Very new to Linux, looking for help

[PCMan007]

So the short story is that I am looking to eventually move to Linux Mint from microscrap, as Windows 7 support is ending, I'm planning to try to learn what I can, and am hoping I can just make a full move to Linux. All I really do is DOS gaming, Steam games which I know not ALL steam games work in Linux. I do YouTube and Netflix viewing and once in a while make YouTube videos.

I only have one, huge problem. The computer I built, how do I install my motherboard drivers running Linux? The files on the cd are for Windows and Mac installations, not for Linux. I believe I asked something like this before, and was basically told not to worry because it's all on the repository. There is no way that ALL motherboard drivers can be on this repository. My issue is, without those drivers, I won't be able to use my front USB 3.0 ports, and I won't have sound, and I won't have internet access as the NIC card is on-board.

My thought is that I would have to manually try to install the files from the CD and hope something takes.

[kc1di]

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]

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.

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.

I also have heard that if you want to do a Live USB that you have to disconnect all but one hard drive, because you can potentially screw up or lose all data on other drives. That's too much work and problem for me. In years past, I disconnect a drive and all data is gone, or Windows wouldn't even see the drive, even tho it would show up in the BIOS.

My anxiety can't handle it anymore. If I have to start disconnecting drives or potentially screw up what already works, then it's not worth it for me on this PC, so I'd have to get another PC to do it on.

[majpooper]

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.

Something doesn't sound right here - I have know 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. However 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.

[kc1di]

that must not have been a Mint Live USB, Because it makes absolutely no changes to your system when run in the live mode.
thus in all my years of using linux I've never had a live disc that did anything to a windows machine. You should not have to disconnect any disks in order to run the live session.

[PCMan007]

Something 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.

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.

However 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.

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

[majpooper]

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.

[DAMIEN1307]

Hi majorpooper...on #6, your thinking of UEFI or just EFI...DAMIEN

[PCMan007]

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.

Yea I never have tried doing a Linux Mint USB live thing before. What had happened like 2 years ago was, I was backing up photos and other files to a USB stick. I left the USB stick in the slot when I rebooted the computer, but when it went to boot up, all I got was some kind of error message, and I had to redo my Windows installation.

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]

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.

[majpooper]

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.

Just curious - doesn't Windows come with a USB format/image burner already installed? The one that comes with mint works great but I have not touched a windows system in literally years - but if I did I would take a shower and get a tetanus shot afterwords.

[gittiest personITW]

In Windows you can download Rufus or Yumi - they should do the dirty job of burning iso onto USB

[jglen490]

Agree, I've heard many good things about rufus for burning ISO images to USB.

[kc1di]

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]

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

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)!

[Samarian Sunset]

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)!

I agree with what you said there. Etcher, was easy as could be for me. First I tried Rufus which I had used in the past but it seemed to have gotten more complicated and I couldn't quite burn the Mint ISO to the USB. With Etcher it was a snap.

[lsemmens]

Just to set you mind at rest. Booting from a USB or DVD/CD should NOT affect your windows installation UNLESS a) there is something sinister going on with the boot medium (read: virus or scamware) b) you select an option once booted that tells it to do something with your windows drive.

No LINUX medium will change your installed system without your explicit authority. IF.. you download the ISO from a recognised good source and you have verified that the copy downloaded is good (checksum).

In nearly 40 years of computing I have not had one instance of an external boot medium unintentionally modifying my main OS without me approving it. Once installed, however......I'm referring to M$ and its various incarnations of Windwoes.