ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

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JerryF
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by JerryF »

Can't read the last post's pic.

Try using a larger resolution, and save the pic with more compression. In Shutter (a linux app to take snapshots) I use 50 out of 100 for the quality and full screen pics are under 100K.

I can read the other pic. It look like there's 8 GB total partition for Mint system and data. IMO, that's a little bit small.
michael louwe

Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by michael louwe »

@ infinaurakle, .......
infinaurakle wrote:.
.
Try disable Fast Startup in Win 10, ie >Control Panel >Power options.
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

so sorry I'm not getting the questions correctly from my helper ...
and I got the last post totally wrong ...

for the moment, it seems
"that the bios is not recognizing the new boot"...

I should have more specific news/details in a few days ~
thanks again ~
so much for your help ~ღ~
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

hi there everyone,
thanks for your patience in keeping this thread open for so long...
it's been an ongoing battle with this very specific installation, and as I'm a totally inexperienced newbie with all this, my friend (who knows linux installations much better than I do) and agreed to help me, has just lost his online access, and asked me to post this request for him (complete with screen shots) to see if anyone here can offer some feedback and help us resolve this problem.

unfortunately as part of this request, the 7 screen-shots he included/inserted in his email (for every step there was a problem), could NOT all be added here ~:(~ so I have noted where they are inserted in this letter and created a PART TWO below :mrgreen:

apologies in advance for any confusion ... :?
I hope all this makes some kind of sense anywayyy ...
here goes .....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PART ONE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We finally decided to try the difficult path. The contingency plan is to bulldoze everything and restart from scratch with a fresh win7 & obviously LM18.3 ....

So First step after doing a persistence usb stick, thanks to Mkusb (ref :)


How to make USB boot drives
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1958073

Next step, access the UEFI configuration in winX.

  • Disable Secure Boot ...Done...
    Disable Fast Startup in Win 10 ...Done...


The next operation was about shrinking the winX partition. The priority was clear, we needed more than half the disc for LM18.3, so no way to do so with winX partitioner. Then, after downloading and installing this software (EaseUS Partition), I've been able to size winX conveniently .
  • Réf:) If GParted can’t resize partition, move partition or format partition in Windows 10/8/7, relax! Powerful partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master Free, GParted alternative free tool will effectively help you fix this issue.
Free partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master Free supports you to effectively resize partition and move partition in Windows 10/8/7 PCs with simple clicks. All you need is to free download and install it on your PC, then follow below tutorial steps to resize or move partition with in 3 simple steps now.
screen shot 1 :
shot1.png


In the end 30.8 GB was plenty for win partition so I was left with 77.4GB to be used for installing LM on sda5 + including a 10.5 GB swap on sda6. Right after that I happily escaped from Win and got back to my usbkey, launched Gparted, and now I want to make 2 new primary partitions : ext4 & swap...



screen shot 2 :
shot2.png


Oups...win is already taking 3 primary partitions, and quite frankly I don't know if I can delete one of them without damaging the actual installation, so here a snapshot of what I did ..:)

C0MPUTER:) AURAKLE-STATi0N

dev sda5 ext4 = 77 360 mb
dev sda6 swap = 10 501 mb

win10 = dev sda1 NTFS = 30 753 mb

dev sda2 NTFS = 825 mb

dev sda3 FAT32 = 8589 mb (Recovery) loader[/i]


screen shot 3 :
shot3.png


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR PART 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





.
Last edited by skydance4justice on Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:26 pm, edited 7 times in total.
michael louwe

Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by michael louwe »

@ infinaurakle, .......
infinaurakle wrote:.
.
You have a modern UEFI computer. Seems, you have opted to install in Legacy BIOS mode on a MBR/ms-dos disk. For dual-booting, ensure that the "Device for boot loader installation" is the internal hard-drive or /sda.

The Tutorial for reinstalling Grub(not Grub.efi) should be this ... https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/grub .

