How is 22.1 a stable version?

[moxican]

My PC is a Ryzen 5 1600 with a ASUS Prime B350 Plus motherboard, 32Gb Ram and Nvidia GeForce 1660. I installed Linux Mint 22.1 on a separate Kingston 240Gb SSD hard drive.
I downloaded Linux Mint 22.1 from linuxmint.com and verified the ISO file as per instructions. Furthermore, I've followed the instructions provided on the website step by step which allowed me to install Linux Mint on the SSD mentioned above.
This is a dual install as I have other hard drives on the system as well. Windows 10 x64 is installed on a separate 512GB Nvme M2 drive.

I decided to install Mint due to the fact that Win 11 is s**t and will run out of options this year with Win 10 as we all know, so I want something alternative, an operating system that won't spy on me or sell my private data to the highest bidder. My plan was to ease off from Windows into Mint over time, I'm ok with computers a little both hardware and software.

However, after installation I ran into a whole bunch of problem.
First off dual load menu simply does not load. By default it always wanted to load into Mint. Not good, as mentioned above I still need access to Win 10. The only way I could go around that is loading into BIOS and switch the primary drive to boot from. Since it was pretty tedious I decided to download Easy BCD 2.4 to create a dual boot option menu, which worked for a little while. But now it just hangs on the "press F2 or Del to enter BIOS" screen and can't even load into Windows. I had to pull the cable from the Linux SSD to be able to boot into Windows. Before this issue it was a hit or miss, like if I restarted the computer it would hang, but if I shut down and turn back on it would load a dual boot menu. Fast/secure boot is disabled in BIOS btw.

Secondly I had all sorts of instability issues. When I updated anything from the software manager I - in the most literal sense - had to leave the PC alone or else it would hang and then freeze. I mean I couldn't even use a browser or click on anything. It would just hang and freeze.

Pretty much all these problems seem to have arose in a random fashion more or less.
Now I am on my last leg here in terms of patience. I understand that no one is getting paid for this and Linux is a project that made by developers on their own time, but I do not understand how come that a program that is around for about 30 years now is still not stable enough for users who were not born with tiny transistors in their blood?

I've tried other Linux versions before, Raspbian, Debian... not user friendly at all...

So I guess my question is, can Linux Mint work or it's just another underdeveloped software that will crash and bug for the next 30 years? I am honestly asking this as I am not a big Windows fan...
Linux Mint was a last hope....

 

[Condobloke]

G'day moxican, Welcome to linux.org

I do not have access to figures on the forum re the number of dual booting....but from my experience there are a very significant number.

So, this begs the question...do you think it is possible that your poor opinion of Linux Mint 22.1, might be more related to the user than to the OS ?

I can understand your frustration...it must be immense.

Give those who are better versed than I am in dual booting a chance to examine what you have there, and make the appropriate suggestions.

To suggest that Debian is not user friendly, is probably not a good start

Does Linux Mint work?... Absolutely. It is the most popular and most downloaded OS on Distrowatch, and has an immense following on Reddit as well.

Personally, I have used mint for over 10 years and find it rock solid....which is why I stay with it.....and in case you are wondering I have zero transistors in my blood stream !

When I updated anything from the software manager I - in the most literal sense - had to leave the PC alone or else it would hang and then freeze

That is not the fault of the OS....otherwise the complaints would be astronomical.

This would suggest that the procedure followed to make the 'dual boot' part was faulty in some way or is still missing something.
i note that grub problems are an ongoing source of drama for many users. The p[roblem is really that said users do not know exactly how to set it up....not because Grub is at fault.

I will leave you with thesse few thoughts. Others will see that i have responded and follow on in their own time

Good Luck.

 

[Brickwizard]

Welcome
I ran mint from M3 up to M21 in multi-boot installations, It was more reliable than Microsoft [I changed to Mint LMDE because of increased Ubuntu bloat] If you have tried several different distributions and have the same problem it may be a user fault,
so.
Many Linux distributions are now said to be compatible with Windows secure boot, this is not always the case, for some reason odd machines still do not like multi-booting with it enabled so try disabling it
Windows has quick-start [fast-boot] this needs to be disabled and a full power re-boot before installing Linux [not re-start from the window's menu]
if your machine is cutting edge new, then you may be better off with MX-Linux with AHS.
I see you have a Kingston SSD, I run Kingston and have never had a problem with compatibility

