Completely New To Linux, Cannot Get Mint Cinnamon To Launch Dual Boot Install

Hi,

Before installing Linux Mint 17 to the entire HDD of my HP p2 1317cb desktop, it was running a preinstalled windows 8 OEM UEFI. After several failed attempts of dual booting(no grub menu and boots directly to the windows 8) i then decided to do a erase all and install Linux option. Now i have Linux Mint 17.1 working flawlessly, so far. What i want to now do is, dual boot a windows 7 installation alongside my Linux. Please advise on the best way to do this.
Thank You.

Note: Before doing a clean install of Linux i disabled secure boot,enabled legacy, and disabled fast boot.

Hello All. This is my first post here. I am worse than a newbie; I'm a PC dinosaur! Not joking either.
Recently got a Dell Inspiron 3048 with Windows 8.1 pre installed. As I am a die hard XP user (my other PC is a Dell Dimension 2400), and seeing that PC's days may be numbered, I want to start using Linux, and decided Mint 17.1 would be first on the list.
Ordered a Linux Mint 17.1 boot disk and went to install it. At the option for a dual boot with Windows, I got lost, and did not understand the "other" choice versus making Linux the only OS on the PC. I wound up wiping my HDD and lost contact with Windows 8.1. Fortunately, the Dell Tech I got at Dell Support was able to walk me through getting Windows back up, but the only way I can now access Mint 17.1 is with the boot disk, but there is no set up options as it is already set up, even though incorrectly for a dual boot.
How do I wipe out Linux without losing Windows 8.1 as well so I can re install Linux and this time make the correct selection for a dual boot?
Anyone willing to respond please do so small and slow so I can follow.
TIA.
BTW, I have tried installing Zorin OS 9 Ultimate on my XP machine via DVD and USB, but I can't get past the f1/f2 loop, even though I have reconfigured my boot sequence according to the drive I'm installing from. Zorin support has been MIA on this. Anyone having a similar problem?
Cheers

Did it again!

Last week, with help from this forum, I was able to install Linux Mint 17.1 dual boot with Windows 8.1. It worked so well, I decided to explore other Linux distros recommended by forum members as some I wanted to check out.

I was using Unetbootin to download and install these as live sessions on my Windows 8.1 partition.

On my last such download, something went wrong, and no doubt I caused the error, but no clue as to how.

When I opened up this PC, I got the normal dual boot option for Windows and Mint. When I selected Windows, I found an additional dual boot option between it and Unetbootin! Somehow I created a partition (?) on my C Drive for Unetbootin (see Thumbnail below).
This Unetbootin option only goes to a page for me to choose another OS. Further, when I rebooted, the Windows/Mint dual boot option no longer existed, just the Windows/Unetbootin one.

Been checking out various articles and websites about BCD/MBR repair, but nothing definitive (that I can understand) about modifying these to delete the Unetbootin partition and restoring the Windows/linux dual boot.

Naturally, this is a newbie land mine area, so I'm very reluctant to try anything I can't fully understand, which is the category everything I've Googled on this topic falls into.

Anyone know how I can resolve this short of a complete start over
installation based on steps that basically a PC fence post can follow?

TIA
Cheers!

I have a dual boot installation of Mint 17 Cinnamon (separate / & /home & swap partitions) along with WINXP (c: winxp, D: data on NTFS).

I am not happy with the cinnamon and want to install XFCE 17 (fresh download from mint website).

I have created 3-4 different usb sticks wwith the iso (thru unetbootin, YUMI, unisersal boot installer) and tried to install. The installation freezes on the second screen itself - after asking for the language, it just sits there and waits for something to happen. Tried this 3-4 times but it just keeps the wheel spinning. However, while I am trying this I am unable to use the laptop perfectly well. In fact, I am typing this while the the installation is trying to do something!

I will be very grateful for the help. I am not too well uquipped with the Linux command system and still rate myself as a newbie.

Hey guys. So I just went out and bought a Sager 8268-s (clevo p150sm-a) With an i7 4910mq and a Nvidia 980m gt. As I am a computer tech by trade, every time i see Windows i get horrible PTSD so i decided to try Linux instead. After many hours of trying to get a dual boot working finally got Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon installed on my computer, but when I went to install the Nvidia driver it landed me in fallback mode which I could not escape. So then I tried Ubuntu 14.04 LTS thinking maybe Mint was incompatible with the driver and the same thing happened.

