Linux Mint Forums

kc1di wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:02 am Hello,

The best way to find out what will work and what won't is to burn a Live USB/DVD of Mint and give it a try without installing. This should tell you if everything will work. Most hardware is now supported in Linux via the Kernel. And you will not need additional drivers. Sometimes there is a need for Wireless or Video drivers but most of them are supported in Linux Now.

If you burn the live USB/DVD when you get the desktop up and running go to a terminal and type this command

Code: Select all

inxi -FXz

and share the output here That will give others on the forum a better Idea of what your hardware looks like and a better chance of finding help when needed.
Good Luck.

PCMan007 wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:38 am Well the last time I booted this machine with just a USB stick in it, and the stick had nothing to boot from, it screwed up my Windows installation. I just get this strange feeling that if I do the Live USB boot, when I go back to get into Windows, I'll have to reinstall it.

majpooper wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 12:15 pmSomething doesn't sound right here - I have no idea what happened but if you have a live Mint USB or DVD for that matter the machine will in fact have something to boot from - specifically the Mint USB or DVD - that is it's purpose. Now I suppose if in the past you booted from Windows and had some bogus USB inserted then yeah anything could happen.

majpooper wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 12:15 pmHowever if you download and make a Mint USB from a verified .iso and ensure that USB is first in the boot order in your BIOS then absolutely the Mint USB stick will not have intimate relations (if you catch my drift) with the Windows installation. I have done this many many many times in the last 5 years to know that this is absolutely the case. So do it right, by the book give it another try - you'll be fine.

PCMan007 wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 2:58 pm I just have like photos and a few .rar files that I put on the USB stick as a backup to drop back on the PC, in case I do a format of the C:\ drive. So what ends up happening is that I have the USB stick in the slot, after looking through it to make sure I have all the things I wanted backed up on it. Then, I reboot the computer. Now in BIOS, it's set up as boot from CD first, then boot from hard drive second, boot from USB third. But there is nothing on the USB stick that the computer can use to boot with, so what ends up happening is I get some kind of disk error message. I realize that the PC is trying to boot from the USB stick, but there's nothing on there for the PC to boot from, so I pull out the stick before I reboot, and after I have rebooted, and there's no CD and no USB stick in the computer, I'm now constantly getting this disk error, and somehow something gets screwed up. It's not due to Linux, because I haven't tried to do a Live USB with Linux as of yet.

I will give it a try at some point. Thanks for the help

majpooper wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 4:10 pm

PCMan007 wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 2:58 pm I just have like photos and a few .rar files that I put on the USB stick as a backup to drop back on the PC, in case I do a format of the C:\ drive. So what ends up happening is that I have the USB stick in the slot, after looking through it to make sure I have all the things I wanted backed up on it. Then, I reboot the computer. Now in BIOS, it's set up as boot from CD first, then boot from hard drive second, boot from USB third. But there is nothing on the USB stick that the computer can use to boot with, so what ends up happening is I get some kind of disk error message. I realize that the PC is trying to boot from the USB stick, but there's nothing on there for the PC to boot from, so I pull out the stick before I reboot, and after I have rebooted, and there's no CD and no USB stick in the computer, I'm now constantly getting this disk error, and somehow something gets screwed up. It's not due to Linux, because I haven't tried to do a Live USB with Linux as of yet.

I will give it a try at some point. Thanks for the help

OK there is a huge misunderstanding somewhere -
1.) Backup your C:\ to whatever that is fine.
2.) But - and this is BIG from my POV - use a cleanly formatted USB stick (FAT32 is good) with nothing on it - nada, zilch nothing.
3.) Download the Mint .iso of your choice - 19.2 cinnamon, mate whatever.
4.) Next verify your .iso image (the User Guide walks you through how to - confession: I have installed .iso images without verifying them - not wise but I am lazy and lucky in that I never got burnt) The verification directions can be frustrating so you may need a little help - there are several good treads on this however on this forum.
5.) Burn your Mint .iso image to your clean, with nothing esle on it USB stick
6.) Set your BIOS to boot from USB first (you may have to disable secure boot - also I always use legacy boot so if you have that other type which I cannot even remember the acronym that starts with a U-something something and want to use it I have no idea how - again I always use legacy but there are other folks on here that can help you with that.)
7.) Boot your PC and Rock and Roll with Mint.

PCMan007 wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:41 pm
I will however at some point give this a try. But you say I have to burn the .iso file to the USB stick? I'll have to go out and get a new stick then. All of mine are currently filled.

Thanks again for the help on it. Now that you've listed the basics, it doesn't seem as bad to try and do.

kc1di wrote: ⤴Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:58 am

PCMan007 wrote: ⤴Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:41 pm
I will however at some point give this a try. But you say I have to burn the .iso file to the USB stick? I'll have to go out and get a new stick then. All of mine are currently filled.

Thanks again for the help on it. Now that you've listed the basics, it doesn't seem as bad to try and do.

When you do get the new stick and want to burn the .iso file. I would suggest you down load a copy of etcher install it and use that to burn the .iso.
you can get it here https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Good Luck.

kc1di wrote: ⤴Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:24 pm The one that comes with windows has problems burning a clean .iso.
Rufus is very good. I find etcher which is open source and cross platform also works very well and simple to use.
just my opinion

1NEWLINUXUSER wrote: ⤴As a newbie I would recommend Etcher, it has worked flawlessly every time. Yumi gave me some funky menu that didn't have "Compatibility mode" & Rufus I found a bit more complicated than I wanted get into (but I'd already found Etcher so I was done)!