How automated is the Mint 19 Dual Boot installation? [SOLVED]

[newtoallthis]

Delighted to get my Ageing 32 bit Dell 960 to run Linux Mint via an ISO image (19 Cinnamon) on a USB. I'm a bit of a technophobe so was amazed to see it boot up OK and have a look around the beautifully clean, simple and readily searchable interface.

OK, so I'm convinced it's the Vista replacement I need, but have a couple of pieces of design software that won't run on Linux so need to dual boot.

Running the installer from the USB driven copy, I get to the installation type page after selecting keyboard layout etc. I don't want to overwrite Vista, so selected 'something else', hopeful that the installer 'will automatically resize that existing operating system and install Linux Mint beside it.'

Except I get an error 'no root file system is defined, please correct this from the partitioning menu.'

I suppose the question I have is, is there a pretty much fully automated install option here that I'm missing? The manual seems to suggest so, but maybe I'm expecting too much. I have no idea what a root file definition is, and have never partitioned a disc. Am I missing something obvious in the install?

Really appreciate any thoughts. I'm a real newbie to all this.

[kukamuumuka]

Except I get an error 'no root file system is defined, please correct this from the partitioning menu.'

You need to set mount point for /
https://www.howtogeek.com/117435/htg-ex ... explained/

[AndyMH]

An excellent guide from @administrollaattori. Coming from windows you are going to have to forget about drives being labelled C: or D:, etc. In linux everything is in folders.

At present Vista is probably using all your hard disk and you are going to have to create some space for mint to install into. Mint will need around 20GB for / (root) and the size of /home depends on how much data you have, say a total of around 50GB. So how big is your hard disk and how much is used?

I don't dual boot any longer (have win7 running as a virtual machine in mint). The piccy below shows the partitioning of my SSD. This is from a program called gparted (you can get at this from the mint menu > admin tools). sda is the first hard disk and sda1 is the first partition on it. You can use gparted to reduce the size of your existing partitions to create space to install mint (by booting up from your USB). While I've got separate partitions for / and /home, you don't have to and I'd recommend that you just have a single partition for /. Nor do you need a swap partition in LM19, so don't bother with that.

Screenshot from 2018-10-17 09-36-50.png

You can also reduce the size of partitions in Vista, but don't know how, in win7 it's control panel>admin tools>computer mgmt>storage:

Screenshot from 2018-10-17 09-42-44.png

Once you have created space you can install mint with 'something else' and tell it to use the unused space (can't remember exact details, it's been a while since I had to do this). The mint partition needs to be formatted as ext4.

When up and running mint will be able to see and read/write to your existing drive C: so you can share data between both operating systems (windows won't be able to see mint though).

Before you start backup everything important!

[michael louwe]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDVs0YGpm3Q - How to DualBoot Linux Mint 15 with Windows Xp Vista 7

The above video guide is for old Legacy BIOS computers(before 2012 or Win 8 ) like your Dell 960. The Dell 960 can run 64bit LM. Old MBR/ms-dos hard-drives are limited to 4 Primary partitions and 2TB in size.(UEFI's GPT disks have no such limits) If your internal hard-drive with Win Vista already used 4 Primary partitions, the option for automatic "Install LM alongside Win Vista" will not be available = need to delete one of the Primary partitions, eg can delete the Recovery partition if you have created a Recovery Drive and Repair Disk/CD or a System Image.
....... Replace LM 15 with LM 17.x, 18.x or LM 19, in order to be current. The newer LM 19 will auto-create a Swap file = no need to manually create a Swap partition.

The automatic "Install LM alongside Windows" will result in the auto-creation of the Root or / and Swap partitions(or Swap file for LM 19), ie no Home partition = all your data will be stored in the Root partition, eg movies, music, photos, etc. Linux pros would prefer to manually create a Home partition. The bootloader/Grub will be auto-installed on the MBR or boot partition of the internal hard-drive.

The "Something else" install option is for manual partitioning of the disk and manual install of the bootloader/Grub. To dual-boot with this option, you need to first shrink the Win Vista partition to free up disk space for the manual install of LM. The shrinking can be done with the built-in Windows Disk Management Tool or with GParted from the Live LM USB/DVD. ...
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=122276 (manual partitioning Tutorial for Legacy BIOS mode and MBR/ms-dos disks)

[newtoallthis]

Hi all

Thanks for the replies, it is appreciated, I'll look at the video and follow the other hints. Thanks.

Just in case I'm being monumentally stupid and you're all going to slap yourselves on the forehead and go Doh!, my current C drive isn't presently partitioned at all, and has 128gB free of 233Gb.

