"unable to launch "cinnamon-session-cinnamon" X session" error | Linux Mint Community🍵 | Page 1

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:41 AM

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After re-enabling dell secure boot for testing purposes on my refurbished inspirion, I got the error message "unable to launch "cinnamon-session-cinnamon" X session --- "cinnamon-session-cinnamon" not found; falling back to default session."

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@dim nova

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:42 AM

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are you in a tty currently?

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is it asking you to log in, in other words

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:43 AM

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not atm

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I logged in, and it gives me that error

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:43 AM

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can you show a picture

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:43 AM

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ill send a video in a sec

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dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:47 AM

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ok

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dont press okay, just press ctrl+alt+f4

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and type in your username and password

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you will now hopefully be in a fullscreen terminal

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:47 AM

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dim nova dont press okay, just press ctrl+alt+f4

ill try that

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it worked, what do I do from here?

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:48 AM

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sudo apt install cinnamon-session -y

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:49 AM

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so I typed that, it asked me for my password, and now my keyboard isn't letting me type

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Now it sent me back here and I still can’t type

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:50 AM

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nono

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so in the login part

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put your username, then your password in the next prompt

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its just a text mode way of logging into your system

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then type the command i sent

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:51 AM

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oh ok. For whatever reason my keyboard was unresponsive

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:51 AM

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when you type a password, generally linux will not show it by design

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for security reasons, so nobody can see the length of it

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if you want to clear the password entry press ctrl+U

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:52 AM

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when I get to the password prompt, it seems completly unresponsive

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:52 AM

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it is actually typing you just cant see it

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trust me, type your password and hit enter

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:52 AM

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k

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:53 AM

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dim nova it is actually typing you just cant see it

its giving me login incorrect, even though im sure about the password being correct. Maybe its the username? it should be admin, but clearly that's not working

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:54 AM

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in the video you sent from the mint login screen it looks like your username is Liam

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try Liam as your username

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:55 AM

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tried both caps and without , sent me back to the login

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:56 AM

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uh

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ok try username as root

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:56 AM

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dim nova try Liam as your username

i've tried other possible usernames, no idea what it could be at this point. Will try root rn

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:56 AM

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and password whatever the password is

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:57 AM

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still login incorrect

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:57 AM

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do recall that the installer asked you to set a root password, so that will be what the root password is

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well man you need to type the login that you used for the screen

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:57 AM

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sorry about this shiteshow, its been a hell of a day and my mind is in 10 different places at once here. Just trying to get this thing to work. Ill retry the main login to see if I can find anything else

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:58 AM

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sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:58 AM

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tried that too

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:58 AM

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does that say Liam? idk

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whatever that says, that's your username

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:58 AM

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I mean I tried that, ill try it yet again ig

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:58 AM

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100% no question about it, you just need to carefully type the password in

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i mistype my password a ton, just do it slowly

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so login: Liam

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then password: whatever the password is

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 12:59 AM

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yeah i've tried that. Ill try lowercase, but it clearly isn't working

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I swear the password is right

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finally got it

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 12:59 AM

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what username did you choose when you installed mint

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ok cool, now do sudo apt install cinnamon-session -y

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:00 AM

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yeah will do, sorry again about all of this

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:00 AM

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np

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:00 AM

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sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:02 AM

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dim nova np

any idea? doesn't seem right to me but you're the designated expert here

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:03 AM

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oh huh

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can you tun

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run apt list --installed | grep -i cinnamon

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:07 AM

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dim nova run apt list --installed | grep -i cinnamon

is it that exact formatting? all I get is "command 'run' not found, did you mean:" and then a list of stuff

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:07 AM

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without the run

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apt list --installed | grep -i cinnamon

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:08 AM

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dim nova apt list --installed | grep -i cinnamon

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:08 AM

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weird

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sudo apt install cinnamon -y

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:09 AM

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Just finished (it’s at 100 and I’m back to the terminal now)

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:10 AM

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lol somehow you were missing the cinnamon package

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that is so odd, once that is done, type systemctl reboot

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and it will restart your pc, then try logging in normally

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:11 AM

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yep, no idea how since it was working fine yesterday

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:11 AM

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you may have removed it accidentally

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:11 AM

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I mean I haven't touched the system until it was like this today, but ok

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:12 AM

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dim nova you may have removed it accidentally

and its back to normal. I would likely need help cloning my drive to a different one since this one that came with the inspirion is dying, but I can try on my own (and hopefully somehow not get the cinnamon package deleted in the process)

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:12 AM

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well whatever the case hopefully reinstalling that package should fix the issue

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well you just need to back up the files that are important to you

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:14 AM

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Let me see if I have a backup of everything on here around. Im new to this, so I shouldn't have much.

