Installing first time

[hot sparrow]

I got this error
Probably has something to do with the boot mode or something can some help me figure it out

[flat iris]

yeh is this being done on a very old pc?

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i5 6th gen

Yes, very old

[flat iris]

do efibootmgr rn to see how u booted this live environment

[hot sparrow]

Lemme see

[flat iris]

then also do lsblk -f and, sudo parted -l

and show photo

maximize terminal window before photgraphing

@hot sparrow

[hot sparrow]

Thank you for trying to help

[flat iris]

ok ur in uefi mode, as is proper

next pic please

with the 2 other commands

[flat iris]

i see. windows was installed as legacy-BIOS mode

reboot the usb stick as plain usb then, not uefi

[hot sparrow]

Okay I'mma try

[flat iris]

once back into the live desktop, run efibootmgr to confirm

it should read 'efi var's are not supported' if u booted correctly in BIOS mode

[flat iris]

10 yrs ago pc isn't very old, in modern context

[hot sparrow]

It says efi variables are not supported

[flat iris]

good

type gnome-disks

choose the hdd and show.

[flat iris]

click partition 3, and then the play icon

n show again

corrected ^

@hot sparrow

[hot sparrow]

Sorry discord had stopped working

[flat iris]

hit play as i asked

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Here

[flat iris]

ok so u have data there

u want to just install linux on that wee 30 gigs of space at the end?

[hot sparrow]

Yes

I was thinking of using partition 3 as common space

[flat iris]

(It'll fit but not huge room to grow)

ok hit stop button

so it unmounts p3

[hot sparrow]

Is it enough for browser, vs code whatsapp, telegram office and some essentials

[flat iris]

run up the installer now. choose 'install alongside windows' option

[flat iris]

yeh. vscodium i think is for linux

and takes space like a pig i hear but i may be wrong

u do get a free office suite in linux already, but it is certainly uninstallable

[flat iris]

choose this, and it will autofind the space, and give a final warning summary

[hot sparrow]

Can I not install programs in partition 2

While using linux

[flat iris]

nope

[hot sparrow]

I see

[flat iris]

just data files. (and not really great to write big stuff to ntfs from linux

so if u wanna shrink p3 some more now, u may

using gparted

[hot sparrow]

I believe it should still be enough

I don't need many softwares

Just vs code or (codium), browser, and discord are enough

[flat iris]

.

[hot sparrow]

Okay

10gigs

[flat iris]

i'd give it another 20 metric gigs

disks app shows all in metric

in binary, it shows up as less

[hot sparrow]

Would you guide me through it

[flat iris]

yeah close disks

open gparted

[hot sparrow]

I wanna do around 10 gb
How much would that be metric

[flat iris]

wait

did u disable windows fast startup already?

cuz that buggers dualboots n locks drives

[hot sparrow]

I am not sure

[flat iris]

this is a feature on windows 8 and up

[hot sparrow]

Secure boot is off

[flat iris]

reboot to windows now

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Wait

Windows ain't launching

😢

[flat iris]

back to bios

undo what u did

or adjust it so thee ssd in legacy boot is all the way to top

as in, the legacy boot order

[hot sparrow]

Great😃

It working now

I was worried for a second

[flat iris]

ok now

open powershell as admin

right click start menu i think

[hot sparrow]

Fast startup is not supported so I guess I am good

[flat iris]

it may simply be hidden

[flat iris]

what did u do to show that?

[hot sparrow]

Run terminal as admin
powercfg /a

[flat iris]

do powercfg /h off

do it anyway to be sure

then open up Disk Management

[hot sparrow]

I did

[flat iris]

u should see a roughly 110 gig partition with roughly 28 gigs free

yes?

[hot sparrow]

Done

[flat iris]

u see it?

[hot sparrow]

I added 10 gigs

[flat iris]

ok

now boot th usb again in legacy mode

[hot sparrow]

Okay let's try again

[flat iris]

recheck ur in legacy in terminal later, with efibootmgr

if u are, then just run the installer, n pick install alongside windows

[hot sparrow]

This time victory shall be ours

[hot sparrow]

It says not supported

So we are good right?

Btw where are you from

[flat iris]

north america

[hot sparrow]

Continue?

[flat iris]

hang on

[hot sparrow]

Ok

[flat iris]

yep go ahead

[hot sparrow]

Okay 👌

[flat iris]

should be done soon

how is it, @hot sparrow

[hot sparrow]

Its copying files rn

[flat iris]

should be nearly done

[hot sparrow]

Yup it's installing them now

Continue testing or restart now

Installation complete

[flat iris]

yeah do restart

you should see black GRUB menu with Mint at top, and Windows as the third option

@hot sparrow

[hot sparrow]

Booting 1 sec

It booted to mint directly

[flat iris]

ok then needs a small adjustment

[hot sparrow]

Okay

[flat iris]

in the Mint desktop, u saw a welcome screen?

