I installed Linux Zorin on an old PC and a laptop and have gotten used to it. A lot of videos and posts on Linux say that Mint is better to use, and I know a couple of you here mentioned using Mint before.
I downloaded Mint Cinnamon 22.3 and put it on a flash drive, I then put a 4TB empty drive in an unused tower. Mint opens off the flash drive and has an Install Mint icon that opens the installer.
After going through the settings/name/password screens the installer closes and the cursor goes busy with nothing showing as happening.
The cursor stays busy forever (over 18 hours), the HDD shows all the Linux files and folders are on it, but it will not boot.
Thinking maybe a bad download I have redownloaded Mint off 5 different servers and they all do the same.
I have tried this on another PC and an old Windos10 laptop with all the same results.
Instead of 22.3 I downloaded 22.2 and it behaves differently, but still won’t install, Instead of Cinnamon I tried 2 different downloads of MATE and they won’t install either.
Thinking maybe those 2 PC’s and the laptop might not be compatible I shut down this Zorin PC I am on and put an empty drive in it and still couldn’t install. The empty drive is formatted for LInux, I didn’t select the Windows compatible format.
Is there something I’m missing?
Also, some posts show Mint v23.0 is out and how great it is, but the Mint website only has 22.3, and 23.0 doesn’t show on any Google search except a YouTube video saying it is great and one post saying it should be out in fall of 2024.
I’ve never used Mint, so I can’t speak specifically for Mint. I do agree with @KenMoore regarding check secure boot. Checking the grub installation could also be worthwhile (I’m assuming since Ken says he is using Mint that’s the boot loader Mint uses).
Can you give us a bit more info about what exactly happens at boot time? Are you seeing the bootloader and it’s then failing to load the Linux kernel? Or are you just failing to see the boot loader?
Regarding Ken’s comment: “Some Nvidia graphics don’t play well with Mint.” That’s somewhat true, Nvidia and Linux have a questionable relationship, although it is getting better. Typically unless it’s a brand new card it can work well enough using the open source drivers, although I don’t know if Mint uses the open source drivers, or proprietary binary drivers from Nvidia.
These PC’s are all pretty much 2018-2020 era, the newer laptop might be 2023.
The tower I was trying I used the motherboard HDMI output without a graphics card.
I did have an issue with this Zorin PC that has a Nvidia graphics card. I was using Zorin ver 17 and when Zorin 18 came out installed it and had a LOT of graphics crashes and glitching - especially in the Opera browser window. I reinstalled Zorin 17 and haven’t had any problems since.
I’ll try the Grub reinstall, as this problem is an installation problem, not a running problem. When I run off the USB installer everything except the installation works great.
Ken, since you use Mint is it really better than other Linux’s? Or should I just stick with the running Zorin I have?
I supported a Foxboro DCS back in the 90’s. It ran on Sun Sparc Stations, so became very familiar with the Vi editor, shell scripts and unix. Had an old Win7 laptop in the closet. Decided to go with Linux as an experiment. I chose Mint for it’s stability and ease of use. However, I have read Zorin is an easier transition for Window users, and many believe it has a better desktop/graphics. Also easier to run low level Windows apps. Have not tried it, but may next time. Zorin may be a better choice for you.
When I installed Mint, I let the install format the hard drive and never had any issues.
I just had to repair my laptop yesterday when Virtualbox wanted me to enable secure boot in BIOS. This is what I used, and I had to go through the Advanced menu to select (a wide array) of fixes. One of them did the trick!
If I’m understanding this right, after the install, the next time it boots you end up with a blank screen with the cursor blinking. If I’m right, my experience is that this is related to graphics issues and the boot command “nomodeset” needs to be added to the grub boot option. I’ve installed various distro’s at least a hundred times, this has happened to me on several of them.
No, I get a hundred Terminal lines with a bunch of Folder Not Found, File Not Found, Couldn’t [do something, then another thing, etc] until it halts.
It few times asked to connect to the internet and download a good copy, but that kept faulting trying to get a DHCP or faulted connecting to the server when it did get an IP address.
I was using Rufus because it was recommended, but downloaded Etcher and rewrote the USB drive.
It installed without issue and booted up fine
Now I’m going through the welcome and settings, then to see which I like better and start using the Mint if I like it (still using this Zorin as my main until then and will keep the working Zorin HDD J.I.C.)
Thanks guys, when I hit that PowerBall Saturday I’ll try to remember you [as I’m flying to the Aleutian Sea to scope an island out for my new house]
I used Mint for many years when they offered a KDE edition. Once they drop that DE, I switched to Kubuntu. When I used to make bootable USB on Windows, I always used Universal USB Installer. Similar to you, I had heard mixed results with Rufus.
Mint is considerably faster than Zorin, but a few issues.
I can not get PIA VPN, Teamviewer or QCad-Pro to install at all. I set the properties to run as program and have also tried right clicking and Open with Package Installer (and rebooting more than once)
Also my favorite photo viewer/editor I’ve been using since the early 2000’s, IrfanView, isn’t available for Mint (in the store or on the IrfanView website)
EDIT: Also, Mint wont install my Epson 4820 letter size printer, but did automatically install my Epson 7840 Tabloid size printer. I tried installing it using another Epson printer driver and the test page was 150 sheets of paper with a few characters on each page
I’ve bounced around between distro’s just to keep things interesting. I always end up back at Kubuntu. One of my favorite things about it is how Dolphin has a terminal built. It’s easy to browse to a directory, hit F4, you have a terminal in the window. I’m also a sucker for wobbly windows.
@I_Automation, I wrote a bash script to install PIA, QCad, TeamViewer and Irfanview. I tested it on a new Mint VM. Create a file called install.sh, paste the contents. Right click on install.sh > permissions, check “Allow executing file as program. Then run it from the terminal with ./install.sh
Watch for prompts, you’ll be asked to enter a password and type yes a few times.
The only thing I found on their site was instructions to connect with OpenVPN using Terminal, that to me was a little overwhelming when I read through it so I was putting it off until I understood it better.