I just did a dual-boot installation of Linux Mint 12 and Windows 7, and now I have two major problems:

1) I'm not getting a menu at boot-up time that will allow me to run Windows. It goes directly to the log-in prompt for Linux.
2) After having had some problems trying to update all software packages in Linux after the installation (LibreOffic update never worked), Linux now will not let me log in. It asks for the user password, but it doesn't get past that.

Can somebody help me?

Thanks.

So what's the problem you're facing now? Aren't you able to login?

You should expect it to ask for a user password because when you install Linux Mint it asks it you want to require a password to login or to enable autologin. So that was your choice. You're not being, clear. Do you get the login prompt, enter your password and then get no activity and are unable to login? If so, what happens? You need to clarify what "doesn't get past that" means if you expect help.

I'm not able to log in. Even if I try to log in as root, I can't.

I'm running Mint-12+Cinnamon along side of Windows-7 without any troubles, so I know that this configuration works. Think back through your install process and remember details. (I typically keep detailed paper notes during installs for just this situation.) Sadly, you may not be able to reconstruct what you did and must simply try again.

That menu comes from GRUB-2 or its pretty-fier "burg". On the typical windows+intel workstation, you write GRUB to the master boot record (MBR) of whichever drive your hardware considers to be the primary system drive. In linux terms, that is usually /dev/sda. The Mint installer asks where to write this as part of the install dialog.

A common error writes to one of the partitions (/dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2 or ...) instead of to the drive MBR (/dev/sda). If you wrote on the windows-7 partition, you might need to re-install win-7.

Boot your windows-7 recovery media and check things out. I think it gives you the option to start windows on the system disk rather than the DVD. Consider using an option to repair windows if there is one.

Once you are able to boot win-7, repeat your install of Mint-12 keeping good notes and reading the install instructions carefully. If you don't understand a question, someone here can help explain things.

Linux Mint-12 is derived from Ubuntu which is derived from Debian. In that world,
one uses "sudo" (command line) and "gksu" (desktop) to gain administrative permissions for tasks like software updates. Both applications ask for the password assigned to the current user. If you did not install with a user password, I don't know what you need to do to get administrative permissions.

Try this from a terminal window or console:
Since you don't have a password now, {enter} provides a null reply.
Then enter whatever string you wish to use as a password. From this point on, you will require a password to login after power-on start.

Both "sudo" and "gksu" should work with this assigned string.

Yes, Lots of help and helpers are available. Often the solution lies in asking good ("better" or "correct") questions. I'm not being flippant, here, rather
I've fought a problem only to eventually rephrase the question and get a useful
answer almost immediately.

bonne chance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

That doesn't help much. What are the answers to the questions I asked previously? There is no root user in a standard Linux Mint install. To get root privileges, you would use the sudo command. Can you clarify whether you are getting the standard login screen where you see your username or are asked to enter your user name or whether you are just seeing a command prompt?

You can get root privileges in a Ubuntu base distro if you type
then type your password when prompted and you will be root for that terminal session. After you are done screwing things up remember to type
Good luck to you.

Yancek:
"You should expect it to ask for a user password because when you install Linux Mint it asks it you want to require a password to login or to enable autologin. So that was your choice. You're not being, clear. Do you get the login prompt, enter your password and then get no activity and are unable to login? If so, what happens? You need to clarify what "doesn't get past that" means if you expect help."

@yancek: I did the installation so that it would ask for the password. So that's what it's doing. After I enter the password, the screen goes blank for a few seconds, and then it asks for the password again. And this goes on and on.



Yancek:
"That doesn't help much. What are the answers to the questions I asked previously? There is no root user in a standard Linux Mint install. To get root privileges, you would use the sudo command. Can you clarify whether you are getting the standard login screen where you see your username or are asked to enter your user name or whether you are just seeing a command prompt?"

@yancek: I'm getting the standard login prompt with my username. It also gives the option to enter "Other User", in which case you get to enter whatever username you want. At this point I tried entering the root username, but it fails when I try a blank password (just a guess). I did read that you can create a root user by entering "sudo passwd root", and then setting its password.

I did some googling on your problem and it seems to not be uncommon with Mint and Ubuntu. Often related to problems with updates. Given that it is a new install, the simplest thing may be to just reinstall and try again. I don't use Mint or Ubuntu so am not really familiar. Have you googled "Linux Mint login loop"?

I ended up booting into windows using a recovery disk, restoring the master boot record so that I could boot up to Windows, and reinstalling Linux Mint 12 (64-bit).

Now when the computer boots up, I get a blank screen with the text "Frequency out of range" floating on the screen. At this point it is just stuck on this. Does anyone know anything about this?

Now I'm not sure if to forget this Linux Mint installation, and try a different linux distro.

I've used Ubuntu since April of 2008 and Mint for the past year. I continue to use both distro's. I have never seen this issue.

The only similar trouble I had involved my own error with what I typed. I made
a typing mistake -- TWICE -- while typing the initial password. Then when I tried
to use it, the correct keys did not work.

At this point, I agree with the suggestion to re-install.
Make sure that your win-7 parts are working first. The linux installer will see them and make arrangements for your boot menu. It is nearly impossible to add
win-xx once you have linux in place.

I also recommend that you get a fresh download of your ISO and burn a fresh copy
of your boot media. Make sure you use the disk sanity check before you run the install.

Bonne chance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

If I do the reinstallation of Linux Mint 12 (Lisa), should I stick with the 64-bit version that I'm trying right now, or should I switch to the 32-bit version? Or does it matter? Or should I switch to a different Linux distro (for instance, Zorin)?

Is Ubuntu better than Mint in terms of problems like this?

If your system supports 64-bit architecture then you can go ahead with 64-bit version. Remember that in the absence of the 64 bit support, the OS memory manager is limited to a 4GB physical address space. Most of that address space is filled with RAM, but not all of it. Memory-mapped devices (such as your video card) will use some of that physical address space, as will the BIOS ROMs. After all the non-memory devices have had their say, there will be less than 4GB of address space available for RAM below the 4GB physical address boundary.

the motherboard assigned the ROMs and the hardware devices to the physical address space between 3.5GB and 4GB (occupying about 0.5GB of address space). When you start plugging in your memory chips, then, they are assigned physical addresses starting at the bottom, and then skip over the address space that has already been assigned to the hardware and ROM, then resume.

On this imaginary system, then, the 0.5GB of address space used for hardware and ROMs causes that much memory to get shoved upwards, and it ends up above the 4GB boundary. Without 64 bit support, the processor is capable only of addressing memory below the 4GB boundary, which means that the memory above that boundary is inaccessible. It's consuming electricity but isn't doing anything.

The solution is to go to 64-bit OS so that the processor can access the physical address space above the 4GB boundary.

So why don't we just map the ROMs and the hardware devices to space above 4GB??
then the CPU can't access the IO devices so you have system with 4GB of RAM and no video card......

And you cannot say about such problems among OSs.

Im myself using mint , at installation time it asks you for user name and password ,after that you can login from login window with username and password, provided by you at installation time as simple as that,
and
you can also login with recovery mode from boot menu with
login: root
password: username_password

here you can change whatever you like cause you got terminal.

How do I boot up into recovery mode if I don't get a grub menu at all? It just says "Frequency out of range".