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timppu:
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Themken: Call me lazy but going from 19.0 to 19.1 to 19.2... I just use click upgrade. When I upgraded from 18.3 I did a fresh reinstallation; same when from 17.3. I would have settled for just formatting but also did some changes to my partition table while at it. Only problem I have run into does not exist anymore in LM 19.x.

Side note: No other OS on the laptop.
Yeah I was talking about going from major version to another, like 18.x to 19.x.

The discussion about Ubuntu possibly outing 32bit support (on driver and app level?) and that affecting WINE and other Linux gaming... not sure if I should look into the Debian version of Mint then? I just like Mint overall because they have stayed loyal to desktop PC users (while Ubuntu tried out all that silly tablet UI shit; that is when I left Ubuntu and went to Mint), and that Mint isn't so gung-ho about the open source etc. thing, but more pragmatic, giving options and using what works.

Maybe I'll try out Mint Debian first on VirtualBox, to see how it feels. What is the real difference anyway, it has less software on its repositories, compared to Ubuntu?
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timppu: The discussion about Ubuntu possibly outing 32bit support (on driver and app level?) and that affecting WINE and other Linux gaming... not sure if I should look into the Debian version of Mint then? I just like Mint overall because they have stayed loyal to desktop PC users (while Ubuntu tried out all that silly tablet UI shit; that is when I left Ubuntu and went to Mint), and that Mint isn't so gung-ho about the open source etc. thing, but more pragmatic, giving options and using what works.

Maybe I'll try out Mint Debian first on VirtualBox, to see how it feels. What is the real difference anyway, it has less software on its repositories, compared to Ubuntu?
I'll try to upgrade as well, and hopefully won't come here crying if it goes up in smoke. Having /home on a separate partition should make stuff like this safer at least.

I'm willing to give Mint a "wait and see" attitude on 32-bit support. Ubuntu I gave up long ago due to phoning home bollocks, but I like Mint. We have time yet since this won't really hit until potentially Mint 20, and I really hope the excellent development team is able to find a workable solution between now and then. If not, there will be Debian Mint waiting in the shadows.

But that would have dire consequences for users like me. I've tried pure Debian in the past, and mostly been confused. Fantastic for customisation, but I simply struggled with it and went back to Mint. Been there ever since. Would definitely prefer to stick with Mint in the foreseeable future. Everything simply works, and they seem to respect the users' right to privacy as well. Plus the desktop focus that you mentioned.
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Pangaea666: Linux Mint 19.2 has been released I see. Don't think Ubuntu's 32-bit idiocy takes effect until later, but just to be sure: Is it "safe" to upgrade to Linux Mint 19.2? We won't be losing or having reduced 32-bit support for our Wine games?
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adamhm: It should be safe to upgrade - I did the usual reinstall yesterday to upgrade & finish updating my guide, no problems at all so far :)

All 19.x releases are based on Ubuntu 18.04 so there won't be any issue with 32-bit support until Mint 20 (and the Mint team plan to continue supporting 32-bit support so they'll work something out for that & it shouldn't be an issue then either).
Cheers for this, sounds promising.

On the actual guide, would it be worth to put a section in there about the upgrade process? Or is it so simple that we basically just hit upgrade and that's that?
Post edited August 09, 2019 by Pangaea666
Hmmm, it seems I am already at Linux Mint 19.x on my main PC, I just didn't remember it. :) Or, I thought this announcement meant that just now the new 19 release got out, but is has been out for some time already.

I thought the upgrade to minor versions happens automatically, whenever you run apt-get update? I don't quite recall the versioning scheme on different distros, at work I deal mostly with Ubuntu and CentOS (server versions), occasionally Oracle and RHEL.

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Pangaea666: But that would have dire consequences for users like me. I've tried pure Debian in the past, and mostly been confused. Fantastic for customisation, but I simply struggled with it and went back to Mint.
Yesterday I first read up on what are the main differences between Debian and Ubuntu, and I got a feeling that:

- They suggested that Debian may be more confusing for a beginner to install (more on that later).

- Debian is more gung-ho about offering only open source stuff on its repositories, limiting what stuff you can get through that. Whether that is a real problem, maybe not, but I don't mind using non-open source stuff as well, as long as it works.

- Ubuntu (and Mint) uses more system resources than Debian? Not sure why.

- Debian stable branch is stable... but also quite old, ie. you don't have the latest or even semi-latest stuff on it. This might a problem to a desktop user if you get only some ancient version of apps and shit through Debian repositories. Some pages suggested desktop Debian users should possibly use the test branch instead, as it is updated more often (and still fairly stable?).

