Switching From Mint to Zorin without deleting user data

mq15 · 12-29-2022, 06:22 AM

Hello all,
I am using Linux Mint on my Dell LATITUDE E6410 laptop. But because;

It has become very slow
I am interested in exploring Zorin OS

I want to replace Mint with Zorin OS (as a single boot system). Please consider my current partitioning;

Quote:

...~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for ....:
Disk /dev/sda: 232.91 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Disk model: ST9250311CS
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xb1d4b473

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 999423 997376 487M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 999424 200998911 199999488 95.4G 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 200998912 209006591 8007680 3.8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 209008638 488396799 279388162 133.2G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 209008640 488396799 279388160 133.2G 83 Linux

Quote:

...~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 232.9G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 487M 0 part /boot
├─sda2 8:2 0 95.4G 0 part /
├─sda3 8:3 0 3.8G 0 part [SWAP]
├─sda4 8:4 0 1K 0 part
└─sda5 8:5 0 133.2G 0 part /home
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom

Quote:

... ~$ lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 ext2 c998c14f-5326-48d7-85cb-4017ab7050f2 342M 22% /boot
├─sda2 ext4 29a976e3-391e-485f-a05e-7ce8de32f375 75.3G 14% /
├─sda3 swap 0d501b22-991c-4352-98a1-640207113696 [SWAP]
├─sda4
└─sda5 ext4 6609e164-ff5d-44b6-ab30-68707e36def8 84.1G 30% /home
sr0

Quote:

...~$ sudo hwinfo --short --block
disk:
/dev/sda ST9250311CS
partition:
/dev/sda1 Partition
/dev/sda2 Partition
/dev/sda3 Partition
/dev/sda4 Partition
/dev/sda5 Partition
cdrom:
/dev/sr0 HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM DU10N

During Zorin OS installation, I choose to install in root partition with;

size > same as previous size
file type > Ext4 journaling file system
mount point > /
format partition > ticked (yes)

Will only the partition with Mint be partitioned and replaced with Zorin OS and data in all other partitions will remain intact?

Best Regards and thanks in anticipation

dmchess · 12-29-2022, 06:55 AM

I would look to see why Linux Mint is slow. Check to see how much free disk space you have and how much free memory you have.

df -h

will display free disk space

free -h

will display how much free ram you have. Desktops use more ram then they used to and I have found Mint runs reasonably well.
I really doubt that Zorin will perform that much better. Maybe you need to add just a little memory. Check for memory usage right
after you boot and then again with an average software load. If you can't add memory, maybe change the desktop to something like
Mate or XFCE.

Terry

mq15 · 12-29-2022, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmchess

df -h

Quote:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 944M 0 944M 0% /dev
tmpfs 198M 1.6M 197M 1% /run
/dev/sda2 94G 14G 76G 16% /
tmpfs 989M 186M 803M 19% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 989M 0 989M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1 472M 106M 343M 24% /boot
/dev/sda5 131G 40G 85G 32% /home
tmpfs 198M 40K 198M 1% /run/user/1000

free -h

Quote:

total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 1.9Gi 1.1Gi 198Mi 177Mi 607Mi 474Mi
Swap: 3.8Gi 994Mi 2.8Gi

dmchess, do you see anything slowing down Mint?

jmgibson1981 · 12-29-2022, 07:20 AM

I see just 2gb of ram. That is fairly low by today's standards. Which Mint are you running. If you are running Cinnamon you should try Mate or Xfce. Both are much lighter than Cinnamon. When all else fails while it isn't the prettiest LXQt is fast as hell. Might be the ideal option.

mq15 · 12-29-2022, 07:57 AM

Thank you very much for your responses.
For some reasons I cannot add more RAM right now.

RAM requirements for Zorin OS Lite, Education Lite editions is just 1 GB as claimed here.
Do you still believe that Zorin OS will do the same as Mint?

I will try changing the desktop to Mate first.

However, in case I a switch to Zorin OS;

Quote:

Will only the partition with Mint be partitioned and replaced with Zorin OS and data in all other partitions will remain intact?

dmchess · 12-29-2022, 08:40 AM

I concur with JMGibson. For really light machines I like to use SparkyLinux which uses the XFCE desktop, but none of my machines
have that little ram. If you do decide to put it on a different distro, all you have to do is tar up your home dir like so (I am
assuming all the data you want to save is in your home account):

backup home dir. Run from
/
Which is root home.

tar -czf <archive name> /home/user

You will need to save the archive to an external drive of some sort.

