dual boot and trying a different Linux flavor

P

paulmars

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I just tried Mint again and its still not up to what I need. So, can I install another linux to replace Mint and not loose my win7?

2, 3, and 5 years ago, I tried linux and once I realized it did not do what i needed, I tried to remove it (taking advice from the forums) and I lost access to win7. I dont want that to happen again.

How should I proceed?

pa
 


I just tried Mint again and its still not up to what I need. So, can I install another linux to replace Mint and not loose my win7?

2, 3, and 5 years ago, I tried linux and once I realized it did not do what i needed, I tried to remove it (taking advice from the forums) and I lost access to win7. I dont want that to happen again.

How should I proceed?

pa
Reinstalling Linux on top of Linux without touching the Windows partition should not affect Windows. By just removing Linux, also removed the Grub setup, and thus you lost access to the Windows partition. In that case you would need to restore the default MBR.

Hopefully you have a separate partition for /home. That way you can reinstall any Linux Distro without destroying your /home data.
 
that might work, but did not 2 or 3 years ago with xp and mint, with xp and ubuntu, with xp and Debian. So, Im not to eager to try again.

this forum is more trouble that any i have ever used. 3rd issue, it says now that I cant post with a link. So, I changed to quoted links to XXXXXXXXXXX

im still getting this error, so i will delete the entire quote.
The following error occurred:
Sorry, you were not able to save since the content contained a link

For this Forum, before you can create content with links, you must first meet the minimum requirements

Minimum Requirements
The number of posts you have created must exceed: 4 (Yours: 3)
The number of Likes you've received must exceed: 0 (Yours: 0)
The Like:post Ratio must exceed: 0% (Yours: 0%)
The number of days you have been registered must exceed: -1 (Yours: 0)
 
Yes, when you first joined you cannot post links. You have to be here x amount of days and you have to write a post that someone will click the "like" button. What I did when I needed to reference an outside source (you can link to pages on Linux.org , but no outside links) I just wrote what some should search for in their search engine.

I also installed Mint and it was not what I needed (this was about 3 weeks ago). I installed Debian. I did not un-install Mint, I just destroyed those partitions that were assigned to Mint and re-did the partitioning for my Debian install. When you get to the end of the install, it will ask if you want grub in your mbr, say yes and it will re-write grub to list both your Windows partition and Linux. When you boot up it will show whatever distro of Linux you have and your Windows 7. Linux will be first, so if you want to boot into Windows you need to highlight it within, I think, 30 seconds.
 
Yes, when you first joined you cannot post links. You have to be here x amount of days and you have to write a post that someone will click the "like" button.

then the quote option (reply) should be grayed out. Why invite me to quote (reply), just to hit me with that msg?
 
I also installed Mint and it was not what I needed (this was about 3 weeks ago). I installed Debian. I did not un-install Mint, I just destroyed those partitions that were assigned to Mint and re-did the partitioning for my Debian install. When you get to the end of the install, it will ask if you want grub in your mbr, say yes and it will re-write grub to list both your Windows partition and Linux. When you boot up it will show whatever distro of Linux you have and your Windows 7. Linux will be first, so if you want to boot into Windows you need to highlight it within, I think, 30 seconds.

Did u do this using the installer managed partitioning function, or did u do it manually during install?
 
Will Debian do what I need? My issues with Mint:
txt files with just a few lines of text take 10 seconds to open. Every tab shows a vertical line. Whenever i copy and paste from a txt file, I then need to remove these vertical lines. No option to not show these. If I close a txt file, then its text that I just copied, cant be pasted anywhere. I need to leave the txt file open to do a paste, then i can close it.

Both partition managers dont work. One every time says that my "pswd is wrong, but i can still make changes, but they wont be applied". No other place in mint that asks for my pswd says its wrong. The other partitioner says partition size 394g and says right next to that that the minimum size that I can set is 394g. So, it will let me resize 394g to 394g. That makes NO sense.

Last straw is that the rename function in both file managers is grayed when i select more then one file. My work load requires renaming groups of picture jpgs.

Each issue i spent one or more hours online looking for but not finding a solution. Most i spent several hours on. Sorry for the rant, maybe no linux version is for me. I keep hearing more and more ppl using it right out of the box....oh well
 
Hmm, it's really hard for me to tell without looking at your screen. I didn't care for Mint, myself, but I think it would be a good starting point for new users that just want a computer set up and get to work.

What text editor are you using? I would like to emulate what you're doing and try it on my computer and see what happens.