Why Linux fails to load/install direct to HDD, common reasons

1] Corrupt download [check SHA sum]
2] bad burn to installation medium [try again] [if you used Rufus then try Balena Etcher]
3] Wind 8.2 and higher quick start/fast boot or secure boot not disabled [doesn't normally apply to older versions]
4] defective pen-drive/DVD
5] hardware fault,
5A] If old style HDD run integrity check
5B]if SATA SSD check for hidden partition at the beginning of drive [this will stop Grub from loading] and delete it before re-installing Linux
If New M2.NVMe check, your system is NVMe compatible [not all older kit is]

 

[moxican]

Welcome
I ran mint from M3 up to M21 in multi-boot installations, It was more reliable than Microsoft [I changed to Mint LMDE because of increased Ubuntu bloat] If you have tried several different distributions and have the same problem it may be a user fault,
so.
Many Linux distributions are now said to be compatible with Windows secure boot, this is not always the case, for some reason odd machines still do not like multi-booting with it enabled so try disabling it
Windows has quick-start [fast-boot] this needs to be disabled and a full power re-boot before installing Linux [not re-start from the window's menu]
if your machine is cutting edge new, then you may be better off with MX-Linux with AHS.
I see you have a Kingston SSD, I run Kingston and have never had a problem with compatibility

Why Linux fails to load/install direct to HDD, common reasons

1] Corrupt download [check SHA sum]
2] bad burn to installation medium [try again] [if you used Rufus then try Balena Etcher]
3] Wind 8.2 and higher quick start/fast boot or secure boot not disabled [doesn't normally apply to older versions]
4] defective pen-drive/DVD
5] hardware fault,
5A] If old style HDD run integrity check
5B]if SATA SSD check for hidden partition at the beginning of drive [this will stop Grub from loading] and delete it before re-installing Linux
If New M2.NVMe check, your system is NVMe compatible [not all older kit is]

Thanks for the reply. On that note:

1. Done that...
2. First time I tried Rufus, it did not work. I've used Balena Etcher before and it worked without issues.
3. It is disabled
4. Not defective, use it all the time, no issues
5a. N/A
5b. I am not sure. Before installing Linux Mint on the SSD, I made sure that the entire hard drive was wiped clean and there were no partitions. It should be a clean Linux install then, correct?
Right now I am unable to look into partitions, as the only way for my PC to boot up is disconnecting that very SSD from the motherboard. Otherwise it will just hang on the "press F2 or Del" message.

 

[dos2unix]

Right now I am unable to look into partitions, as the only way for my PC to boot up is disconnecting that very SSD from the motherboard. Otherwise it will just hang on the "press F2 or Del" message.

That's pretty normal for a computer with no OS installed.

You can always try a different distro and see if you have better luck.

Thread 'Using "Live" version of Linux.'

Feb 8, 2025

What's a live version of Linux? Are some versions dead? Hmmm... that could be a trick question.

In this case, all "Live" means is, that you can run it from a USB thumb drive. You don't actually have to install it to your hard drive.

If you go to a site like

DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

News and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions.

distrowatch.com

... and you look at the list on the right side of the page, you will see a list of 100 Linux distro's. The list doesn't show "the most popular".
It shows which distro pages got the most hits recently. The list changes order from time to time, and the distro that got the most hits last week...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 11
• Forum: Getting Started

• 

 

[MikeWalsh]

@moxican :-

The other thing, of course, is that the usual dual-boot install procedure assumes you want to run two or more OSs from the same drive. You're talking about multiple drives, each with their own dedicated OS.....yes?

@Brickwizard / @dos2unix :-

Refresh my memory, willya guys? Is GRUB2 sufficiently "with it" to recognize multiple OSs that are spread across multiple drives? Does 'os-prober' recognize them as such? (We use a custom, 'patched' Grub4DOS - the old 'legacy' GRUB, basically, re-written for Puppy.......and thus I haven't had a lot of experience with GRUB2.)

I know it's easy enough to add your own boot entries to GRUB2 - "chainloading" 'em, usually - but I've never been at all sure if GRUB2 will handle that kind of setup automatically...

(shrug...)


Mike.

 

[Brickwizard]

Refresh my memory,

let's put it this way, I have spent the weekend downloading pre-school videos for my GGd. MY HP prodesk has a Kingston NVMe, a SATA plate spinner inside for storage, I also had a 500gb SSD connected via SATA to usb3 cable, and a USB2 pen-drive for the final product to hand over. Everyone was recognised without a problem when i switched off to go to the doctors and when i switched back on when i returned