The above Tutorial may likely not work on an LVM installation = you should not use LVM. You should have just opted for the Root (/) partition as a Primary partition and the Swap partition as an Extended(or Logical) partition, in order to not exceed the 4 Primary partitions limit of MBR/ms-dos disks.
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

thank you Michael ~:)~

as soon as my friend is able to get back his online access (hopefullly soon)
I will send him this response and hope it works for us ...

much appreciated ~ღ~
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

Ok so here is an update.
I just spoke to my friend who saw the response from temporary online access but cannot respond himself...
(according to him) these LAST FOUR screenshots are the MOST important ones ...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PART TWO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



screen shot 4 :
shot4.png

So using a logical partition and later in the bios confi. activating LVM.


screen shot 5 :
shot5.png




After doing my partitions, I succeeded in making a normal installation of LM-18-3..... smoothly has usual.... BUT... as expected winx is "Bork the Grub" and ignoring my new installation....

Well no problemo, since it seems we've got the solution in this link post by Michael, so let's try the terminal..!

I've been trying to follow the instructions, *** but THIS is where I hit a wall, the UFI folder does not exist.



RéF:) https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/6
c. Now the EFI partition. Copy and paste this command line into the terminal :)

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi


Finally, here a few snapshots of the directory on the Winx's partitions... I wasn't willing to go further with the rest... some one with a better understanding of winx and terminal's operation can probably tell me how to adapt those command lines for this specific scenario.

mint@mint ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
mint@mint ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
ntfs-3g-mount: failed to access mountpoint /mnt/boot/efi: No such file or directory
mint@mint ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/boot/efi
mount point /mnt/boot/efi does not exist
mint@mint ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi
ntfs-3g-mount: failed to access mountpoint /mnt/boot/efi: No such file or directory

======Where is EFI ?

/media/mint/OS/Boot/ =============/dev/sda1

vs = /boot/grub/ ======/dev/sda5

Whatever I try to boot from /dev/sda5, it's not doing it without a little more help. It gets a little fuzzy for me here ... ;)




screen shot 6 and 7 (in 2 parts) :
unable to add here due to size (please see below)




Any other hints regarding the new partitioning vs the original one is more than welcome. It's the first time I come across this situation, and as you can probably perceive I'm not perfectly fluent, even with a terminal.... and curiously, I'm not big fan of winx, but I would like very much to tame it once and for all.

It's about time I contribute a little to some forums, I've received so much already......

Thanks in advance for all your help


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last edited by skydance4justice on Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

apologies and thanks for your patience here ...
I had to resize and crop these screenshot images so they could load here ...

THIS is screen shot 6 :
shot6.png
and screen shot 7 :
shot7.png
after speaking to my friend, he asked me to let you know, that the last 4 screen shots are the most important...
once again, so sorry for the botched addition of the screenshots, as they were too large to post here ...
many thanks again for all your help ~ღ~
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

my post seemed a bit confusing without all the screenshots appearing together, and in the right place,
so I edited my post above into two parts to make it as CLEAR as possible, which was a bit of a challenge since I'm doing this for a friend who is helping me with this, and as a newbie, I have no idea about installations myself ...

I hope it's much clearer now ...

thanks again Michael and everyone for your invaluable feedback and advice ~ღ~
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

.
...p.s... please forgive the choice of that colored background on screen-shot no#6 ...
I know it does not read well with the text, but it was not my own screen-shot :(

would really appreciate some guidance on how to resolve this specific issue,
as it's already been 3 weeks since we've been trying to get this installation done ...
still hoping for a response from anyone who may have some experience with this problem ~*~
thank you ~ღ~
D3RViSHT3K

Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by D3RViSHT3K »

wow i 'm glad to finally directly join the forum, better late than never, obviously i still need to improve my english and my teck knowledge... let's start.

Thanks for your answer Mr Micheal, so you confirm that installing LM on extended partition wasn't wise, i 've been suspecting so, therefore there is no point trying to reinstall Grub for now, isn'it ? so you're suggesting i can remake the partitions without touching the 3 initial primary partitions already taken by winX .

so instead of this:)

C0MPUTER:) AURAKLE-STATi0N

dev sda5 ext4 = 77 360 mb (Logical )
dev sda6 swap = 10 501 mb (primary)

win10 = dev sda1 NTFS = 30 753 mb (primary)

dev sda2 NTFS = 825 mb (primary)

dev sda3 FAT32 = 8589 mb (Recovery) loader[/i] (primary)

i should end up with this :)

dev sda5 ext4 = 77 360 mb (primary)
dev sda6 swap = 10 501 mb (Logical ) ? :o !


