We presently have a computer running Windows slow. I want to download Linux Mint. I have a bunch of CD-RWs with 650 MB of memory each. Will this be possible? How do I stop the download so it does not go over the 65o MB limit? Are there natural stopping points? How would I do this?

Thank you,
GB

Do you planning to split Mint DVD into two parts and put one of them to CD-RW?
I doubt it will work properly.

I would install system from ISO itself, without putting it to CD.
Dedicate a small amount of HDD space for partition to hold ISO image and Grub files there, create partition and format it as ext4.
Put downloaded ISO to that partition.
Boot into any Linux live CD that uses Grub2. Install Grub2 to hdd and configure it to boot into you ISO file.
http://www.howtogeek.com/196933/how-...ur-hard-drive/
Once booted into ISO just create partition for Mint and install a system there.

Is your machine able to boot from CD?
To do this, you'll need to go into BIOS and instruct the motherboard to boot from CD and not from the hard disk.

Also, you can boot a linux OS from USB too. But again, you'll need to change the BIOS setting so it boots from USB.
Is your machine able to do that?

So it sounds like you are saying is that it would be much easier to just get a DVD and burn Mint of it? Is that right?

Thanks
GB

Once you have a DVD with a Mint .iso file burned onto it, what will you do after that?
Is your computer able to boot from the cd-rom?
Does your computer have BIOS?

Just download a CD.iso e.g: https://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/#stablehave fun!

Edit\add: for that example is not Mint (but it's base) you'd maybe need this: http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/un...ding-firmware/

It would be useful if you posted some information on the hardware you are running as well as which version of windows you are using. If you have 8 or newer, you might need to familiarize yourself with UEFI/GPT dual booting. If your computer is older, Mint may not be the best choice. Yes, it would be much easier to use a DVD or a flash drive to boot. The method described by Teuful also works but you would need a Grub2 bootloader to boot it.

Go with the above recommendations, they are good ones.

I prefer downloading the DVD ISO image and using ez2boot to run it from a USB device. CD-R should work well with the CD ISO image, but I have seen several machine that would not successfully load any OS from a CD-RW media. Again: on some machines linux on CD-R will work but from CD-RW may not. The USB load, if an option, is more dependable.

Another option, with ez2boot you can load several ISO images to the USB, and select which to run during the boot process. You can use a LIVE-CD image and test the running. In some cases you can install the OS to HDD from the running live session (it goes to the parent repositories for any missing packages). A 16G USB is cheap and sufficient to hold a couple of full install images and SEVERAL smaller or live-cd images.

It depends on how careful you are with your money and on whether you can find a shop that sells single DVDs!

There are still distros that can be installed from CD: AntiX, Bodhi, Exe, PCLinuxOS (Minime disk), Salix, Semplice, Vector, WattOS. Some distros also do a net-install CD — Linux and the installer are loaded, then the software is installed over the internet — but there aren't live disks: you can't try before you install.

Meh ... DVD's cost not-much. Make the owner of your local office-supply shop happy. It's not worth your time to around with it.

You can use a grub cd to boot a usb stick if the hardware is old. But most hardware since 2006 can boot usb. You could make your own linux CD that will fit within 650MB. Otherwise your choice of distro images that fit that spec are kind of limited. DSL, Puppy, ... ...

Absolutely! Or you can use a USB stick, as others have mentioned.

Regards...

gbsk,

Finding a suitable Linux distro that fits on a CD dramatically restricts the likely candidates.

You could use jamison20000e's suggestion for Debian, but you have already stated a preference for Linux Mint which uses about 1.5GB.

I suggest that you trade the CDs with somebody or advertise them on Freecycle or similar, then either use a few DVDs or a USB flash drive to install Linux Mint.

As yancek has requested, it would be helpful to know what hardware you are using. (Make/model/age of machine along with details of memory size, cpu, hard drive etc).

Most of the top (base distros) have a netinst a CD, DVD and some even BR but the smallest I see for Mint is old versions like 10
https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=67 don't know if you can upgrade that?

Linux magazines or libraries are a good source and if it must be CD sized sure you can find some.

Add: ^(base distros)^ like Debian to Mint...

Let's be clear, LinuxMint will not fit on a CD.

Have a USB?

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