I used the partition manager during set up and did a manual partitions (both on Mint and for Debian) Debian was a bit more complicated as I have two drives in my laptop and wanted certain directories on the second disk. Debian has a "guided" install that is much more intuitive (for me) than Mint's was. Since you are doing a dual boot, you will need to do some form of manual partitioning, or you'll lose your Windows partition. Debian allowed me to use the old partitions (you have to delete them) and I know from that point there is a guided install with the free space available on the HDD. When you first get to the partitioning, you need to delete your old partitions, then do the guided install. It will give you the option of installing everything on one partition, or to separate your /home and then it give you the option to partition your /home /var /usr and /tmp directories. The partition manager does it for you.

I don't know what to tell you about renaming multiple files at once, I know you can do it via the command line and can point you to some online tutorials if you like.

Don't give up! Linux is different than Windows, so you have to be prepared to sort of "un-learn" Windows in order to understand linux.

Here are the command line tutorials that I mentioned:
Start with this one
http://ryanstutorials.net/linuxtutorial/
Then
http://ryanstutorials.net/bash-scripting-tutorial/

if you don't like those (I really enjoyed them) go to
LinuxCommand.org

Let me know if this helps.
 
One thing you might do is install Oracle's Virtual Box and create a few VM's in order to see the distributions and to get an idea of how partitioning works. It's doesn't quite work to emulate a dual boot, but you do get practice doing manual partitioning. A lot of people recommend using the live CD to check out different distros, and that is a wonderful idea if you just want to check it out. But to get a handle on partitioning, especially for that distribution, doing it by a Virtual Machine you get practice and by practicing you learn a lot more. You also get a chance (like in the live CD) to use the OS without having to touch your existing set up.

Here is a great tutorial on how to create a VM using Oracle's Virtual Box. You don't really need to burn the iso to a CD or DVD, I just downloaded the iso and pointed the CD/DVD drive to the distribution iso. (It will be in the "Storage" step in the following tutorial)

http://www.linux.org/threads/an-introduction-to-oracles-virtual-box-vbox.5018/
 
I don't know if you solved your issues, and I do hope you'll be coming back to and be involved in the Linux.org community. I know how frustrating it can be to install and learn Linux. But, if you keep at it, read everything and do some tutorials, you'll have a bunch of "Ah ha!" moments and things start to click. I was confused a lot in the beginning, but I kept on going and now I am finding and doing things much easier now that I understand some basics that were very much over my head 3 weeks ago. :eek:

I installed the MATE desktop yesterday and while poking around I found a tool that will solve your bulk renaming for your jpegs. It's called...Bulk Rename. :p I did not see this program on Gnome desktop (it might be there) but it's definitely on MATE.

It won't matter what distro you use as long as it's supports MATE for a desktop environment option, then you'll be able to bulk rename your jpegs.

I am still curious about your issue with the lines on your text editor. I tried it with gedit and I had no issues.
 
Will Debian do what I need? My issues with Mint:
txt files with just a few lines of text take 10 seconds to open. Every tab shows a vertical line. Whenever i copy and paste from a txt file, I then need to remove these vertical lines. No option to not show these. If I close a txt file, then its text that I just copied, cant be pasted anywhere. I need to leave the txt file open to do a paste, then i can close it.

Both partition managers dont work. One every time says that my "pswd is wrong, but i can still make changes, but they wont be applied". No other place in mint that asks for my pswd says its wrong. The other partitioner says partition size 394g and says right next to that that the minimum size that I can set is 394g. So, it will let me resize 394g to 394g. That makes NO sense.

Last straw is that the rename function in both file managers is grayed when i select more then one file. My work load requires renaming groups of picture jpgs.

Each issue i spent one or more hours online looking for but not finding a solution. Most i spent several hours on. Sorry for the rant, maybe no linux version is for me. I keep hearing more and more ppl using it right out of the box....oh well

I've used Mint as my primary OS for years, and I will help if I can. Some issues may not be Mint related and it may be hard to determine which is which.

Text files take a long time to open: Never experienced this. How much RAM do you have? Do you have a lot of other apps running at the same time? Are your text files excessively large?

Vertical line in TAB location in text files: Again, not happening on my Mint. I'm using Pluma and Gedit and neither show vertical lines like you describe. What text editor are you using?

Can't paste after closing text file: I opened text file, hightlighted and copied text and closed the file. Then I created new text file with both Pluma and Gedit, and both allowed me to paste in the text previously copied.

Partition manager and passwords: When Mint pops up a password request (for updates, or to run some apps like Gparted) it wants the root password, which may be different from your user password. If you know you're supplying the correct root password, then this is as strange as your text file issues.

Can't rename multiple files: That's right... you can't. It is not permitted (in any computer system) to give files in the same location the exact same name, and that is what you're trying to do. Or else I am misunderstanding your description. My assumption is that you are just CNTL-clicking or SHIFT-clicking to make a multiple selection, and then RIGHT-clicking to try to get the rename option.... if that worked, it would give them all the same name when you hit ENTER, so that is not possible... not with the default file manager in Mint.