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:15 AM

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dim nova well you just need to back up the files that are important to you

yeah I do. ill likely just try to install balena etcher (although I was having trouble last time) and then clone the old ones files to the new one

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otherwise thanks you so much akimbo, have a good one

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:17 AM

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sacred pilot Let me see if I have a backup of everything on here around. Im new to this, so I...

if you dont

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just backup your home folder

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:18 AM

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I do, read my above message

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:18 AM

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oh ok neat

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best to go for an SSD if its an old pc

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using hard drives these days will definitely make a system feel slow

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regardless of its specs

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:22 AM

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dim nova best to go for an SSD if its an old pc

It’s a t500 1tb. I can’t figure out how to get balena etcher working, but I’ll find out via a tutorial

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:22 AM

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you dont need etcher

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just do it from terminal

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idk what t500 1tb is, is it an ssd?

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:23 AM

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dim nova idk what t500 1tb is, is it an ssd?

Yeah it’s a modern NVME SSD from Crucial

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:23 AM

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alright cool, be careful because if thats an old laptop it may not accept nvme drives

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might just do SATA

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if it has a hard drive in it, its almost certainly SATA

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:24 AM

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It does both. I have a SATA and an NVME in there. SATA is a Samsung 850 evo I wiped and got from an old MacBook, the NVME was from this machine when I found it

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:26 AM

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oh ok so its ssd already

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alright well if you know what youre doing thats fine

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:26 AM

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dim nova if it has a hard drive in it, its almost certainly SATA

Yeah rn I’m following a website tutorial on how to do it. The weird thing is that I’m not sure if my drive is being recognized

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:26 AM

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as for flashing isos, you can use the dd command

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you can use lsblk to check what drives are currently being picked up by the OS

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:27 AM

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Yeah I don’t think it’s being recognized

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The device connected chime is there when it’s unplugged and plugged in, and the enclosures blue light is on, but the drive isn’t found in the devices section or in this command

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:30 AM

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it wont have a name

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you just have to match up the size listed with the size of the drive

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itll say like sda or something

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:31 AM

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dim nova you just have to match up the size listed with the size of the drive

Yeah hence why I don’t see it. I will check again though

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:33 AM

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try a different usb port

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its almost always the drive / port at fault. not linux

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:35 AM

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dim nova its almost always the drive / port at fault. not linux

I’m I so I think I found it. Before there were three types of drives: SDA, SDB, and SDC. Now that I unplugged the SSD in its enclosure, re running the command shows that all but SDC are there, so that should be it

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 1:36 AM

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nice

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:36 AM

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dim nova nice

Weird thing is though is that it shows the size as 0B

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Maybe a formatting issue?

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:56 AM

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dim nova nice

any idea?

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no rush now that the system is fixed, just asking

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 8:42 AM

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sacred pilot Maybe a formatting issue?

possibly

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if you are sure thats your drive, you can run mkfs.ext4 /dev/XXX

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where XXX is the name of the drive

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itll create a filesystem on the drive

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 1:49 PM

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dim nova if you are sure thats your drive, you can run mkfs.ext4 /dev/XXX

it says that SDC has 0B left on it. I tried the cloning command "sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=64K conv=noerror,sync", but I got "dd: error writing 'dev/sdc': No space left on device." This is false, as the drive is brand new and has been unused

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interestingly enough, I did try plugging in the enclosure with the SSD into both my old macbook and windows PC, yet none seemed to recognise it

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 2:01 PM

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dim nova possibly

alright so a quick update: I plugged the SSD directly into my windows PC (via an NVME slot, and its being recognized in device manager for windows. Any idea what and how I should format it to?

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 2:35 PM

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@sacred pilot show me lsblk output

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actually do lsblk -f

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 2:38 PM

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dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 2:39 PM

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so sdc

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sudo smartctl --health /dev/sdc

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sudo apt install smartctl -y first tho

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 2:41 PM

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dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 2:42 PM

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sorry

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sudo apt install smartmontools -y

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then do sudo smartctl --health /dev/sdc

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let it run then show me the output when it finishes

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 2:43 PM

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Shit

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 2:43 PM

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ok so

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this isnt necessarily bad

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you need to shut the laptop down and reseat the nvme

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make sure the nvme contacts are clean, wait is this a sata ssd?

