Well, hello.

I am not amused. I took a screen-shot from the problematic
installation point which is the table << INSTALL >> which
is situated on an online-server but which is referred in
error-messages later as << Partitioning Menu >>.

I do not know how to paste this screen-shot into or onto
this message. (Beside aboves section "attachment" in the headline).

For users with no particular partitioning-knowledge it is
nearly impossible to overcome this task!

You come to a point where you are asked to place the
"Root Filing System" into any given partition. One can
only speculate which might be possible or might not.

The manual says EXT4 (File organizing system) would be
to prefer. OK. I did so. Then I am asked for a "Mount point".
Great. I am using computers since 1977, right. Since over
40 years. I started with a Tandy with CP/M Operating
System, 16 KB RAM and a Zilog-Processor. It was that
early use which gave me a trauma from which I recovered
in the last decade. But with this installation the old
trauma comes back. I have never, never ever, heard from
a "Mount Point" for which I have the choice to position
it under /boot, under /home or under /ust or under 15
other directories. "Mount Point" is not mentioned with
one sentence in your "installation guide".

Finished is this cryptic questioning with a serious hint:

"WRITE PREVIOUS CHANGES TO DISK AND CONTINUE?" followed by
"BEFORE YOU CAN SELECT A NEW PARTITIONING SIZE, ANY PREVIOUS
CHANGES HAVE TO BE WRITTEN TO DISK. YOU CANNOT UNDO THIS
OPERATION. THIS CAN TAKE A LONG TIME."

Well, Boys and Girls, I admit I am fed up with this.
Beside the always looming danger in this remote place
that a sudden electrical black-out occurs).

Possibly most of you guys work as software-engineers.
But if someone like me, who has preformatted and formatted
disks on his 3 dozens of computers he used in his
lifetime is not able to proceed this installation you will
NEVER EVER have success with your indeed wonderful Mint.

I am sick and tired of it. It is depressing. Go and try
to win a game of chess against a master. The time of
hundreds of sleepless nights from the years 1977 to 1982
are not allowed to come back into my life. I speak 3
languages and have broad knowledge and experience, seen
all 5 continents on earth and I am still too stupid to
install this Linux Mint OS ?

Please help me. I will try to install it a third time.

If it turns out still not to be working then,
I will quit Linux forever

Yours sincerely

Lusitano

My computing history began in 1973, yet when first exposed to the Debian way more than 30 years later, after more than a decade of OS/2 rather than Windows, its basic partitioner logic and vocabulary didn't seem all that understandable to me either. I got over it. At least it's better than Fedora's.

Maybe the Debian installation guide to partitioning would be easier to grok than that of Mint. The basics are all the same, since Mint is a Debian derivative.

DOS and Windows don't use mount points, but Unix, which is older than DOS and predecessor to Linux, did and does. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_(computing) should be useful on the subject of mounts, mount points and mounting generally.

If you are unsure about these definitions, why not try the guided partitioning instead of manual, as it seems you've been doing? Is this multiboot, or is Mint to be the only installed OS? If the only, guided is the way for a functional n00b to go.

Use the icon that looks like a paper clip (see my attachment).

That's why the installation instructions contain this paragraph:
Back to your question.
Hm. You are fed up with instructions that you need to write changes to the disk before continuing? And that you can't undo those changes once they are on the disk? Then indeed, Mint or Linux in general is not for you.

I would like to help, but I don't understand what your problem is. I have installed Mint and other, less beginner-friendly Linux distros. It is true that partitioning your disk can be a bit more difficult than clicking "next" and is dangerous if other data is on the disk, but I have overcome this hurdle, although my experience with computers doesn't go back 40 years.

If I remember well, your computer has Windows installed already. You should not have to select "something else". According to the instructions (step 5):

If you do have Windows or another OS with valuable data on the disk already and did not get this option, something is wrong. I would only continue the installation if I felt adventurous.

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1 members found this post helpful.

Hi Lusitano,

You start to describe a problem several times, but you interleave a lot of other stuff.

Give us useful information without all the other stuff tucked in, eh?

I'm not trying to be insensitive here, I read a very frustrated person who's raising their voice and swearing. OK ... got it!

So ... Me: "What seems to be the problem?" I read back, "three languages!", "CP/M!", "1977!"

Had a '77 Chevelle ... GREAT car! Remember the seats that turned? That was awesome! Mine never locked though, so I'd be driving down the road doing "The Twist". Me and my buddies had to work hard to get a copy of Chubby Checker's old hit and get it on cassette. I had one of those 8-track to cassette converters, where you had to use Track 2 to play the cassette. Good times! You'd drive down the road and see some shiny stuff all on the sides of the brush, because someone's player ate a tape and they ended up tossing it out the window.