win10 = dev sda1 NTFS = 30 753 mb (primary)

dev sda2 NTFS = 825 mb (primary)

dev sda3 FAT32 = 8589 mb (Recovery) loader[/i] (primary)



So let's suppose we're doing it, than next step after should be reinstalling Grub, on sda1,
(the last link you post)
RéF:) https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/grub .


and we forget about this first links :)
RéF:) https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/6

This is not relevant in this situation right ? well any others advises before we proceed are welcome, and thanks for helping us.
michael louwe

Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by michael louwe »

@ D3RViSHT3K, .......
D3RViSHT3K wrote:.
.
LM is not booting likely because you have wrongly installed LM alongside Win 10, eg wrongly creating the Root(/) partition as an Extended/Logical partition, using LVM installation, etc = you likely need to reinstall LM alongside Win 10.
....... The Root(/) partition should be a Primary partition, Swap and/or Home partition should be an Extended/Logical partition.

1. Use the manual "Something else" install method.
2. To reinstall LM, delete all the 2 Linux partitions, ie /sda5 and /sda6, one-by-one, by clicking - . This will create a new "free space". Remember not to touch the Windows ntfs partitions.
3. Then follow this Tutorial beginning at Step 4 ... viewtopic.php?f=42&t=122276 (manual partitioning Tutorial for Legacy BIOS mode and MBR/ms-dos disks)
4. Ensure that the "Device for boot loader installation" is the internal hard-drive or /sda.
Last edited by michael louwe on Thu Jun 14, 2018 1:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
skydance4justice
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Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by skydance4justice »

.

we'll only be able to try this in about 4 days ... since circumstances/availability will not be possible before then ...
and let you know what happens with an update as soon as possible ...

thanks for your response Michael ~ღ~
D3RViSHT3K

Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

Post by D3RViSHT3K »

D3RViSHT3K wrote:.
Nice one @micheal
I appreciate your advice.

micheal wrote:

@ D3RViSHT3K,
" LM is not booting likely because you have wrongly installed LM alongside Win 10, eg wrongly creating the Root(/) partition as an Extended/Logical partition, using LVM installation, etc = you likely need to reinstall LM alongside Win 10.
....... The Root(/) partition should be a Primary partition, Swap and/or Home partition should be an Extended/Logical partition.

1. Use the manual "Something else" install method.
yep..exactely what i did, before starting the installation process, my first step was making all the partitions with Gparted.

2. To reinstall LM, delete all the 2 Linux partitions, ie /sda5 and /sda6, one-by-one, by clicking - . This will create a new "free space". Remember not to touch the Windows ntfs partitions.
ok, so winx is taking 3 primary partitions and we can't touch it as i initially suspected, therefore we are left with only one primary partition, that's...X,...!
0n top of thinking there was no way around...
    so i took my last primary partition to create the swap
    and now I'm going to make it on Extended/Logical, which should easily fix my initial mistake.
    3. Then follow this Tutorial beginning at Step 4 ... viewtopic.php?f=42&t=122276 (manual partitioning Tutorial for Legacy BIOS mode and MBR/ms-dos disks)

    4. Ensure that the "Device for boot loader installation" is the internal hard-drive or /sda.
    so it's ok to install the boot for Mint mount as root on dev sda1 first , not dev sda5 ? Do we need redirecting through another grub, or we just edit the first boot loader on dev sda1 after..?
    That's where i've got confused, well let's see if i'm going to get lucky with this new attempt...

    Thinking about strategy before starting the process :

    You made me realize that it's possible to create a "swap" on extended partition, and why not add another partition to mount the Home directory, which brings another interesting topic about which strategy to use with this installation.

    First of all, there were many good reasons to keep this installation as simple and as quick as possible, but the easy way is not always necessarily the best one. So the contingency plan was to first prepare a persistent key usb3, in order for this computer to be used temporarily for it's mission (in the meantime).

