Upgrading Win7 to Linux Mint

[hilldweller]

Can't get my scanner to run it's an Plustek Opticbook 3800.

That's the only regular windows boot requirement for me, never got my Canon printer to scan things, so a quick swap to W7 and good old Irfanview does the job. Print works fine as a printer. I even found a Linux poster printer that takes and photo and prints it as two A4 pages to put in an A3 frame.

Yes, it does get a bit stressed to open a terminal but mostly it works due to the enormous support for Linux.

It's incredibly reliable.

I use firefox and thunderbird just as I did on windows. LibreOffice works for my simple needs.

 

[Gromett]

Well, completely wiped the disk last night and reinstalled Mint 19.3 but it stopped at the (initramfs) prompt again with this screen:-
View attachment 357931
I have looked at the disk from a live Mint from the stick but the syslog file Gromett wanted is not there only a binary file in the /mint/ folder, in the /var/logs/ folder there is mintsystem which is a text file which i can't attach but is below. Any suggestions gratefully received. I really don't want this to beat me! After the failures I have done the file checks as suggested at various places in google but still nothing.
mintsystem is below but I don't think it helps much:

From the image it certainly looks like a BIOS issue for the first error. However it is not this that is stopping your boot process.

The UEFI db list error is the problem.

Can you get into the grub menu? If so try this;

Hit e to enter edit mode

There should be a line which starts linux /boot/vmlinuz (or similar) followed by a root=????? followed by ro quiet splash ....
This is all on one line but may appear to be split due screen column width.

replace the quiet splash with this;
noapic noacpi nosplash

Give this a try. if it doesn't work get back to me.

 

[Gromett]

If I catch you before you try my above suggestion... Can you tell me if you have secure boot on or off in the bios please?

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

If I catch you before you try my above suggestion... Can you tell me if you have secure boot on or off in the bios please?

Thanks Gromett,
Secure boot is off at the moment.
Steve

 

[Gromett]

Thanks Gromett,
Secure boot is off at the moment.
Steve

ok. that would have been a quick fix. The 0x000000000000e error is quite often caused by it not being able to load the secure boot signature.

Try the power management fix I gave 1st.

If this fails. We can try the gfx card fix.

BIOS update may help though if you can do it?

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[Gromett]

PS: for those following along. This is not a common fault. It does happen to a few people in rare circumstances.

 

[Gellyneck]

PS: for those following along. This is not a common fault. It does happen to a few people in rare circumstances.

OK, I've only installed on tens of machines not hundreds but first time I've seen it!
The only issue I've ever had was the one I touched on a few posts back.

On Steve getting access to GRUB is there a key you can press "rapidly \ frequently" on boot? Something like an "F" key, tab, esc, del, ....?

 

[The Dotties]

I think I could understand ancient Swahili spoken by a drunken Irishman speaking in a little known Scottish dialect better than I can understand ‘this thread.?

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

I think I could understand ancient Swahili spoken by a drunken Irishman speaking in a little known Scottish dialect better than I can understand ‘this thread.?

How do you know we are not "drunken Irishman speaking in a little known Scottish dialect"

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi Gromett,
The BIOS was up to date but I re-wrote it just in case there was any corruption
The Grub menu looked like this:

So I edited it to this: (sorry it is a little blurred but i think you can just make out the edit) I left $vt handoff at the end and just removed "quiet splash" >

I then saved it and ran and still got the (initramfs) but a little different >

I really appreciate all this help.
Steve

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[Gromett]

Hi Gromett,
The BIOS was up to date but I re-wrote it just in case there was any corruption
The Grub menu looked like this:
View attachment 357975
So I edited it to this: (sorry it is a little blurred but i think you can just make out the edit) I left $vt handoff at the end and just removed "quiet splash" >
View attachment 357976
I then saved it and ran and still got the (initramfs) but a little different >
View attachment 357979
I really appreciate all this help.
Steve

Very hard to read the images. But it looks like in the second one you have removed the underscore in the second uuid ignore parameter.
You have changed ignore_uuid to ignore uuid

As that second root= command contains an invalid uuid it is broken. 274d-75BC is not a valid uuid and not sure why that particular item is in there.

