Hi, I'm not a Mint user (I use Mageia) but have just installed #17.3 Cinnamon for an older lady I do PC support for - pre-empting having to be forced to use Windows #10 spyware (she is currently on Windows #7). Following the install and re-boot I was presented with the Grub 2.02 beta Text bootloader. I wasn't expecting a text bootloader but a graphical one. The system is an older HP Compaq 8100 Elite model (mid-tower), Corei5, 2Gb RAM. I'm not sure of the graphics specs but it probably has the Intel Integrated graphics.

So should there be a graphical bootloader of Grub #2.02 beta? If so, how do I fix this?

I had this reply in the Mint forum:

if it is an older HP Compaq 8100 Elite then the Cinnamon DE may be too heavy for that machine.
try again with the Mate DE & see if you can then get a GUI - you certainly should do so.
if that still doesn't work, drop down to the XFCE version desktop.

BTW - the machine should have at least 1Gb of ram, in either case.

Anyway,
I installed LinuxMint #17.3 Cinnamon from the very same DVD onto my system -240Gb SSD, Intel Core i5 with 8Gb of RAM - and I got exactly the same result; a Grub #2.02 beta text bootloader that had wiped out my Graphical Grub 2 Mageia bootloader! I took a photo but haven't uploaded it.

So there must be something else going on as my system has plenty of grunt to support Grub 2 because Mageia uses Grub 2 and I get a very nice graphical background and system menu selector list.

I had to restore my Mageia bootloader and update Grub to be able to see Mint on the bootloader menu.

So, does anyone have any ideas as to why this is occurring?

I might be getting the wrong end of the stick here and, if so, I apologise, but do you mean the grub menu that appears at boot-up?

If so, I'm running Mint 17.3 KDE and I get a text menu too (Grub 2.02 beta 2), similar to the first image here: http://linuxbsdos.com/2014/12/03/use...nux-mint-17-1/. I think it's the default.

You can jazz it up with grub-customizer, but essentially it's still a text menu.

When I first came across the Grub boot menu, I experimented with the more graphical Burg but thought it looked dreadful.

Why the hell do you need a graphical boot menu ?.
If you are planning on moving your friend off Windoze altogether, how about not showing a boot menu at all, just default to Mint ?. Maybe set a short timeout in case you need to interrupt it for whatever reason - I use 1 second.