Duel Install Mint on Windows 7 partitioned drive

vicky, please do not go ahead installing yet, this will go pear-shaped and you will end up with a brick instead of windows 7

wizard
 


@Vicktoria
I did some searching using the search term - linux "no root file system defined". Several interesting results turned up.

It would appear that you need to designate a mount point for root ( / ). Probably the sda3 partition.
From your screen shot it looks like the mount point for sda3 is being designated as /home.

Try doing a search using the terms " no root file system found " or " no root file system defined " or just " no root filesystem ".

Here are a couple interesting pages;



Just disregard the parts which don't apply to you.
There are more pages to look at but I didn't want to overwhelm you :)
 
Wizard: Thank-you for the suggestion. I won't do anything radical until I get the guidance and back up windows. Will making an iso in windows backup and restroe to an external drive allow its resusitation if it dies? Working on getting external HD ready for that. Again, I'm not tied to Mint. Any Linux OS will be fine with me a long as I can save things. I work with video editing, audacity, burning and ripping things, and need to be able to run the windows astrology program in WINE like, or Virtual box like fashion.

Captain: I checked the BIOS and didn't see any UEFI entries. It is a MBR system [or whatever the proper term is]. I took notes and can make a text document to post here if you want. I'll do that and post it later today, but nothing there except a UUID which looks like an ID number for the MAC, boot order is usb first, and there are no passwords on the machine. I just tried that /Home flag for sda3 this last install attempt last night. It had no flag before. Once I tried making it the root and the boot...all efforts give the 'no root files' designated fix in partition' message. How do I see what is on the sda1 'sys' partition. I'll look through windows. Maybe text or screen shot through terminal?
I just put that /boot flag on sda1 last try figuring that is where the boot installer needs to be. Last I made note sda1-3 were 'not mounted' and swap was 'not active'. I'm trying to take better notes, yet I think I tried mounting sda1 and 3 the last time.

Vrai: I'll read those links asap after backing up windows. Working to clear the external HD to put iso on it. Searching the forum I assume, I'll do that also. I think I need instruction in how to designate a partition root. Think I fell over it once, and then couldn't find it when I looked again. Will look at that again as well. So you say make the sda3 /root. The directions at the bottom of the partitioning area in the Mint Install said you need a root and a boot partition. You can choose a custom flag. I tried making that root and boot, but I may not have phrased it correctly, like: using the / and I used a comma between root and boot.

Ok, I'm off to follow directions and read.
 
@Vrai unfortunately i know next to nothing about Mint ; slackware can be installed just to one partition and then uses that one partition to set up user directories. Does Mint have to have /home and /

if so she is short of one partition
 
its loks like the MBR is there :

Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xec977386
 
Hello Wizard, thank you so much for playing. The modem is external ZOOM on the outside, Conexant USB CX93010 ACF Modem. Yes 'sys' seems important to windows. I see a 'red' marker on previous installations saying 'failed' in reference to grub. Couldn't read more as it flew by. Any way to catch what it is saying? I'll await further guidance. BTW I tried all this with POP OS as well with the same results. I'm wondering if setting up the partition designations properly would solve this. Where should the boot go, where should root go, who is designated primary, who is mounted during installation, who is active? I can do that if I know where to find the settings. Thanks for your help.
 
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Somewhere on this journey it was advised to make a /home designation. There is a 'custom' option in the flag dropdown in which I tried to make sda3 both root and home, yet maybe I didn't type it properly. I put a comma between root and boot and may not have used /.
The Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB is the whole hard drive I believe containing all partitions.
 
@Vrai unfortunately i know next to nothing about Mint ; slackware can be installed just to one partition and then uses that one partition to set up user directories. Does Mint have to have /home and /

if so she is short of one partition
@captain-sensible
I believe the easiest and most usual way to install Linux Mint is to put everything under " / " (root).
The /home will be placed under root as part of the installation. A "/ home " partition is optional.
Take a look at the attached screenshot of GParted of the partition layout, mount points, and flags of the desktop I am currently using.
There are four partitions including the swap partition.
Partition File System Mount Point Label Size Flags
/dev/sda1 ext4 / Mint 461.76 GiB boot
/dev/sda3 ext4 Play 435.39 GiB
/dev/sda4 ext4 /mnt/* Test 26.37 GiB
/dev/sad2 linux-swap 8.00 GiB
(well that's a bummer :( had this all nice and organized but the forum software bunched it all up)

The "Play" partition has Blue Collar Linux installed on it and is used just for 'playing' with different distros. The 'Test' partition is just some 'left-over' space which comes in handy once in a while. The rest is pretty much self explanatory. The Linux Mint install is my 'daily driver' and has been installed and upgraded for several years.