Anyways, I went on to install both vanilla Debian (XFCE) and Mint Debian on VirtualBox. Findings:

- I have no idea what the complaints of Debian being hard(er) to install were. To me it seemed pretty much the same as installing e.g. Ubuntu or CentOS. It asks pretty much the same questions, most of the time selecting just the default values are fine etc. What is confusing about it, that part where you can select which desktop environment to use (I chose XFCE because I like its simplicity and low overhead)?

The only comment for the installation was that by default it suggested partitioning the hard disk(s) without LVM. I don't recall if Ubuntu and CentOS do the same (ie. you have to specifically tell them to use LVM if you want it), but... to this day and age, is there any reason NOT to use LVM on desktop and server systems? Maybe it is not needed on Rasperry Pi and embedded systems, but whatever... I just chose LVM as I felt it may make life easier if I later want to expand partitions/volumes etc. At least at work we always use LVM for this very reason.

- Using the Debian vanilla system, nothing uncommon, I felt right at home. Ok it didn't have VLC installed by default but it had some other media player, but that was easily fixed with "sudo apt install vlc".

- Mint Debian seemed to get stuck at the end of the installation from the live CD media, I just gave the virtual machine a power off at that point. Not sure what that was about, I haven't checked yet whether that system comes up again or whether I have to reinstall it.

- The Mint Debian page suggested that this is merely some kind of "test version" from them to see how much work it would be for them to switch to Debian as the base, if they had to abandon Ubuntu. So I am unsure how supported the Mint Debian is, or whether one should go straight to vanilla Debian, if so inclined.
Post edited August 10, 2019 by timppu
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Pangaea666: On the actual guide, would it be worth to put a section in there about the upgrade process? Or is it so simple that we basically just hit upgrade and that's that?
Details about the upgrade process are posted to Mint's blog after each new release: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3792
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Pangaea666: On the actual guide, would it be worth to put a section in there about the upgrade process? Or is it so simple that we basically just hit upgrade and that's that?
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adamhm: Details about the upgrade process are posted to Mint's blog after each new release: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3792
Thanks for the link. Carried out the upgrade now, and it seems to have gone very well. No hickups and the system started up just fine. Hopefully I won't discover any ill effects moving forward either. Cheers again for the support and the excellent guide.
Humble Bundle are currently doing a book bundle that may be very interesting for anyone wanting to learn more advanced Linux skills: Humble Book Bundle: Linux and UNIX by O'Reilly :)
Post edited October 01, 2019 by adamhm
Wanted to thank you for this guide again, Adam. Recently my PSU died (in its 12th year), and after some fiddling about I ended up re-installing Mint 19.2. Once again I got the poorly communicated warning about "may not boot properly" or some such. Have had the same issue before, but somehow sorted it, maybe due to BIOS in legacy mode (or UEFI+legacy as it's called, there is no pure legacy mode).

Looked up your guide and found a section about this, which explained it better than what else I found from startpage searches. All this UEFI, EFI, ESD, MBR and so forth is confusing.

Turns out I had never set up a small ESD (?) partition. Set up one on 500MB, and the warning is gone and the install and boot went fine. Cheers! :)
I have a problem. I hate win10 with passion yet I had to install it since some of the programs I use (and Office 19) requires it. So here is what I did.

I bought a new 1TB disk. My laptop is old so it is partitioned as MBR.

I partitioned it as follows (from left to right)
sda1, NTFS, 160 GB, Installed Windows 10 (primary, boot, etc)
sda2 NTFS 400GB (empty storage area)
sda3 extended (covers sda 4&5)
sda4 40 GB / (root)
sda5 restGB /home

Since this is not a UEFI system, I didn't leave the usual 512 MB FAT32 partition in the front and installed windows 10 on sda1 without any issues which I am typing now.

The problem is, now I can't install either Linux Mint (19.1) or Manjaro.

Linux Mint 19.1 seems to be installed successfully yet drops to a command prompt like page called "BusyBox v.1.27.2"
initramfs_
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=291002 gives some insight into the problem but not much.

While Manjaro doesn't even install giving "Error Bad source" error.

I am starting to think that this is because of Windows 10 being installed in the 1st partition which I believe holds the MBR records. Has anyone else done this before? I mean install windows 10 in the 1st partition and make it work?

tnx
Engin.
*****************************
EDIT: It looks like the problem was the Multiboot-USB app I used on Linux in order to make a USB disk that can boot and install Linux Mint, Manjaro and Windows 10. Neither Mint nor Manjaro liked the app so I made bootable USB on Windows 10 using Rufus one at a time. I also downloaded Mint 19.2 and the newest Manjaro while at it which might have helped to solve the issue. I am leaving that here in case anybody else have a similar issue.
Post edited November 03, 2019 by Engerek01
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Engerek01: Has anyone else done this before? I mean install windows 10?
I'd like to say the answer to this is no, but for some preposterous reason people actually install the vile shite. Go figure.
(Sorry, I can't stand it either, and have to suffer it at work)

On topic: Isn't it possible to install the MBR on the disk itself, instead of the first partition? Would that help?

