How to get help

[NTxLSdon3]

Greetings from the Great Country of TEXAS,

Have not been able to read what you are providing upon the subject of this message. When clicked upon that link the next screen has nothing to click to read, except: 'Board Index' and just takes me back to the first screen after login with the same listing to start all over, again.

Have not been here to keep up with what others are working with/on. Have had several crashes with the need to reinstall from original CD, Linux Mint Cinnamon v19.2. I had a copy of v19.3 on my H/D but not able to boot so cannot copy to a DVD. Found someone, Electronics and Computers Company that had something for me and sold me a USB Stick with this some thing installed, my system would not boot to it and could not see what was there. I have a Purchase copy of 'SPIN RITE 6' from Gibson Research Corp that would not work either. But seems it did do some thing because my system started to boot again, so I tried the USB thingy and Vola! It had a copy of v19.3. There is more but those details are meaningless.

Spent months attempting to restore my system and finally gave up and started over, loosing all email, addies, links, etc. The only way I have to get help is over the net and when the boot operation will not work, I have to work at it until finally it works again. Personally feel my issue is with DELL Inspiron 1564, they put a C: drive on this laptop, as I have learned, is 16bit and when booted it looks for MS Windows and there is not any. Thought that had been removed when formatting for Linux/w install of Mint Cinnamon v19.x, but; evidently it is still there. It keeps looking for an *.exe file and LMC has no use for that type.

Have been attempting to learn how to Up-Grade to v20.x so maybe that can be solved with a special format operation first. This is a totally different problem for me, with me bei+ng less than a novice it is a very large issue. Just need to take more time, at 82 the project is looming . . .

Someone from Linux sent me an email explaining about a backup format instructions and that was lost with all of my crashes, 4 or 5 of them.

TIA for reading my long rambling message . . . Excuse me, neglected to inform you I did get 'Bleachbit' run and removed unused and not needed software in other languages and attempted to run 'RKhunter' after installing and nothing happened along with the other one suggested, also installed and would not run. Can a partial run of the install to re-establish my 'root' password? Or just another fresh install?

[senjoz]

I will comment only on the second paragraph of your post.

If I click on the link how to get help, I get a page with a lot of content. Page content printed in pdf format is

READ How To Get Help! - Linux Mint Forums.pdf

(57.12 KiB) Downloaded 15 times

Maybe something is wrong with your browser.

[Cosmo.]

To make it short:

Backup all your data.

After that do a fresh install.

[NTxLSdon3]

Greetings cosmo,

Should I also do a 'Time Share' at the same time to an external drive so the system is completely restored after all Up-Dates are also restored. Maybe do a special format for that first partition of the H/D to get rid of the garbage and create ext4 or maybe ext1 boot partition by doing a Gpart to remove anything referencing to MS Windblows?

[Cosmo.]

If you mean Timeshift:
No. Why. A fresh install means really a start from scratch. All parts - except your user data - will not be needed.
If you create a new partition table, all traces to previous content will be gone.

[NTxLSdon3]

Cosmo,

Yes, 'TimeShift' is what was meant, cannot seem to keep things straight. That reformat is only for that partition they titled as 'C:', making it 64bit along with the other partitions not the entire drive, or is this not possible? I am still thinking like MS-DOS setups, or does Linux not have a backup of partition table and only need to replace that part of the table that is formatted to remove the Microbarf software.

[Cosmo.]

Of course you can only format the partition, where you want to install Mint. In this case do not touch the partition table, as this would remove everything from the drive.

[NTxLSdon3]

Greetings Cosmo,

I never do any thing with that table, what should the name for that partition be, ext3 or ext4? My system is on ext5. Where is the documentation for the work and usage of the H/D, have not been able to find that data. Or maybe just have not read far enough into docs that have been located, plus all of the links have been lost to crashes and I have none at this time.

TIA for your reply, you have been very helpful . . .

[Cosmo.]

I never do any thing with that table, what should the name for that partition be, ext3 or ext4? My system is on ext5.

This is impossible, something like ext5 does not exist. Choose ext4.

This documentation might help. It is official.

[NTxLSdon3]

Cosmo,

I quote from your post:

"This documentation might help. It is official." where is the link to the doc?

[NTxLSdon3]

Cosmo,

Maybe that should have been 'sda5', maybe I should forget about this for a few days and do more reviewing to get my mind reset to Linux and forget about William (Billybob) Grates and his never ending Microbarf Windblows trashy unsecure . . . off topic, the end.

[Cosmo.]

Sorry, I forgot to give the link: https://linuxmint-installation-guide.re ... en/latest/

[NTxLSdon3]

Cosmo,

If I may? Look up that word, 'sorry' and understand we are all using that as a description of ourselves which is not very accurate. I tell people here to re-evaluate themselves and change that to 'apologize' instead. You are not a 'sorry person,' you are a 'wonderful person' always wanting to assist others when, wherever you can. Off topic but a pat on the back and a different way of expressing yourself.

TIA for reading my message . . .

[Cosmo.]

You may, but I don't get it. Perhaps, because English is not my first language.

[NTxLSdon3]

Cosmo,

Off topic briefly, the word 'sorry' means not acceptable, very poor opinion of that person, etc. Use a dictionary on the web, for en., for not having it as you basic language you are very proficient and excellent in the usage. You must be a Graduate of the Higher Education Dept., like College, University, etc. I am only High School Graduate, in what I know at this time is self-taught, I am my own teacher/Professor plus being the Student at the same time. I think by background is within my profile if you wish to know more.

TIA for reading my messages . . .

[Cosmo.]

Without giving too much details: I am a retired salesman.

Since my childhood I was interested to use the English language. In my youth there was at the London Hyde Park the Speakers Corner; I don't know, if this exists still today. I had been several times in London and I traveled on every Sunday to Speakers Corner (for listening, not for speaking). I admit that using English language is at least as motivating to write here besides writing about Mint.

What I do not do and am not interested: To make a language scientific investigation out of it. If you could see, how often I use the online translator, when I write here - and make errors over errors anyway - you wouldn't have written the above.