English, Tech

How To Install Linuxmint And Become A Linux User

My Dearest Mad-Readers,

Today, I am re-publishing a post which may be of use to you and which I first released on my second blog todayilinux. Some of you may have noticed I re-organized my menu to make all categories more accessible to you. This way, tech and Linux enthusiasts won’t have to search for hours to find the articles interesting them and all of you who have been with me for weeks or months months won’t have to endure reading tech-related articles if they’re none or your concern.

I’ve re-designed and re-written a bunch of things to make them more clear, so feel free to check it out again.

Alright then, intro over, I’ll leave you to the meat of this post !

* * *

This morning, I decided to practice some more using FFMPEG.

If you don’t know what it is, don’t worry I intend to make an article about it. It is the command line tool I use to shoot my videos. You can also check their website here : https://ffmpeg.org/

It is quite tricky to wrap your head around it, yet it is one of these extremely powerful tools which you cannot live without when you have started using them. I figured that installing Linux Mint in a virtual machine would be good practice for a video. Statistically, it should be helpful to even more of you than my previous article on Archlinux, since you do not need to have any sort of knowledge regarding Linux to do what I have done in this video.

As it may not have been crystal clear in my video (and some of you may not want to watch it till the end), I will add some comments :

  • Downloading the ISO

There is nothing difficult with this step and some more advanced users may find this redundant, but I would like to say it anyway. When you want to install a distribution of GNU/Linux, the very first step is to go to its dedicated website. You may want to do some background search as well, just to make sure the distribution you are about to install is what you are looking for. Then, you want to download the ISO.

For Linux Mint, you have a range of 3 choices for 32-bit and 64-bit kernels. Nowadays, you should not be too worried about this and I recommend for most of you (except if you are no newbie and know what you are doing) to go with the 64-bit links. As for Cinnamon, MATE, and xfce, they are Desktop Environments. One huge advantage of Linux over Windows is how easy it is to change how your distribution looks. These 3 desktop environments are only the tip of the iceberg, there are many, many more out there.

If you are a novice, your safest best certainly is Cinnamon. It is what looks like Windows the most, so it should be a comfy environment for you.

  • Burning the ISO

When you are done downloading the ISO, you need to burn it on a disk or a USB flash-drive. Be careful and use one that is empty, or you may permanently lose your data. If you only want to install Mint in a Virtual Machine, you do not need to go through this step, you can merely follow the guide in my video.

For Linux users, here is a command you may already be familiar with :

dd if=/dev/sdb of=~/Downloads/linux-file.iso

dd allows you to easily burn an ISO on a disk. It takes 2 parameters : if : the input file & of : the output file. Once again, be careful with this command. You do not want to mess with a diskful of data. If you are more comfortable with GUI apps, I know that some Linux distributions offer such tools (e.g. Linux Mint).

Regarding Windows, there are many many tools which allow you to burn your ISO onto a disk, so I will not list all of them. However, I recommend the Universal USB Installer (which you can find here).

  • Last but not least

Don’t forget to configure your BIOS so that it boots from your USB key first and not the existing operating system. If you are thinking about making the switch, tell me about it in the comments section. I would be most happy to help you out. I also intend to write something more complete about the BIOS, to make it easier for complete newbies to install Linux, so stay put !

IF you liked this article, feel free to let me know by commenting, liking or subscribing (to be informed of all my latest content)

Take care,

Phil.

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62 thoughts on “How To Install Linuxmint And Become A Linux User”

  1. Pingback: Installing Arch Linux in Virtualbox – The Movie-Addicted Librarian

  2. Arch-based distros booted into garbage or ice age on my good quality hardware this year. After I started linuxing in 2006, all I still need is an OS that is stable, reliable, predictable, fast and dependable.

    One that managed that is MS Windows 10 Pro. The other is Mint Cinnamon DE.

    For those of us that have a life beyond computers and just need a dependable friend, there is no need to venture beyond those mentioned.

    I use Rufus in Windows to make a Linux bootdisk, Mintstick in Linux and, if I want a Windows bootdisk, I use Woeusb. These three proved easy and very reliable.

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    1. You can have a life beyond computers and still explore other things than Windows and Linux Mint. However, I do agree : there is no need to do it if you do not want to (and you shouldn’t in that case). Both these OSs are enough. I wouldn’t say arch-based distros are garbage however. Arch matches all the adjectives you used, and in my case much better than Mint. Then again, Linux is about freedom, not saying that one OS is garbage and another is better.

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      2. You know, I understand that Linux is not always easy. I really do. I’ve been using it for many years and that’s allowed me to test a good many distributions. I understand your frustration but you shouldn’t say Arch sucks because you are not good enough yet to run it properly (I mean this in the nicest way possible). I’ve never had issues with Manjaro, but it’s quite the same as Arch : you must be doing something wrong in the installation process, or it would boot (otherwise I wouldn’t use arch as my main OS). Read up the documentation whenever you have some free time. I’m sure you’ll find what you’re not doing properly. Otherwise shoot me an email and I can help 😉

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      3. I started out in computers long ago to have coded in COBOL and to have run finnicky, technical apps in CP/M-80. Computing was a tad challenging back then. But man has evolved, as did IT technology. Arch, however, prefers to live on in the dark medieval murk. Haven’t they ever heard of user friendliness?