The interesting thing is - my main Linux Mint install is on /dev/sda1 - the whole kit and kaboodle was installed on that one partition. That's where /home resides. No separate /home or /boot partitions. I've thought about separate partitions but just haven't seen the need as yet.

So - I think @Vicktoria could try pointing her Linux Mint installer to sda3, designate the mount point of sda3 as " / " (root) , and click "GO". Keep it simple. Might work - might not - but it seems like it is worth a shot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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This is a shot of GParted on my "Test" box. A Dell Optiplex 7010 with an Intel Core i7 3770 - 8 GiB of DDR3 SDRAM - Intel Xeon E3-1200 graphics - and a 500 GiB SATA hard drive.
This machine has four Linux distros installed on it. This screen shot is of only 3 distros installed just prior to installing the fourth.

Notice the "Mount Point" and "Flags".
Everything works perfectly. The fourth Linux install was MX 19.1 (/dev/sda5). I specifically did not allow MX to install Grub because I wanted Grub on my Linux Mint install (/dev/sda1) to handle that. Installed MX - rebooted into Linux Mint and ran "update-grub". Everything worked - easy-peasy.
5799
 
yes in the same way update-grub after Linux install should pick up WIndows for boot option.
MBR is there and as you describe /dev/sda3 can just be root / ,with no /home . So everything is there but last post by Wiz was "don't do anything yet" i suspect he's digesting info or checking something. i'm not much help not knowing hardly anything about Mint. Maybe @Vicktoria should give Wiz a chance to come back ?
 
i am ... just playing catch up on what i have missed. off for coffee then back soon.

wiz
 
I hope Wizard got everything organized, and I'll intend not to post outside the proper thread. So Gentlemen, there has been a new development, but alas no success. I did what Vrai I think it was, said. After reading the links you posted I gave it another try and we had a new experience, yet still ended with a crash of the install program, this time without loosing Windows [from which I am speaking to you, since I can't get Linux Mint Live to dial out for dial up]. I Do have the Windows repair disk from my original installation, plus backed up files for everything I need from a few days ago. So I'm ready to proceed. I tried an install from the Mint Live disk and made progress. I proceeded as before: EFI selecting something else and proceeded to a new area where I was asked to create a password [had no choice], and then to install; when I got the message grub2 install failed. I should have made better notes. Will try again tomorrow, and make better notes. This new experience was created by choosing '/' from the flag drop down. Selecting boot to sda3, which lead me to a window which referred to the swap partition being sda4. It all seemed to be working until the fated 'grub2 failed to install'. So what say ye now gentlemen? We are getting closer. Meanwhile I had to occupy myself, and see that the old computer I intended to make a clean Linux install to is a 32-bit system. So should I post this question elsewhere...what OS should I install on a 32-bit Dell with XP currently, which we intend to reformat out of existance?
 
Oh yes, one more question, had the option to select putting the boot on the sda, which I interpret as being the beginning of the whole disk. This looked interesting, yet I didn't try it as I was confident I could retrieve windows if I had to doing things the way I did this time. I'll take better notes next time.
 
vicktoria have you made a rescue disk for windows yet?

see the following and click each link that says show all and have downward arrows and read

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/17423/windows-7-create-system-repair-disc

had the option to select putting the boot on the sda, which I interpret as being the beginning of the whole disk.

that is the preferred option, and device sda /dev/sda is the disk itself, so you are close

once you have windows safeguarded, you should insert and boot from your linux mint stick, and then NOT start the installer, or quit from it if it is open

when you get time you should also read

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition

and read each page/section. it is 10 years old but still relevant.

back to your linux mint live, and this will all be a wasted exercise if it does not support your dialup modem.

go to menu and start typing in synaptic - synaptic package manager appears, click

go to search and type in wvdial, when it appears, click and read the lower description


hJTcxvb.png


SCREENSHOT 1 - wvdial on Mint

with dialup modem, you will see a bit of "PPP" - point-to-point protocol

so you want to be able to install this to your Mint one it is installed, but how with no dialup?

we can work on that (my) tomorrow

i'll put an exercise in gparted in for you if i get back before i hit the sack.

you want to blow away /dev/sda's 3 and 4 and make one /dev/sda3 in EXT4 format, also to remove that boot flag from /dev/sda1

wizard
 
I have to install Linux mint on my personal laptop for work purpose.
I have two partition in my HDD, Drive C (150gb) is the one with windows, and Drive D (300gb) with other important files.
How can I install properly linux mint without erasing any of my files? I really need help, I have like 4 hours from now to do this.
 