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 2:44 PM

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I checked crystaldisk info when I had it in an NVME slot for my main PC, and it said the health was fine. Idk why it would say this. This isn’t a sata SSD, it’s an NVME and it’s in an enclosure

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I will try cleaning the contact connector if needed tho

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 2:47 PM

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ok you need to take the nvme drive out and ensure it's seated into the connection properly

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make sure the contacts are clean etc

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 2:53 PM

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dim nova make sure the contacts are clean etc

yeah I tried and I think my enclosure is faulty

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ill order a new one

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 2:55 PM

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enclosure? the nvme slot is embedded into the motherboard

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 3:11 PM

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dim nova enclosure? the nvme slot is embedded into the motherboard

nonono I said three times I was using an enclosure for my laptop since I don't have an extra NVME slot

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 3:11 PM

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ohh ok

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just go for sata man and replace the hard drive

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 3:12 PM

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My guy, I said this yesterday. Theres two drives, one 500GB SATA SSD (its an 850 evo from samsung) and one Toshiba NVME that came with the laptop originally. Said Toshiba NVME is dying, so I need to replace it and get the contents cloned.

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I already have the t500 1TB NVME from crucial, and i'd rather not return it now

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 3:16 PM

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but why do you need an enclosure for the nvme

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because you're trying to transfer the contents to it?

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 4:24 PM

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dim nova because you're trying to transfer the contents to it?

yes

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thats literally the ENTIRE reason why I bought this thing. The one that came with this laptop is DYING, so I needed a replacement

dim nova Jun 13, 2024, 5:08 PM

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ok gotcha

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didnt you say you had an external drive tho

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just plug that in, backup to it, then put the new nvme in, and transfer to it

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@sacred pilot

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 5:16 PM

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dim nova didnt you say you had an external drive tho

no?

sacred pilot Jun 13, 2024, 11:44 PM

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@dim nova ssd passed the health test thing with the new enclosure

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im using this guide for cloning: https://www.malibal.com/guides/how-to-clone-a-hard-drive-on-linux/

MALIBAL

Admin

How to Clone a Hard Drive on Linux

Cloning a hard drive on Linux can be useful when you want to make an exact copy of your hard drive.

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 12:12 AM

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sacred pilot <@1165439178973138965> ssd passed the health test thing with the new enclosure

cool

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dd can clone it

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its a byte for byte copy tool

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 12:30 AM

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@sacred pilot you have a couple of options

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if i were you, honestly

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i would do the following

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reinstall the os on the new drive

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take the old drive, put it in the enclosure, mount the partition that contains the filesystem

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and simply do an rsync command from old drive -> new drive's home folder

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 12:32 AM

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dim nova reinstall the os on the new drive

So should I take the laptop apart the laptop and put the new SSD in? How would I go about reinstalling mint?

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 12:32 AM

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yes get the new one installed and use the enclosure to read from the old nvme drive

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then you can copy the homefolder over

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 12:32 AM

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Will do. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it goes

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 12:32 AM

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that is assuming that everything you want to back up is under /home

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(documents, pictures, videos, music, etc.)

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 12:45 AM

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@dim nova im in dell bios atm with the new (blank) drive installed. What do I do next?

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 12:48 AM

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sacred pilot <@1165439178973138965> im in dell bios atm with the new (blank) drive installed....

boot from the usb that has linux mint installed on it

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 12:49 AM

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dim nova boot from the usb that has linux mint installed on it

yeah im trying that, not sure how to get that option fully tho

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 12:49 AM

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you need to plug the usb in before you turn the computer on

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then go to bios/boot menu, find boot options and select the usb to boot from

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its the same procedure you used to install linux the first time you did it

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 12:50 AM

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it worked, I had the wrong one XD

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 1:16 AM

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dim nova then go to bios/boot menu, find boot options and select the usb to boot from

im trying to install, but im in dell bios yet again because I need to disable intel RST. No idea where to find it tho in inspirion bios

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 9:49 AM

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sacred pilot im trying to install, but im in dell bios yet again because I need to disable in...

why do you need to disable it, what does it do

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 12:59 PM

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dim nova why do you need to disable it, what does it do

Mint literally asked me to disable RS(rapid storage technology) during the installation shortly after I connected to the WiFi

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I can’t find the RST setting though.

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 1:00 PM

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google it what does it say rst is

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 1:01 PM

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dim nova google it what does it say rst is

https://help.ubuntu.com/rst/

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 2:49 PM

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sacred pilot https://help.ubuntu.com/rst/

you dont need it

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 3:04 PM

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dim nova you dont need it

I cannot proceed to install Linux Mint without disabling it

dim nova Jun 14, 2024, 4:34 PM

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sacred pilot I cannot proceed to install Linux Mint without disabling it

could be under a different name in the bios?

sacred pilot Jun 14, 2024, 4:37 PM

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dim nova could be under a different name in the bios?

Yeah I don’t know

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I need some help finding that, but I have to go rn so it will have to wait

sacred pilot Jun 17, 2024, 2:28 PM

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@dim nova fixed the rst issue. Had to disable the RAID config

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ill close this soon if I don't encounter anymore issues

#"unable to launch "cinnamon-session-cinnamon" X session" error