        Put in a different way: why would I either want or even need to learn new things after a very successful career in IT, where I designed, supplied, installed networked systems in the CAD/CAM environment, specialized medical systems, large agricultural systems, with up to a few hundred networked PCs on site, and now have to get my prime laptop to boot tomorrow after I switch it off tonight? As it is at that level that Arch is ….ucked. Even Windows 10 boots up in the morning and doesn’t produce three lines of garbish instead of a desktop, or a frozen desktop.

        And you try to impress upon me how superior Arch is? Why didn’t I have this with thirteen other distros this year? They all worked and they were all somehow Debian related.

        Aaahh, that’s it! .deb works, after all.

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      4. Arch is not about darkness, it’s about freedom. You either choose to embrace their philosophy or you don’t, but stop spitting your venom here if you only want to be hateful. Learning and curiosity never come to an end, even after a successful career. Use whatever tool you fancy, tell yourself whatever you like to feel better, but if you cannot have a constructive and peaceful debate, then I’m not interested in discussing this with you.

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      5. I don’t spit venom. I share my practical experience in the face of Arch distro zealots. As anyone lesser than the mighty Arch gods are sub-human and just ants. Where do I get this? Open your eyes to the incessant haughty Arch venom all over social mecia, in distro forums, on reddit, parler, twitter. All non-Archers ever hear is how bad and inferior we are. Eat your idol.

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      6. It is true that some Arch users don’t behave as grown-ups. My website however, is neither called Reddit, Twitter, or any social media name you could come up with. This is a place of knowledge where I encourage others to be curious. I love Arch and what it allows me to do. If you are not happy with that, it is not my problem and nor do I want to deal with your hateful comments. If you can accept it, you are welcome to stay. Otherwise, you may go, and I will not approve any other borderline comments. Thank you for your understanding!

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  3. To reain install visit this: I had once again installed several Arches and all had issues with updates and package managers. Installing Mint solved each and every problem that I had otherwise. If there is hope for the Linux desktop, then it has to be Linux Mint Cinnamon, simply because it actually works. I know they are well behind bleeding edge, but the realse a distro that is well sorted out. Most users out there, especially the corporates, will be attracted to that.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You’re right, Linux Mint is the closest thing there is to an Operating System that just works out of the box. Ubuntu generally is what professionals use, instead of Mint, but an individual who wishes to first try out Linux should certainly head straight toward Mint. It’s easy. You just get the best of both worlds ^_^

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I have been using Linux since 2006 and totally disagree with Mint being a noob distro. It just is a useful one. I just took off manjaro, Reborn, Endeavour and the unstoppable Ubuntu Budgie to make room for Mint. Budgie took hours to shout down, a well documented issue.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I didn’t mean that Linux Mint is exclusively for noobs, sorry if that turned out that way. What I mean is, it is perfect for beginners, but not only. I know people who are MUCH MORE advanced than I am, and who run Ubuntu as their daily OS. Which distro you have doesn’t represent your level as a whole. Perhaps just your mindset ? Or your preferences, however you wish to name it.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I love to install multiple apps in a go and somehow the Arches failed in that every single time. After 12 strokes, I lack the tolerance for that.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. What happens is that I will go into the package manager, select a number of apps and then click to install. It will come back after a length of time and tell me sorry, bru, we couldn’t do that. They never give a reason or list dependencies to be met, they rather just abort. so annoying, I have a very slow adsl connection grinding town to a few bits per second sometime as i live in a rural place next to a game reserve. it is easier ti sea a fish eagle than to download a game

        Liked by 1 person

      8. It must come from your connection. There’s got to be an error during download and that messes up with the entire install. Otherwise you’d get a detailed error message.
        You’re using the mint package manager GUI, right ?

        Liked by 1 person

      9. Mint uses Synaptic and that always just works, ditto Ubuntui-ish distros but the Arches are the ones thal allways fail, every time. When it’s too late, it gives some error message no average user will ever understand. Arch is for people that have no life beyond Linux, it seems.

        Liked by 1 person

      10. I don’t know… I have a life beyond linux ^_^
        If you shared your error message with me, perhaps I could help. Do you still run Arch ? If so, which package manager is having issues ? Yay, pacman… ?

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      11. Pacman, always Pacman. And Discover doesn’t even show packages. I deleted all my Arch-ish ISO’s. Tooe many Arch-fans annoyed me ad nauseum by their air of superiority which is why I wrote two blog posts about it, you’re the only kind one I’ve ever met

        Liked by 1 person

      12. I don’t know why all archers think they should be superior… It’s ridiculous. Anyway, let’s do this. Next time you have this issue, send me the error message and I’ll do some research about it to see if I can fix that for you.