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@alfred0809
There are many, many tutorials for "How To Dual Boot Windows And Linux".
So rather than 're-invent the wheel' - here is one such;
This tutorial is for Ubuntu but should work for Linux Mint also and many other Linux distros.
Be sure you have a Windows installation disk just in case something goes wrong.
Also be sure you have backed up any of your data which you do not wish to risk losing.

It would probably be a good to start your own thread rather than hijack this one. You may get more responses.
 
Wizard: Upon re-reading the post where you said 'wait', I apologize...that didn't sink in until today. My brain was too busy trying to figure this out, I figured I was suppose to do some of the work, so I'm trying to wait now. I did try again with the POP live disk last night and was able to catch 'grub install failed due to ratelimiting' Perhaps that will give a clue. My thought was that maybe the Mint grub was somehow compromised, so I tried POP. I tried selecting custom in the flag drop down and entered '/boot/efi, /root' as the instructions said 'You must at least select a root (/) partition plus a boot (/boot/efi) partition that is at least 500 MB and on a GPT disk and also recommend a swap. I then hit the 'modify disk' button, as the install button was not available. I couldn't see any constructive changes there. I did notice the swap sda4 was 'active', and I couldn't find any way to change that nor do I know what status it should have. POP was unable to read the sda2 windows file system other than to say it was not mounted. sda3 was not mounted either although I selected it for installation. When POP took me to gparted and I looked at 'manage flags' on sda3 just to see what the status was this message came up: 'Libparted Bug Assertion [ped_partition_is_active (part)) at../../libparted/disk c:1417 in function ped_partition_is_flag_available ( ) failed' I was just looking and made no selections. I just backed out then and quit POP. Windows is functioning without incident. So I will read and wait. I will have access to hispeed tomorrow for a few hours.
I think I tried to install wvdial on the Linux live. I'll try again and see if I can snag it elsewhere. As always I appreciate your work. I saw your partition video...It was very helpful.
I didn't try putting the boot on the 1st windows 'sys' sda1, because it only has 10MB free, and would require at the least resizing that partition, which I think may be possible with gparted live, yet I didn't know if windows would like that, and thought I'd wait for your input.


Vrai: FYI the 2nd link 'no root files...' didn't work, I accessed it manually and read the info, thanks.
 
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I downloaded [finally] gppp a gnome dialer from sourceforge. Will be reading and trying to get the dialer to work. Thanks to all. Ok, it's evidently not a package but a tar.gz file. How do you open that and how do I get gppp or some other dialer available for use on the Mint Live OS. Grrr.
 
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so I'm trying to wait now.

try a little harder ...

what is the full filename of the .tar.gz, vicktoria?

can you give us the link to the sourceforge page you downloaded from?

i have another method that will install gnome-ppp on both a usb stick and a computer running mint, but i need to compare the two options

wizard
 
also do you have a printer at home an what type of documents can it print eg MS Word? can it do .pdf?

i have it in mind to give you a blow-by-blow that you can print

wiz
 
Wizard, the is 'gppp-0.1.tar for gnome's modem dialer. I was trying to download the program or package. I do have kppp_4.13.0 Oubuntu1_i386 package, yet I can't figure out how to get the Mint to install them from my usb drive.

I don't have ink in the printer. Don't print much anymore. I've run out of ink in two pens...I'm old school...no problem. Maybe I can get a friend to print it.

I am assuming I have the windows ISO and repair disks from the original awakening of Windows 7 on this computer. I have 7 DVD's from one back-up operation when I first got this, plus others made at that time. I'm at a friends for hispeed today, and can't view those DVDs now. I wanted to make a copy of the image again anyway, yet windows won't let me. Keeps telling me my tera-byte external drive doesn't have enough space, and the same when I try to use DVD's, so maybe that can be accomplished in the terminal, where I need specific step by step instruction. I read all of the sights recommended and took notes or saved the page in pdf. I'll get that link for you now, and try install or download again now to usb. https://sourceforge.net/projects/gppp/. I also tried to download wvdial, had a hard time finding it before https://sourceforge.net/projects/wvdial/files/latest/download. I will try to install through Mint when I get windows situated later today, as I can see it is a priority to be able to connect to dial-up from home as the world continues to be in a panic in my neighborhood. I'm in Virginia, USA I'm embarassed to say.
 
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