Hung Boot Loader

[sp331yi]

Hi Vicktoria. I know what works for me and that is all I can/will tell you.

I don't trust any 'buntu-based distro for older hardware after 18.04 and would prefer non-UEFI and non-systemd. That out of the way, I can proceed.

Manjaro and LinuxLite impress me for ease of use, even compared to the Debian-based distros I use personally. I recommend specific links for a purpose, and would like you to see a comparison (maybe not so objective, but an on-the-whole good comparison between the two is here.

LinuxLite 4.6 download (not 5.0). Manjaro XFCE download (not KDE). Clonezilla Live for backup. Optionally recommend SystemRescueCD to learn to use later (it'll come in handy).

Best wishes, thanks for the vote of confidence, keep us posted, and Enjoy!

 

[Vicktoria]

sp331yi, Thank goodness playing with the battery brought Mint up again. I'm coming to you on dial-up and Mint 19.3. What you said makes sense. It is obvious this machine does not play optimally with UEFI. I will go to the links this weekend, and get clonezilla. Is SystemRescueCD a program? When I find a suitable OS, do I make a live usb and install it that way? I do have Mint 18.3 on live usb. Would that be more stable if I don't update it? I am clueless about al this. Thanks for the support.

 

[sp331yi]

Mint 19 "Tara' LTS will be better than the 16.04-based Mint you have. Get it here.

SystemRescueCD is a Specialized Utility Distro containing many tools (too many to list), including Gparted, Networking and File System tools, live Firefox web browser, and more.

Assuming you downloaded the latest SystemRescueCD to your Downloads folder, and the empty USB stick is on /dev/sdb, the command to write the ISO to USB would be

dd if=/home/Vicktoria/Downloads/systemrescuecd-amd64-6.1.4.iso of=/dev/sdb status=progress

You could do the same on a separate USB stick for the whatever.iso

i.e.

if=/path/to/whatever.iso of=/dev/sdc conv=notrunc,sync status=progress

if unsure what the USB device is called by the system, do a

fdisk -l

and only use ONE USB device at a time, for safety

Past my bedtime -- G'night!

 

[Vicktoria]

Hi All. Well I took it apart again and took the CMOS battery again, and it came up with Trisha 19.3 the windows partition, and the welcome window again. I'll not update this time. If this continues to work would you recommend to stay with Mint?

 

[sp331yi]

Having to mess with the CMOS battery is not a good sign. But
"Don't fix it if it ain't broke," someone once said!
IOW, if you're happy, we're happy!

 

[Vicktoria]

What is it a sign of?? Seems ok today so far. I'll see about downloading those things you recommended.

 

[sp331yi]

Hard to say what it may be, but a loose/bad connection comes to mind.
Don't worry about it just now. Keep using it. Be gentle with it. If a problem arises, you know to come back to LO! Many here are willing to help.
Best wishes!

 

[Vicktoria]

Hello Wiley One! I'm at hispeed and reading the info you suggested about OS. So I'm interested in 'Tara' or Manjaro, yet I am actually clueless as to my best option. I'm ready to jettison Windows, and reformat for a clean install. I would value your input on which of those two [or any other] you'd recommend. I started a new thread to the general forum based on a reformat of the Fujitsu machine. I downloaded Tara & Manjaro and the rescue & clonezilla while on hispeed. Have to leave today. So I'm ready to create a final install on the Fujitsu as soon as I learn which distro will be the best.

 

[Vicktoria]

When I want to make a live usb, do I have to download a specific 'live' iso or can you make any iso a live usb?

 

[Condobloke]

No......you do not have to download a specific iso

 

[Vicktoria]

Thanks Condobloke, it must be a glitch in the fujitsu BIOS. Been having issues. Remembered yesterday I bought a new HD thinking that would fix the hung bootloader. It did not. Had to change CMOS battery to get BIOS to load. So I'll try the new HD. To succeed at getting say Mint Tara on a new HD...do I just boot a live usb on the new HD and install Linux?

 

[Condobloke]

as @sp331yi said having to fiddle/mess with the cmos battery is not a good thing....usually the cmos battery will receive attention once in a blue moon......I have not replaced mine in over 6 years

Possibly a bad/loose connection......hard to say without actually being there to see and feel it.
I assume this laptop is quite old......I am wondering why it hasnt been used before this......maybe a problem related to that battery caused it to be thrown to one side ?