        Liked by 1 person

      14. Manjaro is a nice compromise. It is stable and easy to install, I used it for many long months and had a great experience, generally. I don’t like its gui package manager but it does the job when the terminal is not an option, I suppose.

        Liked by 1 person

      19. Indeed you were angry ^_^ I get that though. You’re even making some good points. Most people just want something that works, which is why mint or ubuntu are amazing at what they do. They work straight out of the box. Personally, I love that arch doesn’t, but then I wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone. I’d just say this : be happy with what you have/use. No need to be on Arch to prove a point or be happy. We’re all Linux users in the end 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      20. Yes, Linux isn’t even an OS, it’s just a kernel thta makes hardware calls. The desktop, package manager, etc’, is what makes it an OS. I guess the Arch fun is in making your own and then getting it to work.

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      21. Yes, the whole things is GNU / Linux. Most people don’t know that though. Too busy ricing their desktop xD
        Something I love as a Linux user is to always keep making my life easier, improving my workflow, using less ram… Arch and window managers allow me to do that better. I feel more free with arch, since I do everything manually. There’s less magic in the background.

        Liked by 1 person

      24. Since I left 2 comments on your site and it just won’t accept them, here is my answer to your post :
        « Congrats for re-trying!
        I left a comment but apparently it hasn’t worked, so I’m leaving a second… So, 2 things : you need to exercise in VirtualBox, ideally. This way you won’t lose anything. Secondly, you need to re-design your partition scheme. By that I mean that Arch only needs about 25 GB for the /root partition and a few GB for /boot/EFI (if you even need the EFI). So resize your partitions with either cfdisk or Gparted (the latter comes with a GUI interface) and you’re good 😉 »

        Liked by 1 person

      25. I use Gparted or the slightly better KDEParted yet Arch calls for a GPT boot partition instead of MBR. GPT is newer and allows for a few ZB of data.

        The commenting problem is WordPress having their ridiculous Unhappiness Engineers at work, a problem ever since they forced the ludicrous Block Editor on us. We owe them a march…….

        Liked by 1 person

      26. I hope this issue gets solved quickly for you (regarding the comments) 😉
        regarding your partitions, I recommend you try reading the wiki real thoroughly , cause the arch-wiki is a gold mine. There also must be some videos out there about partitioning, on YouTube. Hopefully…

        Liked by 1 person

      30. Alright, then YouTube it is. Fortunately there’s plenty of help out there ^_^ If you did run into any big issue during the install, don’t forget you still have your phone to do the research bit 😉

        Liked by 1 person

      33. no, not yet, I have wayyyy too much to do today. I don’t even get to burn my Manjaro MATE to USB for a test drive. I am trying to get to earn a few $$$ after Covid-19 as we lost all we had.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. It was meant to read “to revisit” but my Lenovo’s keyboard tries to beat me at writing………..I even disabled the touchpad, to no avai. It does it in every distro as well as Windows 10.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The problem may well come from your computer, not from your operating system / programs managing the keyboard. Could you try and describe in more details the problem you have ?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I also suspect the computer. Because of disability, I type in an awkward position and my right arm touches the right corner of the laptop. Just where “Thinkpad” is written; that is where the trouble happens. It copies, cuts and pastes text at will then.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I don’t believe the error would come from your hand, whichever position you write in. You would have noticed. It leaves you with the mechanical issue, which is much more problematic…

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I have noticed………….but still don’t know why a presumed heat transfer far from a keyboard does that. Usually, I would have used an external keyboard, which I don’t have now, sadly.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Heat transfer ? I wouldn’t imagine that to be the problem… No something must be messed up on your keyboard. It’s weird… Is your thinkpad old ? Usually these PCs are super resistant to everything…

        Liked by 1 person

      5. The Thinkpas is an Edge E540 with a Haswell i7 Quad core so it must be “old” by now. Yet otherwise like new, 8GB DDR3, SSD, etc.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. I searched for this : “thinkpad edge e540 issues with keyboard” on google. You may want to explore the results.
        https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/HT080160
        https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-Edge-S-series/E540-Keyboard-not-working-properly/m-p/1633908
        https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Lenovo+Thinkpad+E540+Keyboard+Replacement/104107
        Now, if working with an external keyboard does not do it, there is also the options of asking a professional or buying a new one. I’m surprise you’d have an issue like this, the e540 has great reviews (proof that you never know what to expect with computers…)

        Liked by 1 person

      8. Thanks for your trouble, appreciated. I vaguely recall some latent defect, but I read that a year ago just after I had my 12 th stroke and then forgot about reading. I am a bit shy to admit that I had built thousands of computers with my two hands and repaired a few, but never had to repair a Lenovo.

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      9. I don’t mind at all, I wish I could do more 🙂 It’s impressive to be able to build and repair computers, I admire that 😉 I’ve never had to repair one myself, so… I dunno how hard it can be.

        Liked by 1 person

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