[hot sparrow]

Yes

[flat iris]

ok that's means u've installed. ur in the install

minimize it

[hot sparrow]

Yup👌😃

[flat iris]

open terminal, do efibootmgr

[hot sparrow]

Done

[flat iris]

what result?

[hot sparrow]

Not supported

[flat iris]

k good. sudo os-prober

[hot sparrow]

I already had set password

[flat iris]

use it

[hot sparrow]

Done

[flat iris]

result?

found windows?

yes/no?

[hot sparrow]

Yup

[flat iris]

ok next:

[flat iris]

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

maximize terminal before doing last command

[hot sparrow]

K

[flat iris]

find GRUB_TIMEOUT and put =5

find GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE and put =menu

got it?

[flat iris]

fix from hidden like i wrote

and if 10 seconds is too long, put 5

got it?

[hot sparrow]

Yes

[flat iris]

then ctrl-o to save , and enter

ctrl-x

[hot sparrow]

I didn't know I could type here like notepad

I was trying to write command lol

[flat iris]

nano is an editor

once saved n exited nano... do sudo update-grub

once it finishes update of grub.. do sudo reboot to test

[hot sparrow]

Working fine

[flat iris]

grub menu showed with both OS?

[hot sparrow]

Yup

[flat iris]

ok so one warning on something

timeshift app makes backup of full linux system exluding user files, but that takes up BIG space

so if u want to have system recovery thing, get urself a nice big usb drive.. 32 GB or higher

then format it fully to EXT4

[hot sparrow]

The one I used is 64 gig

[flat iris]

the one u used now for installation?

[hot sparrow]

Yes

[flat iris]

ok the issue is, it's good to keep a bootable ISO incase emergency, so.... u shoul remake that usb stick with a nice tool called ventoy

[hot sparrow]

You mean back of everything

[hot sparrow]

I didn't know something like that existed
You are great man

[flat iris]

then u can have emergency boot drive AND be able to have a timeshift snapshot (or 2) on it

i will show u how. first i will show u picture of concept

unless of course, u have other usb-hard drive?

[flat iris]

do you, @hot sparrow ?

[hot sparrow]

Nope

[flat iris]

ok so look i'll show u the concept

do me a favour. plug in your usb stick now to check something. open DISKS app

[hot sparrow]

It basically creates partition
But what's this efi boot section

[flat iris]

it is what the ventoy tool uses to keep boot files in , so that this usb is bootable . the violet area is where the MINT ISO would go

and the grey area, u must tell the ventoy installer first to LEAVE SPACE AT END

[hot sparrow]

Okay, I got it

[flat iris]

eg. 6 GB for purple, and 56 GB for grey

[hot sparrow]

It's open

[flat iris]

show please

[flat iris]

the grey area will be good for the backup timeshift stuff

[hot sparrow]

Yes

[flat iris]

see this is not 64 GB

it is 62 gb

[hot sparrow]

Although I don't know what timeshift stuff is

[flat iris]

and that is metric

[hot sparrow]

Hmm

[hot sparrow]

I see

[flat iris]

now look:

[hot sparrow]

Ohh I get it

[flat iris]

so ur drive capacity is 57.3 GiB (binary gigs)

so if u leave 6 for iso(s) (good to have)

57 - 6.. u will have 51 for grey area

then u format the grey area to ext4 and give it label , example TS_BACK

Which means timeshift backups

then u can make a backup manually, and tell timeshift to save there on usb

[hot sparrow]

That's great

[flat iris]

just in case the pc is not bootable for linux anymore, u boot Mint live ISO from ventoy, and u can do a timeshift restoration from that environment

[hot sparrow]

Can I also create multiple iso through this

[flat iris]

yes ,

but u probably want to give at least 70% of the usb for backups

so u will be limited to maybe 2 or 3 ISOs on the remaining 30%

each ISO for linux is around 2.8 or 3 GiB (ubuntu is 6!)

[flat iris]

this is what ur dealing with total. 57.3 GiB

[hot sparrow]

I was confused b/w the two

Choosed mint in the end

[flat iris]

yes

so do u want to remake ur usb now?

[flat iris]

like this

[hot sparrow]

Yup

[flat iris]

ok do u still have Mint ISO on the Windows partition?