So here is my method:

(sorry i don't know how to make a code box :/ )

First I log in to get root access:

$ su

Then I Update the xorg:

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

Then update my system:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then i go into Virtual terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F1) and disable the display manager:

$ sudo service mdm (or lightdm for Ubuntu) stop

Then i install the drivers which i have done multiple ways:

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

or

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-343 nvidia-settings

or by downloading the driver from Nvidia (first designating the file as executable)

$ sudo sh nvidia.run && sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings

Then after install, I create the config file:

$ sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then I reboot. After I get the low res mode in Ubuntu or fallback mode in Mint and Driver manager doesn't detect any proprietary drivers and I have to reinstall to get the OS working again. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone,
Recently, I installed Linux Mint 17 (Cinnamon) on my HP dv6 Laptop. During installation Linux was not detecting my original Windows 7 and was attempting to occupy the entire hard disk. So I used the "Something Else" option to manually create separate partitions for Linux (Previously I had allocated around 120 GB free space for Linux using Windows Disk Management). This installed the Linux but after booting it does not detect Windows 7 and directly boots to Mint. I have tried installing and updating the grub but it did not help either.
Please Help...

I am using linux mint and the grub menu gets configured automatically using scripts in /etc/grub.d. The menuentry that gets created is something like Code:

"linux mint (on /dev/sda1)"

. I use external drives sometimes and also have linux on my harddrive which I also switch between computers. It gets confusing when it says /dev/sda2 when it means something else. It boots fine because that actual boot command uses uuid. How can I change the text of the (script generated) description to also use partition labels or uuid (or the first few chars) just so I know which install will actually boot. like this: Code:

"Linux Mint (OFFICESSD)"
"Linux Mint (HOMEHDD)"
"Ubuntu (SANDISK)"
"Ubuntu (IMATION)"

I realise (maybe its the best way) I can change the "GRUB_TITLE=Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon 64-bit" in /etc/linuxmint/info but would rather a smoother way.

When I installed mint today from cd, I had to use the save-mode because of the nvidia card. So I was aware I had to change driver after install.

Right after install I checked these '10 thing to first do after install'.
http://itsfoss.com/things-to-do-afte...mint-16-petra/
I did these
Improve battery life
Change screensaver timing
Install RAR

Then I checked the driver manager to deal with the graphic driver. I tried all 3 in the driver manager, but with each mint crashes with this message right after login.

Quote:
cinnamon just crashed you are currently running in Fallback Mode
It asks if I want to restart, click 'yes' and it just refreshes the screen with the same message. click 'no' the message goes away but cinnamon does not work.

So I don't know if its crashing because of the driver or because of those things I changed after the install.

I googled some and this issue is all over linux forums, but I can't find a solution anywhere.

Since I have not found a solution to my intermittent boot problem I'm thinking of reinstalling Linux Mint, switching to a different Linux distribution, or turning back to the dark side, i.e. Windows. This was my first Linux install and I was really impressed with the OS and the applications. I like Linux Mint but I want a reliable computer and if I cannot even get it to boot properly then that's a long-term concern.

The problem with a reinstall of Linux Mint is that I don't know what to do differently. I don't know what, if anything, I did wrong the first time. Of course, switching to a different distribution is also a crap shoot since I don't know what went wrong with Mint. I don't really want to go back to Windows but it's been a stable, reliable OS for me for years.

Anyone have any advice?

I am trying to boot Linux Mint from an 8gb Sandisk USB. I changed my boot settings and it boots into what I believe is called grub? I am given two options, Boot Linux Mint, Boot Linux Mint (compatibility mode). When I select either of them all I get is a black screen. I've tried many things to get around this, messing with my graphics card settings (within grub), different USB's (another 8gb and a 32gb), I tried Ubuntu and that just doesn't boot at all I go straight back to my UEFI settings. I'm very new to Linux and I don't just want to hop in, I just want to boot from my USB whenever I want to play around with it. Thank You

Note: I'm running windows 8.1 currently on a ASUS N550JV laptop. I've been using the UUI from Pen Drive Linux.