many installation issues
 

I feel like the gieco gecko - "someone help me".

I installed Mint 13 on an old Dell. It had display issues which i finally resolved with a "nomodeset" thing and it is loaded and running.

Now I am trying to do the same on an Averatec 6210. No such luck. When I "install" it, it APPEARS to do its thing, but then on boot, it does not boot from HDD.

I originally tried installing WinXP first, then Linux.
I did the "something else" routine and manually partitioned it. It appears that the files are all loaded to the HDD but it boots directly into windows.

I tried a few fixes to no avail.

After a lot of frustration I wiped out WinXP and did a clean install of Linux on a bare drive. This time I let it make partitions. Basically, everything default. Again all files appear to be copied but no boot from HDD.

I went thru a few more "fixes" but none work and most give me other errors. I installed gparted and that gives me a cannot open display message.

Tried some fixes for that - got root access error. Tried some fixes for that, had to install defaults - got "unknown option supplied" for "defaults env_keep=DISPLAY" command.

I am getting VERY frustrated.

I need a step-by-step from scratch install procedure OR how to install boot without fixing 19 other things before I MIGHT be successful.

Why doesn't a clean install install the boot??

Boot from live media and..
 

.. try Boot-Repair. Have you already tried that?

If booting is not your problem, consider using a fresh version of installation media, rather than retrying with your existing one.

Define old. Did you check the Mint site for minimum hardware requirements. Useful if you have something old that was orignally running xp.

That would indicate the Mint bootloader was not installed properly and you did not configure the xp bootloader to boot Mint.
When you did the last install and accepted all the defaults, it should have installed the Mint bootloader to the mbr and created an entry for both Mint and xp. When you finished the install, were you prompted to reboot and that is when it failed?

Probably the simplest way to get an answer is to post as much detail about the computer as you can which you can do by running the bootinfoscript after downloading it from the site below. Instructions are in a link in the Description box at the site. This should provide enough information about the system for someone to provide an answer.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Check the link below for a tutorial, very detailed. It is for Mint 16 but looking at it, there don't seem to be any significant changes in the installer from Mint 13.

http://itsfoss.com/guide-install-lin...-boot-windows/

On my machine with IDE/PATA and SATA drives, the /dev/sXX names swap around. The bootloader has to use UUIDs along with the /etc/fstab file. This is not always the default of an install done by an installer. Do you have any live versions of linux that work on that machine? Or usb bootable linux's. A place to start looking at least.

Precise information is helpful.

What model Dell and what specs (CPU chip and speed, RAM, video card especially)?

thk for the replies.
I did get Maya installed on the Dell. The only issue I had was with the video and "nomodeset" solved that.
It obviously has all it needs to run as it does. It is an Inspiron 8200 with a 2GB Pentium and 1GB ram.

The Averatec is newer with an AMD and 2gb ram - I think the SIS graphics is also an issue but it seems to work and I don't think that is causing it not to boot.

The liveCD boots fine, without it = no boot.

After all the fixes I tried (and I don't know which one got me to this point as they all said there was another issue that I had to fix first) it boots to a "grub>" acreen

.................

GNU GRUB version 1.99-21ubuntu3

Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible device or file completions.

grub>

..................

I am frustrated and I am not computer illiterate.
Apparently, if there r no issues Linux installs and boots just fine. If there r issues the defaults - like printing 3 pages of help file all at once so I can only read the last part - is somebodies idea of a joke or is meant for an expert b/c u need to do something else to print it out 1 pg at a time. Everything I have to do seems to need to be proceeded by 2 or 3 other things before I do it which only becomes apparent when I try to do it and the computer resists. This is not the way to endear newbies and conquer Windows.

NOW, I finally burned a good boot rescue disk -- it appears that my DVD drive in my desktop has picked this time to quit ---
and it booted and the screen is going from off to on to displaying a mouse pointer (which I can move) at a 3 sec rate (1 sec for each state). I did not enter anything during the boot, just let it go.

Now I hit enter at language screen and have the boot repair disk screen
selected no ACPI and enter
For the last 30 min it has been sitting with a black screen and HDD activity showing.
How long should I wait to power off?

plob boot loader might be easier from a rescue disc perspective. But grub can do the job.

grub> ls
grub> configfile (hd0,msdos3)/boot/grub/grub.cfg

maybe some insmod's for usb and stuff to get output from ls. And the device,partition probably doesn't match your specs. And that assumes that your grub.cfg exists, and is correct. Also note that you can put grub on a usb stick and boot the usb sticks grub if your optical drive has failed and your device supports booting usb. It can be a bit tedious and technical, but it's not rocket science.

