda5 type ext4 and sda6 type swap.

How do I tell the installer to reuse these partitions. If I highlight them – do I choose Change or Delete or Revert?

Thanks.

click on sda5 and then on change or edit don't remember which at the bottom when the dialogue box come ups
select ext 4 from the dropdown menu and check the box that says format in the mount point box put a

Code: Select all

/

click done. and continue with the install.

the install will find the swap partition without doing anything else.

[cranfan]

Thanks.

The re-installation seemed a lot more convincing than the first time.

However, the first thing that happens now when I boot the pc is an 'out of range' message. After a minute or two it boots directly into mint which seems to work although quite slow (perhaps to be expected).

The problem now is I don't have the option to enter XP. Perhaps the boot menu is there behind the 'out of range' message and then defaults into linux - just a guess?

I re-booted the live cd install just as far as the 'something else' menu and confirmed XP is still there on sda1.

[kc1di]

Ok what is your video driver?
we can fix the blank screen but you have to edit a file to do it.

You'll have to use the terminal as follows:

type:

Code: Select all

sudo gedit

When gedit comes up open the following file.

Code: Select all

/etc/default/grub

when you have that file up go to the line that looks like this
it's on approximately line 23 counting the blank one also.

Code: Select all

#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

remove the # sign from infront of it and change the resolution to say 1024x768

so it should look like this:

Code: Select all

GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768

save the file.
Exit gedit
now in the terminal again issue this command

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub

when that is finished reboot. you should see a splash screen enabling you to boot to linux or windows.
if you want window to be the default boot let me know and I'll tell you how to do that also.
cheers!

[cranfan]

sudo gedit - asks for my password and after entering it returns 'sudo: gedit: command not found'

[kc1di]

Which desktop are you using?
Cinnamon, Mate Xfce ?

If it's cinnamom gedit should work. yes i should have told you it would ask for your password.
if it's mate then substitute pluma for gedit
if it's xfce then substitute thunar for gedit.
or choose anyother text editor you have installed.

The point is you need root priviledges to modify this file.

[cranfan]

Thanks for al the support, awesome.

I got it to work using pluma and 800x600.
I don't mind it defaulting to Mint but is there any reason why I can't extend the timeout to say: GRUB_TIMEOUT=1000 ?

You probably want me to start a new thread for this? I read the user guide and thought the first thing I would do was run the Update Manager. There were a lot of 'failed to fetch' errors so I tried firefox and there is no internet connection. Should this have installed automatically? I have a wired ethernet connection which is working with XP - Device Name Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC.

Cheers.