Back in my dualbooting days I'm pretty sure I had both Windows and Mint on the same harddisk. But that was Windows 7, which was less destructive than Windows 10.
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Engerek01:
Why not a VM with Windows 10 in it? That way you would not need to restart in order to switch between OSs. Of course, you must have enough RAM.
Post edited November 02, 2019 by Themken
The problem was the combination of multi-boot USB and Linux mint 19.1. I solved the problem by installing Linux mint 19.2 by using Rufus on Windows instead of multi-boot USB.
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Engerek01:
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Themken: Why not a VM with Windows 10 in it? That way you would not need to restart in order to switch between OSs. Of course, you must have enough RAM.
I tried that in my previous disc but the performance was really poor that's why I bought another disc. I am using heavy engineering programs so I need a hundred percent of my computer's resources.
Post edited November 03, 2019 by Engerek01
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Engerek01:
Ah alright, you only mentioned MS Office by name and then unnamed programs.
Hi,
I installed linux for the first time today and got some questions/issues. Now I'm just gonna say I'm pretty tech illiterate so please bear with me. I followed your guide and the linux stuff itself works pretty well (writing this from linux right now, everything works well). My plan was to dual boot with windows 7 and mint.

I got Windows 7 on a SSD (C drive on windows) and cleared my HDD of everything (was D on windows). I checked in windows and my system uses BIOS. I followed all the instructions and made a bootable USB, chose the clear disk option and installed it on my HDD. Important to note that the installer did not recognize W7, otherwise everything worked well, even got a NVIDIA card and managed to get to the drivers easily.

When turning my PC on I first didn't see the GRUB menu, did some searching and used the terminal to modify a file so the GRUB would show, it worked but it only showed cinnamon mint and mint compatibility, not W7.

I read the guide again and probably fucked something up in regard to the EFI partition or something like that, although to be honest I've been reading those pages a few times and my head kinda starts spinning, I just don't seem to really get it.

I was gonna reinstall mint and this time check if the live USB booted in BIOS (didn't do this the first time) and then I guess I have to make an EFI partition on the HDD as well and not choose the "clear disk" option?

My first question is how to reinstall Mint. I plugged the USB in again thinking it will get me into the live environment or give an additional option at startup but it was the same as before, so I logged into Mint. The USB showed on the desktop but I'm not sure what to do with it to reinstall, like what do I need to select?

My second question is if anyone could give me a simple step by step what I need to do to make it recognize W7 and tell me what I did wrong.

I don't have a second device or phone to have open and check the guide as I go and don't have a printer to print it out beforehand either, I just took some notes of what I thought would be most important but probably screwed something up/missed something.

Any Help would be appreciated, thanks for reading
My guess would be that you did indeed mess up with the settings in UEFI or BIOS. Since every motherboard seems to have slightly different set up settings in UEFI/BIOS it is too easy to do wrong and I have effed up a couple of times too.

I think best would be if someone who does not have fever right now would help you.
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picubedsquared: ..... I checked in windows and my system uses BIOS.
...
I read the guide again and probably fucked something up in regard to the EFI partition or something like that, although to be honest I've been reading those pages a few times and my head kinda starts spinning, I just don't seem to really get it.
....
This is probably where things went wrong for you. Those 2 sentences can't be both true.

Quick information: There are 2 kinds of Disk partitioning: GPT and MBR. If you want to use GPT, then the BIOS must be set to UEFI and ALL of the operating systems should be installed in that mode. If you want to go with MBR, the BIOS setting is called BIOS (or Legacy) and all operating systems must be installed in that mode. Those settings can NOT be mixed. GPT/EFI is vastly superior to MBR/BIOS so you should use it if you have the chance.

For me the easiest way to be sure how your windows 7 was installed is...
1. Boot from Linux Mint USB
2. Open GParted.
3. Check if the 1st partition is around 512 MB and flagged as EFI.
(Note: You can also check this on Linux Mint with the "Disks" program that already comes with the Linux Mint system.)

If there is such a partition, then your system is UEFI. You should change your BIOS setting as EFI and boot it like that.

If there is no such partition and you also see it your disk is MBR (Master Boot Record), then you have no business with EFI and you SHOULDN'T create an EFI partition.