how to install Cinnamon

[Popeye the sailor]

I have downloaded Cinnamon on to a falsh drive......I want to install it on my puter.....the hard drive has been replaced with a new one and is blank...no o/s what so ever on the hd......Cinnamon was downloaded from another puter that is using windows 7.......my computer has no way to boot up without an operationg system......my puter is a HP Pavilion g6 1a50us....4 GB RAM, Athalon II, 2.3 GHz processor..........

My question is how do I get Cinnamon from the flash drive and install it on my hd so I can boot the computer up.......is there anything I have to do to the hd before installing Cinnamon......do I need to partition the hd and if so how do I do this......I am looking for the real basics of the install process......I am really new at this and am wandering around in the dark.....

my puter crashed, the hd drived failed and could not be saved..so I replaced the hd with a new, completely blank hd....HP wanted $260 for a new service contract andI said forget it.......this was the third time I would have had to install Windows 7 and I just decided I whould not pay Bill Gates any more money - the last time this puter went down it cost $117 to get it up and running.....the puter isn't evern a year and a half old..... the first time it crashed after six months of ownership then again one year later......I'm tired of having to pay microsoft everytime something happens.....Bill Gates is rich enough.....so I am taking it upon my self to try and learn some of this stuff for myself...so any help is really appreciated..........

The basic question is .....How do I get Cinnamon from the flash drive and on to my hd so I can boot the computer and get back on line.....I downloaded Cinnamon from I guess is what is called a mirror from some College site..........do I need some kind of boot disk....if so where do I get this boot disk.....what if anything do I have to do to the hd to make things work (intializing or partioning and how do I do this).........are there step by step instructions for booting Cinnamon from a flash drive and installing it on a new hd anywhere.........

thick as brick and super new to this so please be patient with me

thanks, Popeye

[tdockery97]

This will tell you how to set up the HDD in advance of installing if that's what you want to do. You can do this using GParted on your live USB. Boot the USB and when you reach the Mint desktop you can launch your browser and go here: http://ubuntu.paslah.com/creating-new-p ... -manually/.

Note: If you haven't already done so, the .iso file you downloaded has to be burned to a medium such as USB stick or DVD.

[Tartufo]

Unless I misunderstood your question, the first thing you need to do on a blank HDD is to install an operating system. Cinnamon is a desktop environment (DE), so will need an operating system to work with. It cannot boot on its own.

As tdockery97 suggests: download an *.iso for your machine (be careful you download a 32bit or the 64 bit depending on your machine's architecture), burn it to a CD/DVD, load it into the drive and boot up your machine (ensuring the BIOS settings will allow you to boot from the drive - check BIOS settings for first boot sequence). Follow the on-screen instructions. If you are using a clean drive and want to, then allow the installer to take over and partition as it sees fit. Personally, I always keep my /home directory on its own partition so that I can change OS without losing my data.

Then, you can actually just download Cinnamon from the repositories and logout and back in again changing the session to Cinnamon and viola! You've got what you wanted.

[homerscousin]

Just a couple thoughts from a non-expert. First, find the Linux distro and desktop that is most to your liking. This takes internet searching and experimenting.
Second, you have an Athlon 2 with 4 Gb ram. I'd go with a 64 bit distro (Linux Distribution). Most often, this would be better.
Third, partitioning a new hdd. Most people DON'T choose the default install. We create a boot, root and home partitions at least. You really have to read about this and let it sink in.
Forth, Windows. I used Windows since 3.1. It does a typical install that is great for the masses with little concern for security and individual needs. With Linux there are so many choices and so much to learn right from the start, that people do get overwhelmed. Stick with it. 6 months from now you will thank me for the encouragement.
Fifth, USB drive? I don't even have a USB drive. Just my trusty ol dvd burner. I download my Linux distro from a known site, I compare the md5sum with the builtin Linux utility to verify there are no bits out of place during the download process. I burn that .iso file to dvd. k3b works so nice. It verifies the md5sum upon completion. From there, I plug that dvd into the drive and reboot to that live version. Check it out and install if I want to. USB must be basically similar in procedure?



mmmmmm Olive oyl.

[usbtux]

http://youtu.be/pq2bsTh_dDs How to use unetbootin to make a liveusb

How to dualboot Windows and Linux using a simple install. This is a simple standard install. http://youtu.be/lzXZpEWTApc

How to dualboot Windows and Linux using a manual install This is manual install. http://youtu.be/GlEVQqFtcuM