Put the _ underscore back in between ignore uuid and try again please.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi Gromett, thanks, nearly there, I didn't remove the underscore in the first place, obut went back in and changed it then noticed the other edit had reverted so changed that again then noticed that the underscore had gone again along with some others, it took me about five goes to get them to stay Exited with Ctrl-x as it said and ran it and the Linux login appeared "yippee" rebooted and back to the initramfs prompt....
Went into grub again and it had reverted to the version without the underscores and the "quiet splash" edit. So something strange is happening with the editor which is a throw back to me of 45 years ago when I was programming in COBOL on a massive IBM main-frame!
So, what do you think I am doing wrong. Is there a better editor I can use, say from a live USB linux that may save the edit correctly or is it just me getting it wrong?
It is a steep learning curve but I am determined to give it a go if I can.
I really appreciate the help.
Steve

 

[Gromett]

Hi Gromett, thanks, nearly there, I didn't remove the underscore in the first place, obut went back in and changed it then noticed the other edit had reverted so changed that again then noticed that the underscore had gone again along with some others, it took me about five goes to get them to stay Exited with Ctrl-x as it said and ran it and the Linux login appeared "yippee" rebooted and back to the initramfs prompt....
Went into grub again and it had reverted to the version without the underscores and the "quiet splash" edit. So something strange is happening with the editor which is a throw back to me of 45 years ago when I was programming in COBOL on a massive IBM main-frame!
So, what do you think I am doing wrong. Is there a better editor I can use, say from a live USB linux that may save the edit correctly or is it just me getting it wrong?
It is a steep learning curve but I am determined to give it a go if I can.
I really appreciate the help.
Steve

Hmm, That is strange. Perhaps during boot it is loading initramfs and the grub editor is operating on the ram based grub config file.

Try getting it to boot up to a full login. Once you are to the desktop click on the "start" button and type grub into the search box.
This should give you the grub customizer program.

Try using that to make the settings change permanent.

 

[Gromett]

I suspect 2 things have happened. Your UEFI config is corrupt somehow and is continuing to store fragments of the previous windows install as indicated by the fragment of an invalid uuid.
and due to this it is using the config in the initramfs rather than the disk config.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Unfortunately I have tried dozens of times but cannot get it to boot again so as to edit grub. When I try from a live boot it just says grub is read only.
So Imam stumped .and I think I will have to abandon trying to work in Linux for the umpt of nth time. Shame.

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[Gromett]

Unfortunately I have tried dozens of times but cannot get it to boot again so as to edit grub. When I try from a live boot it just says grub is read only.
So Imam stumped .and I think I will have to abandon trying to work in Linux for the umpt of nth time. Shame.

This is a really strange one. I have installed linux literally 1,000's of time and I am not joking on the number. I have only once had an issue and that was installing to a hard drive that windows was previously installed on. Took a fight to clean the partitioning crap that MS had done. Can't remember what caused it now unfortunately.

If you want to have a play with Linux and not waste any more time. Can I suggest you get a Raspberry Pi? they start at £35 but it is worth going up to the £45 model for the extra speed. It runs off an SD card and has hdmi port. Great for use in the motorhome and uses very little power but runs a pretty decent desktop. It will give you a chance to play with Linux and see what you think.

 

[Gellyneck]

OK my ha'pennies worth (probably worth even less than that!).
Have you tried resetting \ restoring the BIOS back to it's defaults?
How about disconnecting your new 480Gb with Windows 10 on it and try clean installing Windows 10 back onto 240Gb. If it works try installing Mint over-writing 10.
Possibly a heap of drivel but "hate" to see anyone giving up on Linux.
Having said that I've still got to figure out when tenacity becomes stupidity (and just give up)!

