Having trouble with my new installation

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admvncnt

Having trouble with my new installation

Post by admvncnt »

Hey Everyone!

So I'm brand new to Linux with about 1% programming knowledge (I know basic html and just started a Ruby course). Just to give you a little background . . .

I'm looking to convert an old Dell e520 into a home theatre/casual browsing PC by installing Mint. And I know Raspberry Pi is an option, but due to the fact that I'm trying to recycle this PC, I'm not interested in that at the moment.

It appears the most popular way is to boot from a bootable USB, and there's a few ways to do that. I know i followed these directions here>
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previo ... 4(v=ws.11) at one point, but then also used Rufus (I believe) to burn the ISO onto the USB. Idk if that was overkill. . .

I then restarted the computer and hit F2 for setup options. I changed the order of the boot to USB drive as #1 priority.

I then restarted again and voila! I saw a screen different than the Windows screen. HOWEVER . . .

The screen was waiting for input, with "c:\>" No idea what this means. I installed Linux Mint with Cinnamon (whatever the latest version is), in FAT32 format. Note that I am a NOOB and have no idea what that means.

The PC is a dimension e520 computer:

processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 / 1.8 GHz
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
RAM: 1GB (2 x 512MB)
BIOS: updated to 2.4 (which is the latest version according to dell.com)

Any idea why I'm seeing this? Ideas for re-installing? Any help would be appreciated.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Moem
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Re: Having trouble with my new installation

Post by Moem »

It doesn't sound like you installed Mint yet. It sounds like you burned it to a USB stick and are now having trouble booting your machine from it. Possibly because Windows was not fully shut down but that's a guess.
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JerryF
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Re: Having trouble with my new installation

Post by JerryF »

Moem wrote:It doesn't sound like you installed Mint yet. It sounds like you burned it to a USB stick and are now having trouble booting your machine from it. Possibly because Windows was not fully shut down but that's a guess.
I don't think Vista has the option "Fast Startup" in it's power options.
admvncnt wrote: ...
but then also used Rufus (I believe) to burn the ISO onto the USB. Idk if that was overkill. . .
Don't bother with the Microsoft link. Try to create a bootable USB using Rufus again. You can also try:
UUI https://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal ... -as-1-2-3/
or
Unetbootin https://unetbootin.github.io/
admvncnt wrote: ...
I then restarted the computer and hit F2 for setup options. I changed the order of the boot to USB drive as #1 priority.

I installed Linux Mint with Cinnamon (whatever the latest version is), in FAT32 format. Note that I am a NOOB and have no idea what that means.
What you had created with Rufus was not technically an installation. It's call a Live version of Mint.

Is there an option in BIOS so that you can set up the computer to present a choice of booting using a function key? On the Dell e520, I don't know what it would be but some usual function keys are F12, F10, or even the Esc key. That way you can manually choose the USB for the boot.

P.S. Just my two cents, but Vista is no longer supported which means you're not getting updates of any kind, including security updates.
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