Linuxmint katya live distro/ can't install as i can't make sense of Partition tool/

NeilGillespie

Hi Folks,

After buying the occasional Linux mag, and enjoying the open source movement values I decided to put linuxmint katya onto a desktop that I had Ubunto 13.0 on. Please note never got round to playing with ubunto so I am very much still a novice. I am CompTIA A + certified, and I have MTA in Server admin funds. Not massively qualified as you can see. Anyway I loved the look and feel of mint katya from the live distro and went ahead and tried to install. First I tried to install on virtual box, but it did not like the 64bit kernel. I then decided to install over ubunto on my desktop. Problem is I can't make head or tail of the Disk Partition tool. I was never very clued up on partitioning anyway and I guess it's time I did. All I want is a little help in understanding the partition tool and get linuxmint katya on my Desktop as it looks and feels just great from the live disk. I have tried to install but can't work out the partitioning at all. All help greatly appreciated. I also wandered if there is a possible bug in the distro and that I may be caught in a loop.

arochester

Do you get this screen?

If you choose "Erase Disk and install Linux Mint" this handles Partitioning automatically.

(Assuming you intend to install Linux Mint as the only OS)

NeilGillespie

No. I get a screen that ask's me how I want to partition my drive. It won't let me go forward after this point. Also get a message saying linuxmint needs a mount point. I shall try again soon and get back to you with my findings. I am just really pleased to get help from a Linux expert.

NeilGillespie

I think I did get that screen, but some how I can't or don't get offered this now. Seem's to want me to partition or choose partitions myself. I was never very good at this in windows and Linux seems to be the same idea. Primary partitions, extended, etc mean not a lot to me. It seems to want a boot file, perhaps. Like a boot master record. ( yay I remembered, as was doing this last night).

arochester

The screenshot I posted says "This computer currently has no detected operating system".

I wonder if the install detects the presence of Ubuntu and does not know whether to keep it or remove it.

Maybe Ubuntu should be removed first by formatting the Hard Drive by using Gparted to say fat32, before installation.

NeilGillespie

Ok. Where do I find Gparted? Thanks. Your help is very much appreciated. I don't know if you are in the UK, but Linux user live distro dvd this month had a rescue program on the Dvd that came with the mag?, I wander if Gparted is on there? It would be the latest Distro's DvD with the uk edition of Linux user.

Thanks.

NeilGillespie

have located and downloaded gparted. Shall give it a try tomorrow. Thanks again.

NeilGillespie

Instead of getting the very screen you printed, after I enter my name , choose region, keyboard, gparted comes up. I have set it to partition whole drive as fat32. Hopefully after this mint will install. I will keep you posted.

mfillpot

You have been in the windows world for far too long, Linux based systems will not install in a fat, ntfs or any other windows based filesystem because they do not support proper simplified permissions. You will need to set the partition(s) to native linux based filesystems such as ext3, ext4, btrfs, resiserfs, etc..

I you want that computer to just contain Ubuntu then I recommend setting up a 8Gb swap partition and a single ext4 filesystem as / (root), that will work for now without having to fight with insufficient partitions. If you want a dual boot system then you would need to shrink the windows partitions, make a fat partition to share data between the two system then setup swap and ext4 partitions for ubuntu.

Swap is overflow memory for RAM similar to the paging file in windows except that the size is not dynamic so it will read and write faster and it does not get stored in a partition with data so it will not congest a usable partition.

NeilGillespie

installed yesterday morning. Awesome os. Thanks for your help.

NeilGillespie

I have just got Linux mint on the hard drive now. You mention Linux native files, I shall indeed have to get my head round those. I would have loved a dual boot sys of course, with ubunto. I shall do that soon. I just want to play around with my new os for awhile.

I have used windows for far too long

The gparted tool eventually did , from my understaning, just one massive fat32 file system on one massive partition, if that's possible. The hardest bit was it kept saying need mount point to boot. I could never get pas that until if formatted the drive then I clicked on the mount part of the gui, and it mounted.