[hot sparrow]

Also I want to increase the size of minimize full screen and cross button

[flat iris]

check in ur linux file manager

[flat iris]

that's not really possible

not on Cinnamon. on KDE it is

[hot sparrow]

What? 🤯

[flat iris]

those window decoration buttons are set by the theme

[hot sparrow]

Those are so tiny

[flat iris]

i mean, maybe it's possible, if u can hack the theme

[hot sparrow]

I increased font size

[flat iris]

ohh wait

can u please do inxi -SGxxx in terminal now and show.

[hot sparrow]

1 sec

[flat iris]

there's a way to adjust the res. and/or the UI scale

u can also log to Discord from Firefox browser that comes with Mint @hot sparrow

and then do alt+printscreen keys to take window pic

[flat iris]

u see, u have 14 inch screen. and resolution is crazy high for 14" screen

i would recommend open DISPLAYS from start menu

and adjust the res. to like 1280x720

or 1360x768

[hot sparrow]

Okay better

[flat iris]

it's fine now?

[hot sparrow]

Yes, although ui doesn't look good now

[flat iris]

well. it's a tradeoff

alternatively, u can go back to 1080 res,

and use the experimental "fractional scaling" thing in the other tab of DISPLAYS

[hot sparrow]

I tried 1600*900 and it looks fine now

[flat iris]

oh ok

anyway, go to www.ventoy.net

and sign-into Discord from Firefox

and then it's easy to screenshot and i'll help u with the setting up the backup USB

[hot sparrow]

Wait I need to sign into firefox as well

[flat iris]

unless u already got Discord app

from official website

[hot sparrow]

I don't

[flat iris]

i would just use firefox for now

[hot sparrow]

How do I install

[flat iris]

install what?

[hot sparrow]

I heard installs are pretty neat in linux

Discord

[flat iris]

go to web browser in this case, because the Software manager doesnt have the good one (it has flatpak one which takes up big room)

google "discord download linux"

[hot sparrow]

Ohh

[flat iris]

i mean if u had huge space, i'd say get the flatpak, but lately it also has voice chat problems

get the .deb file from official website

save it to disk, and then double click it, and mint will set it up

n get ventoy .tar.gz package from ventoy.net

make absolutely sure it's the tar, not the ISO file please.

see #1295816480256163892 message

and @ me when u finish step 4a there ok?

[hot sparrow]

Wait it's taking long to sign in

[hot sparrow]

I was wondering why are were putting so much emphases on it

well even after knowing the version that got downloaded was iso

[flat iris]

scroll down bruh

[hot sparrow]

idk why sourceforge pushing iso so much

[flat iris]

so dumb. i hate how they have that

[hot sparrow]

i deleted it and have the correct one now

[flat iris]

tag me at step 4a

when ready after it

[hot sparrow]

okies

@flat iris

[flat iris]

ok

[hot sparrow]

My brain is slowing down abit

[flat iris]

u see usb in ventoy GUI?

[hot sparrow]

yes

[flat iris]

Listed near top

ok u didnt mess with any settings yet right?

[hot sparrow]

i didn't

[flat iris]

go to Option menu> partition config.

wait, how big does ventoy say the usb is?

[hot sparrow]

where does it say

[flat iris]

should be like 57 gB

[flat iris]

near the green refresh

[hot sparrow]

nothing

[flat iris]

open terminal real quick

[hot sparrow]

how do you take partial screenshot

[flat iris]

do lsblk -o name,type,model,size,fssize,label

[flat iris]

shift-print

[flat iris]

corrected

[hot sparrow]

not working

i will figure it later

[flat iris]

can also type screenshot in start menu, then right click the result and "add to panel"

[hot sparrow]

screenshot is working now

[flat iris]

k

see there. 57.3 GiB

and your linux OS has 38.6 GiB

total, including filesystem formatting

if u hit the up-arrow, and add ,fsused to the end and hit enter

[flat iris]

usb stick matches this

anyway

[hot sparrow]

I need to sleep now

[flat iris]

i recommend 6 GiB for iso and rest for backup

[hot sparrow]

let's do it later

[flat iris]

alright

[hot sparrow]

Thanks for your time man

[flat iris]

basically just go to partition config in ventoy, and leave space at end of drivee, 49 GiB (50176 MiB)

then hit install

[hot sparrow]

will do it tomorrow

[flat iris]

k

[hot sparrow]

Good night

[flat iris]

gn

[hot sparrow]

May god bless you!

[flat iris]

ty

[hot sparrow]

Thanks again

[flat iris]

u2

[flat iris]

.

[hot sparrow]

hello

@flat iris

[flat iris]

heya.

[hot sparrow]

How you doing

[hot sparrow]

@flat iris i needed some help