Jump to content

Installing linux mint ZERO EXPERIENCE

DirtyBirdX
 Share
Go to solution Solved by DirtyBirdX,
On 5/4/2025 at 5:14 PM, Thomas53 said:

Are you installing Linux onto a new drive, replacing the present OS, or dual booting?

 

If you have more than 1 physical drive, it's always best to remove them to ensure that your installing on the correct drive. If you can't, such as having 2 NVME drives or in a laptop with 2 NVME drives and quite honestly even if you do, double check to ensure that you're installing on the correct drive, as mistakes here can and have happened to others on more than one occasion.

 

Before installation, boot into your BIOS and turn secure boot off, as there are some Linux distributions that won't bypass it.

 

If, dual booting, the installer will automatically find the correct drive, determine the best amount of available space for installation and take care of everything without any user interaction required. HOWEVER, you still have the ability to make any changes as you desire, but in most cases none are required.

 

All that is needed is to follow a few onscreen directions and get a cup of coffee and relax until the installation is finished.

If you're online, any updates will be downloaded and installed. Some of the installations will not finish until you reboot.

If not, you can download and install them afterwards, but doing it all at once is faster.

 

Before you reboot REMOVE THE USB STICK, AS IT REBOOT INTO THE BIOS  AS IT CAN'T FIND ALL THE FILES NECESSARY.

 

If, you rebooted with the stick in, TAKE IT OUT, and reboot and see if it works, as that is most often the solution.

 

If not, with the computer off, replace the stick and by using the proper key combination, choose the USB stick to reinstall following the directions above.

 

If it fails, here, you'll need to redownload Linux and burn the new ISO onto the stick.

 

***

 

BTW: for anyone interested, these instruction work with any Linux distribution, which is why I kept it general instead of referring to a particular distribution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally fixed it. I had to remove the cmos and redo everything from scratch. Not entirely sure what caused the entire system to break but i got it up and running and have been setting it up to my liking. Definitely a huge learning curve and I can see why even with the stat of windows currently why most people would never install linux. It really isnt a smooth experience and kinda makes the computer feel like a chore when im just trying to do simple tasks. Like figuring out how to pin common used apps to the start menu. Im gonna stick with it and learn more about it and hopefully it starts to become second nature.

Posted (edited)

I was attempting to install linux mint on my pc that was running windows 11. I have never used linux and wanted to get away from windows after the 50th time it asked me to use onedrive. 
 

I followed steps online and everything actually went smoothly. I created a usb drive to boot it from and after changing some settings in bios it did in fact boot into linux. I attempted to use the installer that was on the desktop of mint and when I got the end of setup it kept having an error and wanted me to force quit it. I did some research and tried turning off secure boot and fast boot.

 

now my pc won’t boot into anything but the bios and when I try to change the boot order I get “something is seriously wrong” and it turns off after a few moments. I am not an expert by any means and have no idea what is going on now. I am a big gammer and have general knowledge on how to fix typical issues and hardware problems but I do not know what I’m doing in bios or how to fix this. 
 

all I want is linux to run off the ssd in the pc and not have windows installed anymore. 
 

I'm using a 3070 with a newer intel chip( can’t recall exactly what it is as its my buddies old pc and i never bothered to check) I have a 1tb ssd installed and using anMSI motherboard. I have 32gb ram. 
 

p.s. I know that this failure is most likely my fault but dang I fell that more people would be willing to switch to linux if windows didn’t make it so complicated. Hopefully it’s smoother in the future for others. 

Edited by DirtyBirdX
typo
Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1610985-installing-linux-mint-zero-experience/
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
3 minutes ago, DirtyBirdX said:

I did some research and tried turning of secure boot and fast boot.

Secure boot isn't friendly with Linux though modern high level distributions can work with it. I suggest to keep it off (it is only really required by Windows for security).

 

5 minutes ago, DirtyBirdX said:

it kept having an error and wanted me to force quit it

Would have been better to tell us what the error was. Having secure enabled still should have worked on Linux Mint.

 

Can you not go into the boot menu, and select your USB drive to boot into?

PLEASE MARK COMMENTS AS SOLUTION IF SATISFIED!!

bigger number better, makes me look cooler.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
11 minutes ago, Haswellx86 said:

Secure boot isn't friendly with Linux though modern high level distributions can work with it. I suggest to keep it off (it is only really required by Windows for security).

 

Would have been better to tell us what the error was. Having secure enabled still should have worked on Linux Mint.

 

Can you not go into the boot menu, and select your USB drive to boot into?