I'll crack on and see if I make progress!

[Moem]

my current C drive isn't presently partitioned at all, and has 128gB free of 233Gb.

Those two statements cannot both be true. Since it's not all free/unallocated space, there is something on it, and that something would necessarily be inside a partition.

[AndyMH]

Those two statements cannot both be true. Since it's not all free/unallocated space, there is something on it, and that something would necessarily be inside a partition

Moem's right, what you have is that when Vista was installed it has automatically partitioned the whole drive and the partition for C: has 128G free space. This means you should be able to reduce the partition for C: easily* by 50G to make space for mint. If you look at your drive either with gparted or via Vista you may find there is a reserved partition and then win C: (as my previous piccy). Under MBR, this will give you the ability to add two new partitions and you only need one.


* Win has a habit of sticking some files at the end of the partition, specifically the page file for virtual memory, which may mean that you can't reduce the partition size by as much as you want. Assuming that Vista and win7 are the same, goto control panel > system > advanced system settings > performance settings > advanced > virtual memory and select 'no paging file' or set it to zero. Might have to reboot. Once you have shrunk the win C: partition you can re-instate the page file - let win automatically manage this if available as an option.

[rickNS]

Assuming that Vista and win7 are the same, goto control panel > system > advanced system settings > performance settings > advanced > virtual memory and select 'no paging file' or set it to zero. Might have to reboot. Once you have shrunk the win C: partition you can re-instate the page file - let win automatically manage this if available as an option.[/size]

In addition to Andy's good advice, re page file. I would also (to gain even more free space, and this is just "my thoughts", the choice is yours)

turn off system protection, delete restore points, (they can take a lot of space) run defrag, (fairly important when you want to shrink a partition) Then turn system protection back on, and create one restore point.

BTW windows always over-rides "turn system protection off" upon reboot in Vista. So much for user preference.

Andy, Vista not much different from 7.

Newtoallthis, yes when you choose "something else" the process is not automated. Which is good, you get what you want.

[newtoallthis]

Thanks again for the replies.

Having watched the video linked to by Michael, at 4:17 it shows the installer offering two options in addition to the something else manual option.

1/ Install Mint alongside Windows 7

2/ Replace Windows 7 with Linux Mint

I don't get that first install alongside option, only:

Erase disc and install Linux Mint.

Michael mentions that if Vista already is already using four primary partitions, then the install alongside option wouldn't be available.

Here's a screen shot, anyone care to advise if they can see from that if Vista has grabbed four partitions, or has the Mint 19 installer changed to such a degree from Mint 15 that this near-automated dual boot option was removed altogether?



This must be very trying for all you experienced guys out there. I'm really, really sorry!

[rickNS]

Don't be sorry, No your vista is only using 1 (one) partition, which is good. Strange as there is usually a small "system reserved" partition.

Anyway, if you right click inside (under the dark blue line) the C partition and choose shrink (wait) what is shown as available space to shrink ?

[michael louwe]

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Not sure why the LM 19 Installer is not detecting the Win Vista partition to give you the option for "Install LM alongside Windows". Could be caused by the internal hard-drive setting in BIOS Setup, eg PATA/IDE vs SATA vs RAID. Or the LM 19 Installer does not support Win Vista/XP.

You may need to do a manual "Something else" install of LM 19 alongside Win Vista, ie shrink and then partition the disk. Note that the "Device for bootloader installation" should be the internal hard-drive/disk or /dev/sda. ...

https://www.dell.com/support/article/my ... pc?lang=en - How to Install Ubuntu and Windows Vista or 7 as a Dual Boot on your Dell PC

[AndyMH]

I think you are not getting the 'install alongside' option is that there is NO space on the drive to install mint, vista is using all of the disk space and you need to reduce the size of that partition.

[newtoallthis]

Thanks for all the help, it is very much appreciated.

Shrinking the Windows partition using the tool in Vista created a second partition and the Mint 19 installer then gave the elusive Install Mint alongside Windows option.

Interestingly (although I’m guessing it’s unhelpfulness comes as no surprise to many of you…) Vista initially said access privileges denied or somesuch and flatly refused to perform the shrink.

You might think that message indicated a lack of administrator privileges, but it actually turned out that it wasn’t possible to shrink it to the amount Vista itself had reported. I do understand that some allocation of space isn’t necessarily visible, but how does that particular Vista error message help you to work that out…?

Mint 19 now installed fine, thanks to you all again.

[AndyMH]

If you are happy can you edit the title in your original post to add [solved]. You will find that the people here are very friendly and helpful as I'm sure you will have further questions as you delve further into mint