To restore home user. Run from
/
Which is root home. The user in the first tar statement is probably going to be your first name or whatever your user account is.

tar --keep-old-files -xzf archive

beachboy2 · 12-29-2022, 09:00 AM

mq15,

You really need to find out why your current Mint system is running slowly. I would first try changing to Linux Mint MATE personally.

Are you still using a hard drive?

If so, then changing to an SSD such as this 250GB Crucial one will give your laptop a considerable boost and make it much more responsive:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-MX5.../dp/B0781VSXBP

I doubt whether Zorin OS will make any improvement whatsoever. The downloaded ISO image is a similar size to that of Mint.

If you do switch to another distro, then format sda2 as ext4, mount on root.

Leave sda3 (swap) alone.

To preserve your home partition (sda5), highlight it, click on Change, select Leave the size the same, select Use as: ext4.

NB Do NOT click on the box for Format the partition. Leave the format box empty.

Select /home as the mount point and then click on OK.

Next, select sda1 as the UEFI esp/boot partition.

jamison20000e · 12-29-2022, 09:29 AM

"For some reasons I cannot add more RAM right now." When you can more RAM will help and is cheap even some SSDs there too, tho battery is what they'd save more on( quick search: https://www.minitool.com/partition-d...A%20interface. ).

Free like JWM (https://joewing.net/projects/jwm/) and others,,, maybe search for a
lightweight desktop environment

Click image for larger version

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or window manager? I like Window Maker and Ratpoison too but on my IBM-T20, CLI is the fastest!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_Maker
https://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/

An OS built by a community is great but a netinst is as well... and, from there you can install only what you need or want. E.g: https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...minimal-debian &sea.

Keeping in mind (except CLI) it's always opinions* until you benchmark?*

computersavvy · 12-29-2022, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mq15

Hello all,

Best Regards and thanks in anticipation

Please use '[code]' blocks instead of '[quote]' blocks for posting text so the formatting is retained for us to read.

DavidMcCann · 12-29-2022, 11:14 AM

First run the command free to see where all the memory is going.

If you are using swap, yet still have free memory, then you need to adjust swappiness. Check with

Code:

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

If the number is large, create a file /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf containing

Code:

vm.swappiness=10
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

If a lot of memory is in use, run the command top to see if any program is using a lot. I don't know Cinnamon, but I've never caught my Xfce system using more than 2GB, even though I have 4GB.

If all else fails, try installing Mate on Mint. You cam chose which runs at log-in. If that doesn't help, remove Mate and try Xfce.

If you do switch to Zorin, just make sure that it keeps the old /home partition and your data will be safe.

jamison20000e · 12-29-2022, 12:49 PM

You already expressed wanting to keep your data so it should be backed up anyhow, depending on its importance more ways than one?

Add:

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

Run a hard drive check, slowness could be a sign of a hard drive going bad.

Can run a bad memory check too...

mq15 · 12-30-2022, 05:14 AM

Thanks all.

Code:

mq15@BigBang:~$ free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          1.9Gi       1.2Gi       205Mi        75Mi       525Mi       503Mi
Swap:         3.8Gi       723Mi       3.1Gi
mq15@BigBang:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            944M     0  944M   0% /dev
tmpfs           198M  1.6M  197M   1% /run
/dev/sda2        94G   14G   75G  16% /
tmpfs           989M   63M  927M   7% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           989M     0  989M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       472M  106M  343M  24% /boot
/dev/sda5       131G   40G   85G  32% /home
tmpfs           198M   32K  198M   1% /run/user/1000

computersavvy, see, I'hv learnt to use [CODE]. Here is top command's result;

Code:

top - 16:01:40 up 26 min,  1 user,  load average: 1.63, 1.64, 1.65
Tasks: 234 total,   1 running, 233 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  5.5 us,  5.6 sy,  0.0 ni, 87.4 id,  0.3 wa,  0.0 hi,  1.2 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :   1976.7 total,    175.1 free,   1268.8 used,    532.8 buff/cache
MiB Swap:   3910.0 total,   3188.5 free,    721.5 used.    478.1 avail Mem 

    PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                                                
    956 root      20   0  638276  43332  31588 S  13.9   2.1   3:26.61 Xorg                                                                                   
   1519 mq15      20   0 3682276  84960  39424 S  10.3   4.2   3:07.24 cinnamon                                                                               
   3557 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   6.0   0.0   0:14.62 kworker/u16:0-phy0                                                                     
   1771 mq15      20   0 1742716 190216  15928 S   3.3   9.4   1:55.32 mintinstall                                                                            
    250 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   2.6   0.0   0:41.01 kworker/u16:4-iwlwifi                                                                  
   3216 mq15      20   0  468796  44912  35928 S   2.6   2.2   0:04.27 gnome-terminal-                                                                        
   2350 mq15      20   0 4694836 150980  82092 S   1.7   7.5   1:30.70 chrome                                                                                 
   2177 mq15      20   0 4714744 179108  50896 S   1.3   8.8   0:50.20 chrome                                                                                 
    189 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   1.0   0.0   0:04.49 kworker/0:2-events                                                                     
   1035 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   1.0   0.0   0:06.61 kworker/1:5-events                                                                     
   3256 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   1.0   0.0   0:02.02 kworker/3:3-events                                                                     
   3515 root      20   0       0      0      0 D   1.0   0.0   0:00.81 kworker/2:2+kec_query                                                                  
    969 mysql     20   0 2147240 169420   1968 S   0.7   8.4   0:15.05 mysqld                                                                                 
   1389 root      20   0  252536   6780   6024 S   0.7   0.3   0:02.31 upowerd                                                                                
   1949 mq15      20   0  750620 190928  77148 S   0.7   9.4   1:35.89 chrome                                                                                 
   3709 mq15      20   0   12336   4072   3428 R   0.7   0.2   0:00.22 top                                                                                    
      9 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.3   0.0   0:00.21 ksoftirqd/0                                                                            
    521 root     -51   0       0      0      0 S   0.3   0.0   0:04.48 irq/32-iwlwifi                                                                         
   1412 mq15      20   0  349112  12080   9680 S   0.3   0.6   0:01.16 csd-power                                                                              
   2051 mq15      20   0  351224  55292  29508 S   0.3   2.7   0:17.90 chrome                                                                                 
   3607 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.3   0.0   0:00.17 kworker/3:2-events                                                                     
      1 root      20   0  167712   7036   5356 S   0.0   0.3   0:02.76 systemd                                                                                
      2 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd                                                                               
      3 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 rcu_gp                                                                                 
      4 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 rcu_par_gp                                                                             
      6 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 kworker/0:0H-kblockd                                                                   
      8 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 mm_percpu_wq                                                                           
     10 root      20   0       0      0      0 I   0.0   0.0   0:03.05 rcu_sched                                                                              
     11 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.01 migration/0                                                                            
     12 root     -51   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 idle_inject/0                                                                          
     14 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 cpuhp/0                                                                                
     15 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 cpuhp/1                                                                                
     16 root     -51   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.00 idle_inject/1

I am still unable to find RAM Eater

I do not know what is swappiness, anyhow, is not it sufficient?

Code:

mq15@BigBang:~$ cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
60

Installing Mate via Software Manager gives this;

Code:

