Installing Manjaro XFCE or any other distro over Linux Mint 20.1 on same partitions.

vanmol

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I have been informed that I have not been posing in the right manner but using PM. Hope this is not too redundant.

Because I have screwed this process up in the past which required that I start from scratch with Win 10 I need some clear and detailed instructions on how to proceed without deleting the Win 10 boot option. In the meantime, I will go back to searching the web for help too.
 


now your confusing me with computer jargon PM ? :^ )

Any chance of you taking a screenshot of what you currently have on your PC; you can use the Mint OS on the usb to do that . or have you already done that somewhere ?
 
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now your confusing me with computer jargon PM ? :^ )

Any chance of you taking a screenshot of what you currently have on your PC; you can use the Mint OS on the usb to do that . or have you already done that somewhere ?

I thought that I was being advised that I was posting questions as a PM which I took to mean Personal Messages and not to a particular forum page. Guess I was wrong AGAIN! I have since found a very detailed tutorial that I have confidence in using. Sorry for the confusion.
 
ok got you. yeah PM's will only be seen by the recipient you post to. But you have it right now; your post will be seen by all and thus more chance of people chipping in. So i saw a mention somewhere you have Windows on your hard drive and you want to keep Windows - yes ? Also that if things go wrong with Linux install that you will be able to still boot up Windows ?


Hang on just spotted this thread https://linux.org/threads/just-in-c...-linux-mint-distro-to-my-statisfaction.35532/
 
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ok got you. yeah PM's will only be seen by the recipient you post to. But you have it right now; your post will be seen by all and thus more chance of people chipping in. So i saw a mention somewhere you have Windows on your hard drive and you want to keep Windows - yes ? Also that if things go wrong with Linux install that you will be able to still boot up Windows ?

That's right I want to continue with dual boot ability (win10 and a Linux distro). This tutorial seems to be straightforward on how to overwrite the Linux distro on the same partitions (root--home---swap). I am not real clear on how to manipulate the partitions but getting into the process, hands-on should help in understanding the written word.
 
really the way to look at it is, to install a Linux Distro on whats left on the Hard Drive after Windows has taken up its space.

Well a start would be to use gPArted to look at partitions. You can not manipulate or alter your partitions while they are in use, but you can look at them. So from my laptop i can launch gParted, then use a screenshot program so i can show others what I have see attached . To do that is really useful for others on the forum. I haven't looked at other threads- have you done that somewhere ? Would you like to have a go doing that ? You can use gParted to start playing with partitions on a USb stick where on a blank usb, no harm cam be done. You can't alter partitions on a running system because they are in use; but what you can do is boot an OS from a usb stick and then manipulate the partitions on your laptop or PC. The reason this works is that everything is running from the OS on the usb and your laptop partitions are unmounted i.e not in use. Again gParted is a great visual tool .

i'll have a look at itsfoss article later- sometimes they make errors on their posts
 

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i've had a quick look at itsfoss and it raised a couple of queries in my head.

When you install a linux distribution there are the factors of root install and home regarding the partitions. But also there are the factors of the Linux kernel and setting it up so that on boot your PC knows what OS's are available where the Linux kernel is eg in my Boot directory i have.

EFI/ grub/ initramfs-linux-fallback.img* initramfs-linux.img* vmlinuz-linux*

Now then here is my problem unless i didn't fully read its foss. When you installed say Mint , the install put Mint 20.* and everything else where it should; when you boot the bootloader i.e GRUB will look for that Mint kerenel. The way itsfoss article reads is they talk about the partitition but they have not covered the point about re-installing grub. if your Ok with grub thats fine but it must be re-installed otherwise on boot it will look for a Mint kernel thats no longer there .

The approach of selecting a manual install i agree; however the way i would go is before I start that process i would do the setting up of partitions using gParted from a live OS ; then it would just be the case of confirming partitions. In other words ,you use the gparted tool from a live OS, then you can click on the install icon.
I've had a look at booting manjaro live from: https://manjaro.org/downloads/official/xfce/


manjaro-xfce-21.0.7-210614-linux510.iso was 2.6 gig and booted no problem - i went the Ventoy.net route. In the menu gParted is available as is screen shot. You can play with manjaro live; edit your pc partitions if you want and you see that icon in image - bottom left , you just click that and it starts the install

So now it come down to the steps ; you can use itsfoss ; which of the steps have you done so far & which do you think might be a problem?
 

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i've had a quick look at itsfoss and it raised a couple of queries in my head.

When you install a linux distribution there are the factors of root install and home regarding the partitions. But also there are the factors of the Linux kernel and setting it up so that on boot your PC knows what OS's are available where the Linux kernel is eg in my Boot directory i have.

EFI/ grub/ initramfs-linux-fallback.img* initramfs-linux.img* vmlinuz-linux*

Now then here is my problem unless i didn't fully read its foss. When you installed say Mint , the install put Mint 20.* and everything else where it should; when you boot the bootloader i.e GRUB will look for that Mint kerenel. The way itsfoss article reads is they talk about the partitition but they have not covered the point about re-installing grub. if your Ok with grub thats fine but it must be re-installed otherwise on boot it will look for a Mint kernel thats no longer there .

The approach of selecting a manual install i agree; however the way i would go is before I start that process i would do the setting up of partitions using gParted from a live OS ; then it would just be the case of confirming partitions. In other words ,you use the gparted tool from a live OS, then you can click on the install icon.
I've had a look at booting manjaro live from: https://manjaro.org/downloads/official/xfce/


manjaro-xfce-21.0.7-210614-linux510.iso was 2.6 gig and booted no problem - i went the Ventoy.net route. In the menu gParted is available as is screen shot. You can play with manjaro live; edit your pc partitions if you want and you see that icon in image - bottom left , you just click that and it starts the install

So now it come down to the steps ; you can use itsfoss ; which of the steps have you done so far & which do you think might be a problem?

Ok, I tried again to install Mantaro in the Linux Mint Root partition but used another option. It was very easy and looks like it is working well. GRUB does not seem to by a problem. Thanks again.
 
ok good news Vanmol ; manjaro is based on Arch it should suit you well ! Also good documentation with a pdf user guide- i have that do you have it or want it. I can just zip it and add here
 


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