What you need to do is a "batch rename" so that each of your files is modified in some way, such as a sequential number appended to the filename, or whatever. I'd guess there are many ways to do this, and one of the easiest may be to install and use the Thunar file manager. Please check out this article to see if it would suit your needs: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/bulk_renaming_thunar

You may have a damaged installation of Mint or something else giving you this many troubles. It is not the norm, and I'm sorry you have had such a bad experience. I know that can be a turn-off for anyone. I honestly think Mint is one of the easiest and most stable distros to use. I also like Debian, but it sometimes needs more tweaking to get everything working where Mint usually works better straight out of the box.

The best distro will be the one you like and use. If you don't want the time/trouble of re-installing a fresh copy of Mint, then try out some other "live DVD's" and check them out for a bit to see what appeals to you before you install something new. Its always a good idea to check the md5sum of the ISO file that you download before you burn it to disk... if the sums don't match, you could end up with problems like this, or it just won't run or install.

I hope you'll hang in there! There is a Linux for you too!
 
that might work, but did not 2 or 3 years ago with xp and mint, with xp and ubuntu, with xp and Debian. So, Im not to eager to try again.

this forum is more trouble that any i have ever used. 3rd issue, it says now that I cant post with a link. So, I changed to quoted links to XXXXXXXXXXX

im still getting this error, so i will delete the entire quote.
The following error occurred:
Sorry, you were not able to save since the content contained a link

For this Forum, before you can create content with links, you must first meet the minimum requirements

Minimum Requirements
The number of posts you have created must exceed: 4 (Yours: 3)
The number of Likes you've received must exceed: 0 (Yours: 0)
The Like:post Ratio must exceed: 0% (Yours: 0%)
The number of days you have been registered must exceed: -1 (Yours: 0)

Hopefully you can post links now!

Cheers!
 
[quote="ChristiW, post: 26630, member: 23659"

I installed the MATE desktop yesterday and while poking around I found a tool that will solve your bulk renaming for your jpegs. It's called...Bulk Rename. :p I did not see this program on Gnome desktop (it might be there) but it's definitely on MATE.

It won't matter what distro you use as long as it's supports MATE for a desktop environment option, then you'll be able to bulk rename your jpegs.

I am still curious about your issue with the lines on your text editor. I tried it with gedit and I had no issues.[/quote]

I found an app and installed it, so yes I can bulk rename. All it requires is that while Im processing the jpgs, that i open another app, drill down to the jpgs, then rename. Then close the app, and finish processing the jpgs. TMT and this still does not explain why 'rename' is in the menu, grayed out.

I dont know what to say. These txt files were created in xp and every one of them has this added bonus in mint. If I edit these files in mint by adding a tab, another line is created.

im sorry I have not been here much, but Im very busy. The computer is a workhorse, and I dont have a lot of time to tinker around.
 
I've used Mint as my primary OS for years, and I will help if I can. Some issues may not be Mint related and it may be hard to determine which is which.

How much RAM do you have?

3g

Do you have a lot of other apps running at the same time?

NO

Are your text files excessively large?

each less then characters.

Vertical line in TAB location in text files: Again, not happening on my Mint. I'm using Pluma and Gedit and neither show vertical lines like you describe. What text editor are you using?

the default one that opens when i dbl click a txt file.

Can't paste after closing text file: I opened text file, hightlighted and copied text and closed the file. Then I created new text file with both Pluma and Gedit, and both allowed me to paste in the text previously copied.

Partition manager and passwords: When Mint pops up a password request (for updates, or to run some apps like Gparted) it wants the root password, which may be different from your user password. If you know you're supplying the correct root password, then this is as strange as your text file issues.

I have one pswd.

Can't rename multiple files: That's right... you can't. It is not permitted (in any computer system) to give files in the same location the exact same name, and that is what you're trying to do.

I do in xp. It adds suffix 001, 002, 003, etc to each

You may have a damaged installation of Mint or something else giving you this many troubles. It is not the norm, and I'm sorry you have had such a bad experience. I know that can be a turn-off for anyone. I honestly think Mint is one of the easiest and most stable distros to use. I also like Debian, but it sometimes needs more tweaking to get everything working where Mint usually works better straight out of the box.

I suspect such. Id kinda maybe like to reinstall it. Can I do that and not loose access to xp?

p
 
I suspect such. Id kinda maybe like to reinstall it. Can I do that and not loose access to xp?

Yes, you should be able to overwrite your Mint installation with a fresh install... and not mess up your XP. But be sure to back up anything that is extremely important to you on first (on both XP and Mint). Stuff does go wrong sometimes, and you have to protect your important files.

Be sure to check the md5sum of the new Mint ISO that you download. If it doesn't match, don't install it.

You may need to do manual partitioning, so you will have to be careful with that if you do. If you have any questions or need more info let us know.
 

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