It sounds as if the Grub installation was borked. Try taking a picture of that boot screen and attaching it to a post, so we can see what you are seeing (you will need to click the Go Advanced button at the bottom of the "compose post" ["quick reply"] window to attach the picture).

Another thing you could try is this: Boot to the Live CD, open a terminal, and run update-grub. You may need to use sudo (sudo update-grub) to do this; I'm not sure whether sudo will be needed from Live CD mode, so try it without sudo first.

Here's a Mint article on fixing various grub issues.

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/245

Another alternative would be to start over. Sometimes that's the best way. Linux Voice recently posted a pretty good tutorial on installing Mint. It's the second video at this link: http://www.linuxvoice.com/getting-started-with-linux/

thx all for comebacks
I have been ignoring this for the last week.
I have tried a couple of times reinstalling from scratch and using different versions.

boot w/o CD
I get a black screen with a blinking cursor


boot with live cd - it supposedly has already installed but won't boot w/o cd
I get live CD screen with install Linux Mint icon.
if I look at the 160GB file system I see bin, boot, dev, etc, home, lib, lost&found, media,mnt, opt, ......
under boot is
-- grub folder - but there is only a txt file in grub
-- a couple of memtest.bin files and 5 ....generic files

when I follow the reinstall procedure:

the /dev/sda1 partition mount point is /media/............
I issue the mount command and get no response - which it says I might - and no request for p/w
i issue the install cmd and get error: cannot find a device for /boot (is /dev mounted?)
then a warning and something about blocklists
==========================================================================================
OK, THE KEY IS............
If u have an old computer, just keep trying older and older distros/////////////////

I dnld & installed Mint 12 Lisa and it is working.

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thx

If that's the case you may have a need for a non-pae kernel. For debian you would have to use something like the linux-image-486 package. You don't have to be stuck on overly old distros.

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

If under flags there is no " pae " entry, then that is what is happening.

thx
there is no pae entry but i found this:
"To guarantee compatibility with non-PAE processors, the 32-bit versions of Linux Mint Debian come with a 486 kernel by default. This kernel does not support SMP, and as a consequence is only able to detect one core and one CPU. If your CPU has multiple cores, or if you have more than one CPU, simply install the 686-PAE kernel and reboot your computer."

Doesn't that say the all versions of Linux Mint 32 support non-pae by default?
Since I tried to install by changing nothing isn't that what should have happened?
Of course I have no idea when that was posted - it may be circa mint 12.

Then I found this:
"You should be pretty safe assuming PAE for any Pentium II or Athlon or newer,"

and I have an Athlon XP-M, which I assume is "any Athlon"

BUT then I found this:
"The Athlon XP-M is a pretty old CPU and while it supports PAE,
the rest of the system (motherboard, etc.) may not."

I don't think I can put more than 4GB in the system, so I guess the above applies.
But it doesn't install by default or anything else.

So is the problem that I have to install the 686-PAE kernel - if so how do I do that????

I AM very confused.............where is the roadmap for all these turns?????????

A processor that supports pae doesn't have to have a pae kernel, while the processor that doesn't support pae will not run a pae kernel.
This statement just lets you know if you want the pae kernel after installation you can install it using apt-get or synaptic package manager.

So what u r saying is that ALL (even the latest 17) installs w/o the PAE kernel.
If that is true, then that isn't why I am having problems with anything after 12.
The only indication I have (with 17) is the error RE graphics, which does not occur with 12.
13 & 16 gave me other problems that seemed to point to graphics. No direct indication.

SO, the question remains, how do I get 17 to install?????????

I guess I need to try it on the Dell. Maybe I get a clue from that.

OH, I just noticed, there is a PAE FLAG in that CPUINFO list.

SO, I does that mean this issue is off the table and it will work either way???

If 16 works why not just install 16 & upgrade system to 17

'cause 16 does not work
12 works but I can't find any of the updates to it - unsupported/removed
can't install 13, 16, or 17
can't upgrade from 12 to 13, 16, or 17

17 appears to have clean installed over 13 on the Dell without any coaxing.
It is rebooting now and .................. success. An all default install.
16 would not install on the Dell. 13 did with some coaxing >>> nomodeset and vesa=vga, i think

OK back to the Averatec

How do i get past the graphics error?????????

When I boot the same DVD as I just used to install 17 on the Dell successfully I get:
white screen
black screen with
Linux Mint 17
. . . .

then I get
Welcome to Linux Mint ...........terminal screen ..........etc, with most of the screen filled with "U"s.
it flashes off/on 6 times then an error DOS screen

The display server has been shut down...................

and it restarts in 2 min and does the same thing.