Is setting up Mint supposed to be this hard?
Is setting up Mint supposed to be this hard?
I heard Mint is supposed to be the simplest distro to get started with but my experience so far (following the setup guide on the website) has been:
- Download ISO
- Check ISO (seemed fine)
- Burn image... crash
- Burn image in administrator mode
- Boot from USB via BIOS... crash
- Boot from USB via Bios in safe mode
- Download multimedia codecs... crash
- Not download multimedia codecs... also crash?
And that's where I am presently, it runs fine off the USB albeit a bit slow, and I know its connected to the internet because I can browse lemmy on it and make annoying posts on the Linux community. I knew Linux was going to be more work than windows but this feels like a ridiculous level of effort right out of the gate, I worry that even if I somehow get it running I'll spend 10x more time fixing it than actually using it.
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sounds like the machine has an issue like bad ram/failing hd or something.. ive installed mint on hundreds of machines with random hardware and never had these issues...
what machine did you make the stick with that crashed?
Yup, get a recovery/tool ISO and run a memory test.
Doesn't The Linux Mint ISO also offer to run Memtest86+?
Otherwise: https://memtest.org/
I've never installed Mint, but I've had a patriot memory stick go bad, and the RMA process involved sending both sticks to Patriot. Never buying from that garbage company again...
I have a bunch of there SSD's and they have been working fine for a few years. Not super performant but they also have been reliable especially for the cost.
I think computer ram is just easily damaged in shipping.
Memtest is quite shit, seriously unstable ram will still pass. If it doesn't pass memtest it's actually dead.
Can you recommend a better solution?
The last time I've used it, it well identified the addresses of the RAM blocks that were broken.Sadly most good tools are windows only but: OCCT, karhu Ram test and testmem5 (anta extreme config) Are all good choices, but id usually recommend running more than 1.
I followed the instructions to use Etcher, etcher itself crashed but it was a pretty easy fix running it in administrator mode and apparently a known issue. Its weird because the live preview works fine. The stick was made on the same machine I'm trying to install linux on.
that definitely indicates some kind of hardware failure
etcher sucks ass. I read about it even breaking usb sticks, I've had it fail the flashing too multiple times. in mint I use the preinstalled usb flashing tool, in other distros popsicle and in windows rufus.
Reporting back, rufus fucked it up even more, laptop is now bricked. I know y'all are gonna say it has nothign to do with Linux but it was working perfectly for years right up until today when I tried to install Mint.
(Bricked as in boots up but won't boot to the Linux preview OR windows, possibly salvagable with a windows boot stick but currently a paperweight)
This sounds like a hardware issue. Did you get to the installer phase? Linux don't touch your disk until you hit install and then confirm.
I've tried Etcher many times and I feel like I've had issues every time, unfortunately. I don't remember the exact issues, but I recall both having problems with writing ISOs and with booting them. I would highly recommend Rufus instead, which has been much more consistent for me.