Sorry, I meant i disabled secure boot and fast boot. I redid it and here is the error code  I get:

 

   Failed to open \EFI\BOOT\mmx64.efi - not found

   Failed to load image ??: Not found

   Failed to start MokManager: Not found

   Something has gone seriously wrong: import_mok_state() failed: Not found

 

I did try to go and boot from it but it doesnt appear to be working anymore. Nothing seems to work other than accessing the BIOS

 

Also, as I said before, I dont know what  im doing and may have moved the boot drives around or messed some other settings up. Would this affect anything serious? And if so how would i reset them to their proper order if i dont know which order to put them?

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Are you installing Linux onto a new drive, replacing the present OS, or dual booting?

 

If you have more than 1 physical drive, it's always best to remove them to ensure that your installing on the correct drive. If you can't, such as having 2 NVME drives or in a laptop with 2 NVME drives and quite honestly even if you do, double check to ensure that you're installing on the correct drive, as mistakes here can and have happened to others on more than one occasion.

 

Before installation, boot into your BIOS and turn secure boot off, as there are some Linux distributions that won't bypass it.

 

If, dual booting, the installer will automatically find the correct drive, determine the best amount of available space for installation and take care of everything without any user interaction required. HOWEVER, you still have the ability to make any changes as you desire, but in most cases none are required.

 

All that is needed is to follow a few onscreen directions and get a cup of coffee and relax until the installation is finished.

If you're online, any updates will be downloaded and installed. Some of the installations will not finish until you reboot.

If not, you can download and install them afterwards, but doing it all at once is faster.

 

Before you reboot REMOVE THE USB STICK, AS IT REBOOT INTO THE BIOS  AS IT CAN'T FIND ALL THE FILES NECESSARY.

 

If, you rebooted with the stick in, TAKE IT OUT, and reboot and see if it works, as that is most often the solution.

 

If not, with the computer off, replace the stick and by using the proper key combination, choose the USB stick to reinstall following the directions above.

 

If it fails, here, you'll need to redownload Linux and burn the new ISO onto the stick.

 

***

 

BTW: for anyone interested, these instruction work with any Linux distribution, which is why I kept it general instead of referring to a particular distribution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
  • Solution
On 5/4/2025 at 5:14 PM, Thomas53 said:

Are you installing Linux onto a new drive, replacing the present OS, or dual booting?

 

If you have more than 1 physical drive, it's always best to remove them to ensure that your installing on the correct drive. If you can't, such as having 2 NVME drives or in a laptop with 2 NVME drives and quite honestly even if you do, double check to ensure that you're installing on the correct drive, as mistakes here can and have happened to others on more than one occasion.

 

Before installation, boot into your BIOS and turn secure boot off, as there are some Linux distributions that won't bypass it.

 

If, dual booting, the installer will automatically find the correct drive, determine the best amount of available space for installation and take care of everything without any user interaction required. HOWEVER, you still have the ability to make any changes as you desire, but in most cases none are required.

 

All that is needed is to follow a few onscreen directions and get a cup of coffee and relax until the installation is finished.

If you're online, any updates will be downloaded and installed. Some of the installations will not finish until you reboot.

If not, you can download and install them afterwards, but doing it all at once is faster.

 

Before you reboot REMOVE THE USB STICK, AS IT REBOOT INTO THE BIOS  AS IT CAN'T FIND ALL THE FILES NECESSARY.

 

If, you rebooted with the stick in, TAKE IT OUT, and reboot and see if it works, as that is most often the solution.

 

If not, with the computer off, replace the stick and by using the proper key combination, choose the USB stick to reinstall following the directions above.

 

If it fails, here, you'll need to redownload Linux and burn the new ISO onto the stick.

 

***

 

BTW: for anyone interested, these instruction work with any Linux distribution, which is why I kept it general instead of referring to a particular distribution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally fixed it. I had to remove the cmos and redo everything from scratch. Not entirely sure what caused the entire system to break but i got it up and running and have been setting it up to my liking. Definitely a huge learning curve and I can see why even with the stat of windows currently why most people would never install linux. It really isnt a smooth experience and kinda makes the computer feel like a chore when im just trying to do simple tasks. Like figuring out how to pin common used apps to the start menu. Im gonna stick with it and learn more about it and hopefully it starts to become second nature.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I've only done about half as many as Thomas53 but do have a bit of experience.

 

Turn TPM OFF.

 

What make of desktop is it?

 

A few more apps I always install from the Software Manager -

Audacious for sound items

Audacity if sound/music files need editing

gThumb for quick picture editing, cropping, B&W, contrast etc.

VLC for video display

 

Default items changed from Celluloid to Audacious for sound, VLC for video.

 

The right hand side of the Panel / Task Bar, change the date and time display to British, day, month and Time hours, minutes, seconds.

 

A very good discussion forum for Linux Mint -

https://forums.linuxmint.com/

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Linux, macOS and Everything Not-Windows

×