LinuxMint's "Install inside Windows" option considerations

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dragon-dragon_dragon

LinuxMint's "Install inside Windows" option considerations

Post by dragon-dragon_dragon »

I have just recently been testing a new laptop which has 2 HDDs. So far I put Ubuntu on the huge/slow hdd and Win 7 on the small fast hdd. I'd like to add LM to the fast HDD, and split it's space something like 60gb / 60gb, but the installer CD doesn't have an option to "install LM along side Windows", instead it's only "Install inside windows".

The explanation paragraph seems to imply that if I chose that option, it's just like installing any other .exe, and also that it allows me to boot into either windows or Linux Mint. This explanation seems contradictory and confusing to me. It appears after testing that choosing that installation method installs LM into a virtual File system which adds a tiny bit of HDD overhead to the process, but otherwise acts somewhat like installing straight to partitions on the HDD. Is that all there is to it or am I missing something else?

Also, the installation size seems to be limited to 30GB total. I just checked my home folder on my current laptop, and it's at 45gb already so 30GB isn't quite enough for me (I have several VMs for testing purposes). Is there any way to expand the Linux Mint size to be more accommodating? (Maybe this should go in feature suggestions?) Also, I'm trying to temporarily store my VMs in the 750GB hdd that Ubuntu is installed in, but it says...

Code: Select all

kentos@ablecan /media/c87b72b9-2e5e-424b-9277-0754382507a0 $ ls

bin    dev   initrd.img      lost+found  opt   run      srv  usr
boot   etc   initrd.img.old  media       proc  sbin     sys  var
cdrom  home  lib             mnt         root  selinux  tmp  vmlinuz


kentos@ablecan /media/c87b72b9-2e5e-424b-9277-0754382507a0 $ sudo echo 'hi' > hello.txt

bash: hello.txt: Permission denied
So somehow Ubuntu is authenticating me even I'm not even booted into Ubuntu?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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raymerjacque
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Re: LinuxMint's "Install inside Windows" option consideratio

Post by raymerjacque »

why not just install normaly and dualboot windows and linux instead of installing linux inside windows ?

Linux will give less hassles and run faster...

All you need to do is make sure you have a partition available with free space on it, boot off live DVD and start install, it will give option "install alongside windows" choose that option, it will automatically install to partition with free space, your windows partition will be safe and untouched. Linux will also automatically make the bootloader with both windows and linux booting options.

[edit]

Ah sorry didnt read properly first time around. so it doesnt give install alongside option ?

Is the main drive connected so it can detect windows ? which verion of mint are you booting into ? is it not maybe the wrong image you downloaded that has limited installation options ?
dragon-dragon_dragon

Re: LinuxMint's "Install inside Windows" option consideratio

Post by dragon-dragon_dragon »

raymerjacque wrote:why not just install normaly and dualboot windows and linux instead of installing linux inside windows ?

Linux will give less hassles and run faster...

All you need to do is make sure you have a partition available with free space on it, boot off live DVD and start install, it will give option "install alongside windows" choose that option, it will automatically install to partition with free space, your windows partition will be safe and untouched. Linux will also automatically make the bootloader with both windows and linux booting options.
Let me try to pull up an option for "install along side" by creating an empty partition. I might have only checked for the "install alongside" menu while inserting the CD with Win7 booted up. It sure seems like an odd boot method to me, but I'm booted into LM right now with it, and I'm not noticing any noticable performance problem other than the size limit imposed and inaccessible HDDs.

Due to my H/W vendors being sucky, I have to use LM 13, 14 gives me repeating shell errors until it halts.
dragon-dragon_dragon

Re: LinuxMint's "Install inside Windows" option consideratio

Post by dragon-dragon_dragon »

I just cleared up 10gb and left it unpartitioned and booted LM13 live from CD and went through the installation dialogue. My options were, "reinstall Ubuntu" oddly enough, and something along the lines of "Delete everything" and it remarked on both my Ubuntu install and my Windows 7 install. Maybe this is a bug, that when Ubuntu is installed and Windows 7 is installed, LM can't be automatically installed alongside the Windows 7 thing?
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raymerjacque
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Re: LinuxMint's "Install inside Windows" option consideratio

Post by raymerjacque »

You need to track down your previous installation and remove it, Also the grub boot loader ... Else it will keep detecting old ubuntu os ( which is where your problem lies )
dragon-dragon_dragon

Re: LinuxMint's "Install inside Windows" option consideratio

Post by dragon-dragon_dragon »

It's kind of an odd use-case I'm under, but I still need the Ubuntu installation for participating in bug hunting for valve's Steamed Penguins project (so overall, my system is rigged to tri-boot). They're focusing on getting a polished release for the Ubuntu platform before they start bug catching on misc. Linux distros.

I found that I could put a mount command in /etc/fstab and after I `chmod 0777` the mount point directory, I was able to create files. Now I'm going to shrink the Ubuntu install and create a dedicated 500GB ext4 partition for storing large files. It's a bummer my VMs won't be on an SSD anymore, but it's either this or I start over with Win7 on the slow HDD and use up the whole SSD partition of Linux mint (which would likely be a waste of 60GB of SSD free space, and Windows 7 is a huge pain to set up properly and I think I'm done with that chapter of my life for now).
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