Couple of things you should do:

1. Follow mrmazda's advice and use the guided partitioning form of install
2. Instead of installing, first try to boot off of Live media. As in the install media you have now? Just plug it in and "try" it. I'm assuming you have, and this may be why you decided to try Linux on your computer.
3. Decide if you want Linux totally, or if you want it alongside Windows so you can dual boot.
4. Tell us the system specifications that you have. Who knows? These days with all the manufacturers, including yourself if you home made a computer, then we can't tell you if there might be a potential "gotcha" with the system you're working with.

First and foremost if you're comfortable with Linux entirely on your computer and nothing else. Then you needn't have written much and instead just opted for "Y" and let it install.

1 members found this post helpful.

You might have had an easier time if you had read the Mint installation guide which is available online at the link below. You don't actually say whether you still have any windows installed and if so, which release. The second link explains installing Mint with windows 8 or 10 using uefi. There are millions of users around the world using Linux Mint so it can't be that hard.

https://linuxmint-installation-guide...t/install.html

https://www.tecmint.com/install-linu...oot-uefi-mode/

1 members found this post helpful.

Hello, Lusitano...

You sound like a TOTAL NEWBIE, so - calm down - and be patient.

You also seem like a very determined person so I know you can definitely get hold of the concept of "Linux". It is much easier than you think when you get that initial "grasp" of how it "looks & feels" - rather than "it doesn't do things like I did them on Windows".

So far, you have had a lot of good advice in the previous posts, so do NOT give up.


Two bits of advice from me...

1. If you have (or can get) an old (ie 2nd) less-valuable PC/laptop then experiment installing Mint a couple of times on that. You will find that you will be less frustrated trying stuff, without worrying about what's going on with the equipment. (You will eventually find it is much, MUCH easier to install than you think/believe right now. So, patience.)

2. Make sure you come back here for advice (others are better technical guides than me). Try to come back with one or two questions/problems rather than 50 or 100 because the Guiders can get confused about WHAT your problem really is.

Regards,

boombaby
_

Hello,

I have to say thank you to many people here.
It starts to become a bit embarrassing for me, right?

Thank you Mr. Mazda

Danke an Bernd Bausch

Thank you RT Mistler

thank you, Yancek

and Boombaby,too !

I do not understand that the indeed simple manual or handbook I read
which has been pointed at once more by dear Yancek and which I read before

( --- https://linuxmint-installation-guide...t/install.html ---)

is showing exactly what I experienced .. BUT (!) only up to the point where
it asks to click onto << SOMETHING ELSE >>.

"Something else" means that I would like to have a dual booting
system. I use Windows 10. But then in the real world the online
installation procedure shows me a plethora of partition options
& decisions coupled with it which I have to make ...

WHICH DO NOT OCCUR IN SAID (above mentioned) MANUAL.

"Heah?" you might ask.

I have no idea why this fundamental difference in what I saw
now 2 times with my own eyes in the online-installation menu and
that what is described in the installation-procedure of the above
mentioned manual occurs. Please. I am no idiot who sees ghosts.


And 3 languages were not ment to be computer-languages.
I know my deficits very well. Especially in the game of chess
I have the intelligence of a nut. Hope you accept this as what it is.
The humble opposition of mighty arrogance. If only ONE of you guys
could compare the manual with the true, REAL Online-installation
-procedure my problem would not be solved - but understood.

I do not want to jump into the cold water by exclusively using
Linnix MINT only and deleting my windows. I have four computers.

But the older three are by far too small for Mint. So RTMisters
suggestion will not work for me, regrettably. Of course I use the so
called LIVE Session with booting off from a memory stick. Of course!

But that is not enough on the long course. I would be very
grateful if anyone could confirm what I saw two times in the
online-installation and what differs so immensely from the manual.

Thank you. I am not in a hurry with this. So please take your time
if you want to answer me. I am sober. I do not tell phantasies here.

Lusitano


My System:

ACER Aspire ES1-731
Windows 10 Home
Bootable Linux Mint on Memory Stick
Intel Celeron with 1.6 GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Screen: 1600 by 900 pixels
System: 64-Bit-OS (both - Win and Mint)
Hard Disk: 465 GB

Thank you for the system specs and information that it boots live.

What exact version and flavor of Linux Mint have you downloaded and are trying to install?

Please look at the attached image to understand what I mean. This is a screenshot of information about Mint version 19, codename Tara. It has flavors for Cinnamon, MATE, and XFCE all for 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

It will be helpful to know what exact Mint distribution version you have downloaded.

There also is Mint Debian Edition and it will be helpful to know if you've downloaded that.

To be clear, when you say that it gives you a plethora of options, any chance you can take a screenshot or photo and post that to illustrate the problem you can't get past?

