(Solved)Can't install Linux Mint on my Dell Inspiron 5400 AIO Windows 10

[Shakjerky]

I'm at my wits end, I have a nice Dell Inspiron 5400 AIO, 1TB SSD, 11th gen i7, 2.80ghz, 16GB ram, etc, and want to lose the windows spyware, but I can't install Mint via USB drive. To make sure my USB is good I installed Mint on one of my other laptops no problem. My tech friend told me to format my hard drives, but the option is grayed out, even in safe mode. I have zero clue what to do, any help is appreciated...again, noob, so go easy.

Trey

 

[kc1di]

will it run the live usb without problems?
If yes please give us the output of this terminal command

inxi -Fxxxzr

 

[Shakjerky]

will it run the live usb without problems?

I don't know what "live usb" is, but usb's do work fine. I get the Linux Mint started, even the logo come us, but then start getting error messages, then just reverts to the blinking cursor top left

 

[kc1di]

So you never get to the desktop? The live usb is the one you burned from the .iso file. It should boot to a live desktop from which you can install mint. Do you know what graphics card is being used in that machine. Nvidia, Intell or other?

 

[Shakjerky]

So you never get to the desktop? The live usb is the one you burned from the .iso file. It should boot to a live desktop from which you can install mint. Do you know what graphics card is being used in that machine. Nvidia, Intell or other?

No, never to the Linux Mint desktop, just the logo. I used Etcher to burn the ISO to the USB, it works as I installed Mint on another system to double check. the graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce MX330

Update: found the option in my bios to erase all the hard drives, going to see if this works.
it's going on one hour and it's still just going through the same motions, wonder how long I should wait?

 

[kc1di]

No, never to the Linux Mint desktop, just the logo. I used Etcher to burn the ISO to the USB, it works as I installed Mint on another system to double check. the graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce MX330

Update: found the option in my bios to erase all the hard drives, going to see if this works...

Unfortunately the formatting of the HD will most likely not work but what you need to do is follow the instructions found in the release notes. found here (Scroll down to the section on Solving freezes during the boot sequence )

Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon Release Notes - Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system.

linuxmint.com

 

[Shakjerky]

Unfortunately the formatting of the HD will most likely not work but what you need to do is follow the instructions found in the release notes. found here (Scroll down to the section on Solving freezes during the boot sequence )

I'll certainly try the ideas in the link, damn computer is still 'erasing the internal SATA drives', two hours so far as of this post, lol.

 

[unprepar3D]

I think what you are doing is not formating them but "safe-erasing" them. Copy new data over the old to make it unrecoverable, you dont need that (for installing linux)

 

[Shakjerky]

I think what you are doing is not formating them but "safe-erasing" them. Copy new data over the old to make it unrecoverable, you dont need that (for installing linux)

I've tried everything, this is why i'm trying erase. But if I get this computer cooperating, I'll proceed in the normal way, per the video card troubleshooting...darn new PC's, not wanting to let go of that garbage Windows

 

[Shakjerky]

Unfortunately the formatting of the HD will most likely not work but what you need to do is follow the instructions found in the release notes. found here (Scroll down to the section on Solving freezes during the boot sequence )

I was able to start the install, then had to reboot, back to nothing again.I know it's not Linux, it's my damn PC. about sick of of all this

 

[kc1di]

I was able to start the install, then had to reboot, back to nothing again.I know it's not Linux, it's my damn PC. about sick of of all this

Don't give up it will work out eventually. You may need to use the Mint edge image as your hardware is quite new.

you can find it here. https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4273

Download here https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/edge.html

 

[Shakjerky]

Don't give up it will work out eventually. You may need to use the Mint edge image as you hardware is quite new.

i’ll try tomorrow and report back. thanks

 

[Brickwizard]

Morning, any luck?
My first thoughts are that as your machine is so new there may be a compatibility of hardware and Linux due to lack of updated drivers [it takes quite a while for the lads working on Kernel to back engineer them]
you may not like this suggestion, but try MX-Linux 21 AHS it probably contains the most comprehensive set of new drivers

Download Links – MX Linux

mxlinux.org

 

[Shakjerky]

Morning, any luck?
My first thoughts are that as your machine is so new there may be a compatibility of hardware and Linux due to lack of updated drivers [it takes quite a while for the lads working on Kernel to back engineer them]
you may not like this suggestion, but try MX-Linux 21 AHS it probably contains the most comprehensive set of new drivers

Download Links – MX Linux

mxlinux.org

I'l try anything other than Windows. Downloading Edge Cinnamon, I'll try that, if that doesn't work I'll try your suggestion. As long as I get some kind of Linux I'm, sure I can go from there

 

[kc1di]

I'l try anything other than Windows. Downloading Edge Cinnamon, I'll try that, if that doesn't work I'll try your suggestion. As long as I get some kind of Linux I'm, sure I can go from there

keeping our fingers crossed for you You will still need to follow the steps from before to get it to boot with Nvidia.

 

[Shakjerky]

Looks like I may have finally figured it out, should I leave this post for a reference on how an idiot like me troubleshot?

I installed Edge Mint 20.3, so far so good. I was scared to reboot, the initial reboot after install, but it booted up. There was a dark blue page, said Perform MOK management at the top, in the middle was a box with four options: Continue boot, enroll MOK, enroll key from the disk, enroll has from the disk. I hit 'continue boot, is this correct? yes it booted, but if I hit a different selection will I avoid this screen at reboot?

* I hit the LM logo on the bottom left, and or hover over the icons on the bottom and it's all symbols. My friend said it's a corrupt download, reinstall, so I did, the symbols went away, but now my software manager won't work.."E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem..."E:_cache>open() failed, please report", turns out I couldn't get the update manager to cooperate, so I restarted, oops, there were updates going on, and this the reason for the error.

So I installed Edge 20.2, but ran the update manager immediately and let it finish, so far everything is going good. Said there's the 20.3 update...I'm scared to do it, lol.

Anywho, this seems to be just a noob trying to figure it out, but thanks to this forum I was able to figure it out...so far.