Dell 3558 Linux Mint 18.3

[FargerLake]

okay, I am going to try asking questions this time.
I have in my possession, a person's laptop, Dell Inspiron, Model number 3558 Intel i3.
Linux Mint 18.3 will not boot to the operating system after install.
What I have tried thus far: Updating the BIOS, acually, the UEFI to be correct, I have tried enabling and disabling the
secure boot, Legacy boot options, UEFI, etc, with no success.
I am going to keep my mouth shut and listen.
Any ideas?

[kc1di]

A couple of Questions

What happens when it tries to boot? blank screen partial boot then stall?
What video card is in that machine?

[FargerLake]

Thank you, I installed windows 7 then, tried to install Mint 18 and it worked.
This blasted uefi.

Now today I have yet another computer in front of me with an i5 mounted to a little Microstar motherboard.
It loves windows but not Linux.

I get the failure to load com32 message.

Any thoughts or ideas?

[FargerLake]

Thank You

I have another pc in front of me today uefi instead of bios when I try to boot from the mint thumb drive I get the failure to load com32 message any ideas?

[MrEen]

Hi FargerLake.

While I don't qualify to answer this given your request, may I ask if you used Unetbootin to create the install medium?

If so, may I propose you try Rufus instead?

[FargerLake]

Yes I did use unetbootin will rufus work with linux as an os to make the bootable thumb drive?
As all of my computers have linux mint in them.

[FargerLake]

okay I just looked looks like rufus will not work within the parameters of any linux system.

Am I to understand that Linux only has unetbootin at their repository and that it sucks to load linux?

What's the big idea?

Seems like the single most important repository item of the almost 100,000 items available and it is broken?

[MrEen]

My apologies. I assumed Windows was on the computer.

You have USB Image Writer in your Menu, but I don't know how well it works.

[FargerLake]

It's really astounding isn't it?

All of the incredible amount of effort that has been put into Mint, to make it what is it today.

The greatest operating system ever conceived.

And yet there are no easy ways to load it to your computer.

What's the use?

Make a way

An easy way

for everyone

otherwise,

Why bother?

[MrEen]

It just takes a bit of effort to discover what works. Here's a list of Rufus alternatives on Linux that doesn't include dd: https://alternativeto.net/software/rufu ... form=linux

[FargerLake]

Thank you, I will try every one of them, and keep a thumb drive of each one ready, to use on various machines.

I wish the Mint team made it possible to actually get at their software by creating a bootable usb tool so that the 7 billion people on this planet will be able to use Mint.

[kc1di]

I use Etcher it's cross platform and can be downloaded as an appimage file that does not need to be install on the system.
you can get it here https://etcher.io, I've never had it fail to produce a good usb stick that will boot.

[FargerLake]

Thank you,

The laptop went home to it's owner happy with Mint on it.
I think that we can safely call this thread solved now. I am going to be using it in the future,

[kc1di]

If it's solved please take a minute and make the thread as solved by editing the subject line of your original post - Thank You.

[Moem]

I wish the Mint team made it possible to actually get at their software by creating a bootable usb tool

a) you do not need to make a bootable USB tool in Mint in order to be using Mint
b) the default tool that is present in Mint works fine. So *poof* you got your wish! It's magic.