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

This is a really strange one. I have installed linux literally 1,000's of time and I am not joking on the number. I have only once had an issue and that was installing to a hard drive that windows was previously installed on. Took a fight to clean the partitioning crap that MS had done. Can't remember what caused it now unfortunately.

If you want to have a play with Linux and not waste any more time. Can I suggest you get a Raspberry Pi? they start at £35 but it is worth going up to the £45 model for the extra speed. It runs off an SD card and has hdmi port. Great for use in the motorhome and uses very little power but runs a pretty decent desktop. It will give you a chance to play with Linux and see what you think.

I have a few raspberry PI's that I have used for dedicated projects but after some really weird problems which looked like dodgy hardware but in the end was a corrupt MBR. I really wanted to move my PC that way and only load Windows when I have to use QuickBooks or Excell as I have developed some really complex spreadsheets run completely by macros that wont run on open office. But I was hoping to run Windows in a virtual box if possible. I have now tried to get Linux on three different PC's and three different laptops and failed, only on the Pi's and my media centre PC have I succeeded which use Rasperion and OpenELEC respectively and just work.
I know Mint will run If I find out what is stopping it and I have enjoyed using the live version. I am just conscious of the time you are spending helping me when I am sure you have many better things to do.
As for the hard disk (SSD), I completely wiped it by writing the whole disk with zeros formatted as one Ext4 partition and have repartitioned and formatted it as Ext4 about ten times now so there really shouldn't be any remnants of Windows left. If I could unprotect GRUB so as to make the corrections you suggest or find out what I did to get to the boot stage last night then we would be away. But only being able to get to the the initramfs prompt I am totally floundering. Having tried your suggestions and everything I have found on the web.
I know it is unusual but really annoying that it is my constant experience and I am sure must be putting some others off trying.
I am going to try one more time by disconnecting all the other disks and the other three monitors and all USB and internet connections, can it install without Internet? to see if it will work this time.
Just for clarity, I will remove all partitions and format as one large Ext4 then leave the live install to do the partitioning, is that the best thing to do or should I set up partitions first. If so it is a 240Gb Kingston SSD. I suppose I could take my two Video cards out as well and just use the onboard video to remove any other complications. I presume Linux can detect these after.
What do you think worth a last ditch attempt?
Once again thanks for your help.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

OK my ha'pennies worth (probably worth even less than that!).
Have you tried resetting \ restoring the BIOS back to it's defaults?
How about disconnecting your new 480Gb with Windows 10 on it and try clean installing Windows 10 back onto 240Gb. If it works try installing Mint over-writing 10.
Possibly a heap of drivel but "hate" to see anyone giving up on Linux.
Having said that I've still got to figure out when tenacity becomes stupidity (and just give up)!

Hi Gellyneck thanks for your support also, yes it is really frustrating. I will try what I have outlined above. Hoping to get the machine as uncomplicated as possible then if that doesn't work, well your suggestion can't hurt. The problem is that SWMBO is looking at all the other jobs I could have been doing in the three days I have been "messing about" with this.
Steve

 

[Gellyneck]

Looking at your thoughts to Gromett I would just let Mint wipe partitions \ format the SSD (defaults) during the installation process.
The only time I didn't do that was when I was installing alongside Windows on the same drive.