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/upstream/c/caja/caja-common_1.24.0-linuxmint1_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:2c3b1ce359c37ea30a2bb7393caab04714cc1e9c392dae50d60006d2f8b8ca29
 - SHA1:ef3339a5dd9cec0041abb7927470d696878c388a [weak]
 - MD5Sum:4887096423a61c5dce25326bbe4ee618 [weak]
 - Filesize:32840 [weak]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:31183218280e9e4574da2348590a8135ea1956170fcd839a405e2120a8f36bdc
 - SHA1:be869a22e36d82c6bd8bb4dff47a15f3b0d5d821 [weak]
 - MD5Sum:130cde18b9bbae3583802f8e3ff12c19 [weak]
 - Filesize:855856 [weak]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:3e014a1bfeea199fd1422046a67f774b3b951f0acdcf781d0cb54edcb1260629
 - SHA1:0480c2a9d72b7bdf373f3265142b95644c24798f [weak]
 - MD5Sum:3ae65c46f79b51961d1734d5b32e8abc [weak]
 - Filesize:24460 [weak]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:e6eba8df129644b1282402e7c3178ef4e1a9fb89cf175a0d6fd6397122e39a96
 - SHA1:06303d3bd5387be2589fa1f672e572f0cfc01304 [weak]
 - MD5Sum:671089169fe4d4a55451480a7bb691c5 [weak]
 - Filesize:20576 [weak]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:a2d4f4a0884650cb269072d97772fe788cba7ada8e8d98edb79d8b40b84c00e5
 - SHA1:a277a5e55e1f56e126ed348aa08626eeee0e949d [weak]
 - MD5Sum:73fc89e1d68fc3d7f680181b936b5d5c [weak]
 - Filesize:51132 [weak]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:6cdf699be2b7db9d43025495262be6b2a4f96a5faf4ed8dc6466b3ed038ab0bf
 - SHA1:2d975c5fb8de836372336ab24485f037fb0901e6 [weak]
 - MD5Sum:1a16588d9726c350244b69cbd4c9135e [weak]
 - Filesize:25996 [weak]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/upstream/m/mate-control-center/mate-control-center-common_1.24.0-linuxmint1_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:eb81bf73c9dafe5a64bf24ec3d9336e9c8022219b93881d037b4acc535dc723c
 - SHA1:ce9546b136e28eed31f1831c955e8d77bd912a64 [weak]
 - MD5Sum:8d776b4d49c832041e775832214b89e9 [weak]
 - Filesize:321096 [weak]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/upstream/m/mate-terminal/mate-terminal-common_1.24.0-linuxmint1_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:aefeae44aabda9e7760056627a8c49ac47b331df148af9e172e222a6dd7bd1b1
 - SHA1:602f5cdda5cf8337fa20d7095a6aaf76e9841779 [weak]
 - MD5Sum:0e4556256e150e7f1b6e0c7a9b065404 [weak]
 - Filesize:139616 [weak]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/upstream/m/mate-media/mate-media-common_1.24.0-linuxmint2_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:e136f42b6768c6f3dcd2487ace7d411293ece6bf6f63b428ae42dd7832a9211d
 - SHA1:b99b3433bd20831817667e1f6a73a65ce14b4db6 [weak]
 - MD5Sum:386e68db008ee90d165a810991dfad20 [weak]
 - Filesize:75984 [weak]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/main/m/mintdesktop/mintdesktop_3.6.9_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/upstream/m/mate-power-manager/mate-power-manager-common_1.24.1-linuxmint1_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch https://www.zerobounce.net File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]
Hashes of expected file:
 - SHA256:eb40d23fb9b3d9f8dddd1d7cc74f85d98edf896c94ea991e65e7e8b2ca459b0d
 - SHA1:436bab3c06d07363d2350baf3b33df51229ad49a [weak]
 - MD5Sum:49e5aa7a97800fb180be8cff506aa5c7 [weak]
 - Filesize:130840 [weak]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/main/m/mint-meta/mint-meta-mate_2020.07.09_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/main/m/mint-meta/mate-desktop-environment-core_2020.07.09_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages/pool/main/m/mint-meta/mate-desktop-environment_2020.07.09_all.deb File has unexpected size (684529 != 2340668). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 104.17.97.61 443]

Anyhow, for the first time I got the idea as to what is a Desktop Environment.

computersavvy · 12-30-2022, 09:52 AM

In that post with top I see that between chrome, mintinstall and mysqld it is using ~50% of your RAM. You could free up some 8+% of RAM if you do not actually need to have mysqld running on that lower powered system.

Swappiness is telling you how aggressively it uses swap. Lower numbers means it is more aggressive and higher numbers are less aggressive.

computersavvy · 12-30-2022, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mq15

During Zorin OS installation, I choose to install in root partition with;

size > same as previous size
file type > Ext4 journaling file system
mount point > /
format partition > ticked (yes)

Will only the partition with Mint be partitioned and replaced with Zorin OS and data in all other partitions will remain intact?

Best Regards and thanks in anticipation

To answer this original question,
The partitions you selected for the install and checked the 'format partition' box will be reformatted and overwritten. The ones where you did not check that box would not be formatted.

Thus, selecting the /home partition and not checking that box should mount it properly in the new install but not damage the data.

I would format /boot and / but not /home with a new install.

sundialsvcs · 12-30-2022, 10:31 AM

If you choose to install Zorin, you should not expect to lose your data. Although it is perfectly reasonable to buy a USB-connected SSD hard drive and to move your data to it "just in case" for safekeeping.

Nonetheless, "Mint is Slow" is a situation that is quite likely to stay once you move to Zorin. You need to first try to figure out what's really going on.