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1 members found this post helpful.

Acer requires you to set "trust" somewhere in the BIOS before you can install another system so I would suggest you read your user manual if you have one or go to the link below where someone who uses an Acer explains the steps needed.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/8700...-option/870074

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you once more, rtmistler,

I still might have trouble attaching a captured picture here
since I am not able to identify where the clip-symbol hides
in this Forum. - If you answer to this remark, please look
up into this window-frame which is called "QUICK REPLY".

Under QUICK REPLY there is a word Message: And under message
there are 7 icons or symbols of which the first four icons
are related to any type variations, the fifth to the creation
of colons. THE SIXTH ICON ASKS FOR A link AND THE LAST Icon
bears a WRAP-function. I do NOT see where a paper clip symbol
is hidden and therefore I do still not know how to attach
a captured image into this forum. -- PUH! Exhausting it is.

But it is NOT necessary, at least not for your specific question,
since YOUR attached image clearly solves your question


I DO have the >> CINNAMON VERSION << in >> 64-Bit <<.

Thank you for your repeated efforts with my problems,

Kind regards,

Lusitano.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you Yancek,

I fear that your suggestion that Acer might be the problem in
my case could be true. I will later search the link you have
given to me. I would never, never had found out myself that
the problem might be grounded in the BIOS of Acer.

I only remember very well that when I asked ACER in Taiwan
about 2 months ago if they would support the Linux System -
they reacted quite harsh and answered with a clear "NO".

It is not my first ACER computer. Their machines easily
work for ten years and longer, when other laptops like Asus
die after 3 or 4 years. But obviously they live in a
symbiotik relation with the soft tiny moloch.

Give me two days. I will check your link and try to find if
it REALLY could be my BIOS. That would be very upsetting.

To say my opinion - I hardly can imagine that this is the
reason that the menu I see online differs so much from what
is published in the downloaded pdf-manual. - But nothing,
as we both know, nothing is impossible in this world.

Thank you for your remarkable, outstanding knowledge and
help you provide to me. I really want to run the Linux.

Lusitano

Hello, Lusitano...


If they really are, as you say "...in a symbiotik relation with the soft tiny moloch...", then perhaps you should have asked if you could install Devil Linux instead - and get their support? However, I'm not sure even that would solve that thingy grinding itself into the BIOS. Though (methinks) if you hang on for dear life, you would have a hell of a time trying to find out - that is, if the overheating doesn't roach the system first.

Good luck. You have "...two days...".


Great effort, yancek.


boombaby
_

Hello Guys.

Sunday night I caught me a nasty infect with a fever.
Therefore I was so weak that I could not eat or read.
Now it is better again. And Sunshine in Portugal.s

To describe me as a bloody newbee is a joke.
With me having daily computer experience in 40 years.

Yancek, I am sorry. Following your link I received:

Page Not Found. We're sorry, we couldn't find the page
you requested.

Try searching for similar questions
Browse our recent questions
Browse our popular tags
If you feel something is missing that should be here, contact us.

So, try the link you gave to me yourself, please. You will receive
the same 404. Therefore an easy solution for the eventually
intentionally blocked Acer-BIOS is not there. Maybe I can find
it anywhere else in the Net. Or I try to find it in my Acer-BIOS.

Bye for today,

Lusitano

First of all, if you want to attach screenshots, you have to click on "Post a Reply", instead of using the "Quick Reply" box.

Aside from the Acer issues mentioned above, it seems to me that the problem is that you are selecting "Something Else" in the first place, when the first option seems to match what you want (IF I have understood correctly, that you want to dual boot with Windows 10).


That screen is not DEMANDING that you choose "Something Else", it is asking which of several options you want. The first option is for a Dual Boot system, and handles virtually everything for you. It allows you to change the amount of hard disk space which is dedicated to Windows, and how much is dedicated to Linux Mint. I am fairly experienced at Linux partitioning, BUT I still use that option most of the time (9 times out of 10). The only reason that I have ever felt the need to choose "Something Else" is when I want a separate "Home" partition.

Alex Paton, thank you for your practical approach to my problem.
I will carefully consider your suggestion.

However, as I remember (maybe I remember wrong) the first option
was to completely reformat the HD with the complete loss of all
data with it, - therefore the exclusive use of Linux as sole OS.

That is what I remember. But I will take screen-shots this time
and then use POST REPLY instead of quick reply.

It is very nice of you to have helped me with your suggestion.

Lusitano

Alex,

one thing I forgot to mention because I answered your message
- before I looked at the screenshot you delivered with it.

If I had this dialogue during the installation, - shown
on your screenshot - I would have never asked for help here.

So I will try to document my problems step by step in due
course when I try to install Linux Mint Cinnamon a third time.

Thank You.

Lusitano