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[OldAgeTravellers]

Well...........
I did all the above stripping the machine right down and only the Line x SSD and it failed again, so I remembered that Gromett said there were things in the Grub that shouldn't be there so I re-flashed another USB with a different machine stuck it in ran it and I now just have a working Linux Mint 19.3.
Have to go out now but will put everything back and see how we get on
With all the drives and video cards. Any suggestions of anything I should do first? I think grommet said to put the boot loader on this drive, so I need to remove it from the whole nodes dsk.
Thanks for all the help especially Gromett and Gellyneck
Steve

 

[Gromett]

Well...........
I did all the above stripping the machine right down and only the Line x SSD and it failed again, so I remembered that Gromett said there were things in the Grub that shouldn't be there so I re-flashed another USB with a different machine stuck it in ran it and I now just have a working Linux Mint 19.3.
Have to go out now but will put everything back and see how we get on
With all the drives and video cards. Any suggestions of anything I should do first? I think grommet said to put the boot loader on this drive, so I need to remove it from the whole nodes dsk.
Thanks for all the help especially Gromett and Gellyneck
Steve

ok. Now you have it working Make sure you have Linux on the primary SSD port. Then set it in the BIOS as the boot drive.
Add back your windows disk and make sure when you boot up it goes straight to linux without even the option for Windows.

Once into Linux open a command prompt and run this command

sudo update-grub

You should see it say something like Found loads of vmlinuz then these lines;

Found Linux Mint 18.1 Serena (18.1) on /dev/sdb2
Found Windows 7 on /dev/sdc1
done

You should then be able to reboot and on the grub menu you will see an option to boot into windows.

 

[Gellyneck]

Well...........
I did all the above stripping the machine right down and only the Line x SSD and it failed again, so I remembered that Gromett said there were things in the Grub that shouldn't be there so I re-flashed another USB with a different machine stuck it in ran it and I now just have a working Linux Mint 19.3.
Have to go out now but will put everything back and see how we get on
With all the drives and video cards. Any suggestions of anything I should do first? I think grommet said to put the boot loader on this drive, so I need to remove it from the whole nodes dsk.
Thanks for all the help especially Gromett and Gellyneck
Steve

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Despite Grometts advice I would walk away from the machine. Admire from a distance. Use a big long stick to press the keys.
Well done for perceiving and getting there!
Only build I would give on Gromett's advice is what graphics cards have you got?
I've had some problems previously with NVidia cards (well, their 3rd party drivers). Worked OK when going back to default open source drivers.
Ended up changing card to a newer AMD unit salvaged from a different machine with a defunct mobo. No problems with that.
You may not encounter the same issues but thought I'd give you a heads up just in case.

 

[Gromett]

I always use NVidia cards because I have found them to be the most reliable so far. Power and performance were the other considerations.

However the new AMD cards do seem to be improving.

I am currently looking at my next upgrade as my 2012 computer is starting to show it's age a little bit. I would like a 1440p monitor and will be upgrading to an AMD Ryzen 7 cpu with 8 core 16 threads. I did consider the new Threadripper but to be honest it would be wasted for my uses. I am also looking at a Nvidia 2070 gfx card.

The bit I am most interested in though is moving from SATA SSD to NVMe PCIe v4 high speed. That in combination with the larger monitor is going to make my life much easier I think.

I will relegate my current Nvidia GTX 750Ti to a windows Virtual Machine and use PCIe passthrough along with looking glass on the existing 1080p monitor so I can run windows at the same time when necessary.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Just thought I would post an update.
I installed the hard disks and connected the usb banks NAS's and printers, booted up into Win10 and all seemed to be working OK. Unfortunately with all my to & fro'ing I somehow have damaged one of my GT610 display cards, obviously forgot to switch off power when disconnecting or connecting a monitor but using the onboard graphics i am back to my four monitors.
Switching back to Linux something had happened to the GRUB loader as the Linux choice just switched back to the Motherboard Splash Screen but it would boot into Windows OK, After a bit of googling I found a Grub recovery program which got me back int Mint but sudo update-grub failed. I was about to re install when I remembered I had done a Timeshift Snapshot which recovered everything fine. So back with Mint and Win10 working fine and now just the long learning curve to get Mint working as i have Windows. So far i like it and although just a little bit last century in looks it's working are not that difficult to grasp. Unfortunately a lot of the help on-line is still a bit Geeky but understandable.
The biggest problem I have is that a lot of the data i would like to use between the two systems is on my Mirrored Windows D: drive which Linux sees as two drives.
Once again thanks for all the help.
Steve

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[Lenny HB]

You got there in the end well done, I think I would have given up, thank goodness my Mint install went perfectly.