    We also know if we create an encrypted Home on a different partition it will not make any difference for the user, and keep it simple for her.
    On my side it raises another possibility, like you're suggesting, to make 2 new logical partitions, so one swap and a second ext4.
    But I'm looking at the possibility of making a " DATA" partition instead, on which we can add key folder via "Links" and remap :

    Documents
    Picture
    Music
    Video
    Download

    The same disc could also be quite useful for having a complete back up.
    Curiously i just discovered Lucky backup and just like it's flexibility....!
    Finally it may also sound convenient to install WINE pointing to the same disc, but this is not a priority right now.

    The main advantage is that it gives us a back-door access, especially when it comes time to transfer information from this "flying" station to another computer. Otherwise, encrypted Home folders could easily turn into a cage, when you're trying to access your info from a different computer, especially in a context where one is not using a network.

    I also question the necessity to have a Home directory on a different partition in this new context, where we're going to upgrade from one version of the system to the next one, without any need to reinstall everything.
    I have the impression that this old school trick of having a separate partition for Home, is especially wise in the context where we can remake a new system without touching and reinstalling Home from scratch.

    Thanks to your advice, I already have a better understanding of what could be the best scenario with these specific contexts, and your links were really helpful.
    The part that makes me more nervous is the final operation with the boot.
    I will post more feedback when we hookup for the next operation.

    Please feel free to elaborate more about this strategy of remaking 3 new partitions :)

    Primary LM 18.3
    Logical swap
    Logical DATA


    Is there really a need for using one more partition mount / Home...?...
    Perhaps I missed another point here about it's other advantages..?

    Any other advice you can offer about this strategy (in this specific case/context) would be more than welcome.

    Thanks again!
    michael louwe

    Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

    Post by michael louwe »

    @ D3RViSHT3K, .......
    D3RViSHT3K wrote:.
    .
    Having separate Root(/) and Home partitions in Linux is similar to having separate C:/ and D:/ drives in Windows. It results in a slightly faster system, esp for HDDs.
    ....... The Home partition stores your app/program settings and data(= documents, photos, music, videos, etc) which are seldom accessed by the LM system. It is the Root partition that is often accessed by the system.

    I have no experience setting up a separate Data partition.

    For Legacy BIOS install mode, just let the Grub bootloader be installed on the internal hard-drive or /sda.
    ....... Grub info or menu(where you select to boot LM or Windows) is stored in the Root partition. The Grub bootloader and Windows Boot Manager are stored in the MBR Boot partition, which is always at the beginning of the internal hard-disk/drive. In a dual-boot system, the bootloaders are chained together.
    skydance4justice
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    Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

    Post by skydance4justice »

    .
    .

    thanks very much for your feedback Michael ~:)~
    within a few days after your response, my friend was working on it,
    and it seemed to be going well for a bit ~ but now according to him, it seems that ...
    "Win bork the boot again"


    it's already been well over a month, and although long overdue to have this working for deadlines ~
    there is no other choice but to keep waiting and praying...

    had I known this was going to be such a problem,
    I would never have bought this machine ~:(~
    I guess this is the price we pay for wanting a smaller. lighter, more compact laptop...
    https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ASUS-ZenBook-UX21A/
    and guessing perhaps they're not made to be messed with this wayyy ~
    but what's done is done ~:(~ and there's no way I can return it now ~:S~


    meantime ~
    since I cannot respond with any specific details, once again,
    we'll have to wait for him to post them here ...

    update coming (hopefully) soon...
    thanks for keeping this thread open,
    and for all your advice ~ღ~

    .
    Last edited by skydance4justice on Sun Jun 24, 2018 11:25 pm, edited 4 times in total.
    michael louwe

    Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

    Post by michael louwe »

    @ infinaurakle, .......
    infinaurakle wrote:.
    .
    Win 10's forced auto-updates will often bork the Linux Grub bootloader in a dual-boot system on a single internal hard-drive = need to reinstall Grub.
    ....... To prevent this, install LM on an external USB hard-drive ... http://linuxbsdos.com/2013/10/23/how-to ... ard-drive/ or in a virtual machine or run a Live LM USB with persistent storage, while leaving Win 10 alone on the internal hard-drive.
    skydance4justice
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    Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

    Post by skydance4justice »

    .
    thank you Michael,
    will pass it on ...
    skydance4justice
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    Re: ASUS mini ... is Mint installation possible ???

    Post by skydance4justice »

    warmest thanks for your help Michael and everyone who contributed here ~:D~
    problem solved !!
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