 

[Gellyneck]

Just thought I would post an update.
I installed the hard disks and connected the usb banks NAS's and printers, booted up into Win10 and all seemed to be working OK. Unfortunately with all my to & fro'ing I somehow have damaged one of my GT610 display cards, obviously forgot to switch off power when disconnecting or connecting a monitor but using the onboard graphics i am back to my four monitors.
Switching back to Linux something had happened to the GRUB loader as the Linux choice just switched back to the Motherboard Splash Screen but it would boot into Windows OK, After a bit of googling I found a Grub recovery program which got me back int Mint but sudo update-grub failed. I was about to re install when I remembered I had done a Timeshift Snapshot which recovered everything fine. So back with Mint and Win10 working fine and now just the long learning curve to get Mint working as i have Windows. So far i like it and although just a little bit last century in looks it's working are not that difficult to grasp. Unfortunately a lot of the help on-line is still a bit Geeky but understandable.
The biggest problem I have is that a lot of the data i would like to use between the two systems is on my Mirrored Windows D: drive which Linux sees as two drives.
Once again thanks for all the help.
Steve

Again, well done that man!
Pleased to hear Timeshift worked for you. I've got it set-up but never had to use it in anger. Always the doubt in the mind, will it work when I need it?
Use Macrium Reflect for Windows and restored a few times with that.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

You got there in the end well done, I think I would have given up, thank goodness my Mint install went perfectly.

Yes, I almost gave up but got there in the end with Gromett & Gellyneck help and support. Just trying to install my printers and scanners. The HP inkjet came straight up but the Samsung wouldn't, then I found that HP build Samsung printers and provide Linux drivers for most. Have downloaded the .tar.gz file just have to find out how to install it. Currently installing Wine so I can hopefully run Keypass which is essential for me being a gentleman of a certain age, to remember passwords! The database is held in Dropbox so available to all my devices and constantly up to date
Then I need to figure out how to run Quickbooks in a Virtual Box along with Excel which I understand runs well as I have some massive sheets I have developed for tracking all my investments which totally run on VB scripts which will not work with Open office.
If that all works then I should be able to ditch WinDoze completely. The other stumbling block is my D: drive which is two dynamic mirrored drives which as far as I can tell can't be used under Linux, so may have to go back to a single drive and daily backups which is a pain.
STOP PRESS Wine has just installed and Keypass runs fine just need to find if there is a way of automating like a batch file.
Oh by the way, Thanks for your concern about Judy, she is fine, saw the cardiologist today and he said there is no problem for us to go off to Scandinavia for three months in the summer. Whoopy.... she just has a thyroid problem now caused by the sackful of pills she has to take!!
Judy said this afternoon, "I liked Win7, if i have to learn Win10 now, can you put Linux on my computer instead?" so perhaps the saga hasn't finished!
Have good travels, although not in Spain or France at the moment, Spain has snow, floods and high wind we have floods all around us, luckily we live up a mountain!
Steve

 

[Gellyneck]

Currently installing Wine so I can hopefully run Keypass which is essential for me being a gentleman of a certain age, to remember passwords! The database is held in Dropbox so available to all my devices and constantly up to date

Steve, Keepass can be run directly in Linux.
Just go to Software Manager, search KeePass2, click on the entry and then install.
Same password manager I use.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Steve, Keepass can be run directly in Linux.
Just go to Software Manager, search KeePass2, click on the entry and then install.
Same password manager I use.

Yes, thanks for that, but I use version 1 because of compatibility with some of my devices. Basically I do not want to reinstall it x number of times so I stick with version1.

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