Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Linux Mint dual boot tutorial part 2 - How to install Linux Mint (My Linux experience)

This is part 2 on Linux Mint tutorials. For a list of chapters visit: My Linux experience part 1

If you plan on dual booting, I suggest installing Windows first then Linux. I'm not sure if this makes a difference but this is how it was in my case and didn't have any problems booting.

Once you have Windows installed, the first step is to create a new partition for Linux. Until Linux is installed we have to modify and format partitions and that can lead to data loss. Make sure you have a backup. In case you have multiple data storage devices connected, it is preferred to disconnect them so you don't get confused which one needs formatting.

Contents

1) Allocate space for Linux Mint

In Windows press the windows key and type "Disk Management" to find and open the application then right-click the partition where the Windows operating system is installed (usually C:) and select Shrink Volume. Next, choose how much space to allocate for this new partition. I recommend at least 120 GB. Even though Linux doesn't take much space, you probably need more to install some applications, keep files in the user folder, and also for temporary files used by the OS. There is also the swap file where the RAM will be dumped. The partition can be resized after Linux is installed to take more space from Windows, but that is slower since it needs to be aligned and so data needs to be moved.

Linux Mint and Windows dual boot - Disk Management create partition

In the above image Linux Mint is already installed so it looks different. You should see a partition with unallocated free space after you use the shrink tool. This will be formatted during Linux installation. In my case, Linux is installed on the 110 GB partition.

Another free tool that you can use for disk management is MiniTool Partition Wizard.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

2) Download Linux Mint

You can download Linux Mint as a bootable ISO from here: https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php. There are 3 versions to choose from: Cinnamon (the default one), Xfce and MATE. If you have a really low spec computer you can try Xfce or MATE. My PC is from 2018 and runs Cinnamon without problems with only 8GB of RAM.

It is recommended to check the integrity and authenticity of the downloaded file using the two sha256 files provided on the site. It is not that straightforward to do that on Windows but you can find a tutorial here.

There is also the donations page for those who love Linux. Event though it's free, donations help motivating the developers to make Linux even better.

3) Create a live USB

For this you need a USB stick with at least 8GB of storage. Be sure you don't have anything you need on it since it has to be formatted during this step. To create the USB installation media you can use Etcher.

4) Boot in to live USB

After a restart, the boot menu can be selected by pressing a special key that depends on the manufacturer. I can't even remember what mine was, I just press F10, F12 multiple times. If that doesn't work for you, then enter to BIOS or UEFI by pressing DEL or F2 and boot from there.

When you boot from the USB stick, Linux Mint starts a live session where you can test the OS. It will take some time to load depending on the quality of your USB stick. The Live session is slower since it is loaded from a USB stick as opposed to an SSD and the changes you make are not permanent.

Linux Mint Cinnamon Live session

When you are ready to install, use the Install Linux Mint shortcut.

5) Install Linux Mint

First steps are self explanatory so nothing much to say.

5.1 - Select your language.

Linux Mint Installation 01 - Language

5.2 - Connect to the internet

5.3 - When having an internet connection you have the option to install multimedia codecs.

Linux Mint Installation 03 - Third-party software

5.4 - Installation type.

Linux Mint Installation 04 - Installation type

If Linux Mint is the only operating system you want to run on this computer and all data can be lost on the hard drive, choose Erase disk and install Linux Mint otherwise choose Something else.

5.4.1 - Create the root partition by selecting the free space previously reserved then press the plus button. Each drive will have assigned a letter: sda, sdb, sdc and so on and each partition on that drive has a number: sda1, sda2, sda3.

Linux Mint Installation 4-1 - Create Partition

Root is like your C drive in Windows. Size of the partition can be all available free space. I know some people prefer to create separate partitions here for swap and Home folder but personally I'm not a fan of that. I believe a swap file is easier to resize than a partition and when I'm doing something in the Disk Management I would have to deal with dozens of partitions especially when having other drives.

As a file system, ext4 is recommended. It is the most popular Linux filesystem. It's like NTFS on Windows. If you need full disc encryption skip this step for now.

Linux Mint Installation 4-1 - Create Root Partition

Installing Linux Mint with full disc encryption using LUKS

At this point you have the option to encrypt the whole system partition using LUKS which is like BitLocker on Windows. I did that with my installation and I didn't notice any drawbacks. You have to type a password at boot time but I don't find this to be an inconvenience.

Select the free space previously reserved then press the + button to create an ext4 /boot partition to hold the kernels. Don't make it too small if you plan on installing many kernels at the same time and/or not removing old ones.

Linux Mint Installation with LUKS 01 - Boot partition

Finally create another partition for the operating system using the remaining free space.

Linux Mint Installation with LUKS 02 - Encrypted partition

Next pick a strong password/passphrase that you can easily type each time the computer boots but is also long enough. The overwrite empty space is only necessary if there is already sensitive data and you don't want it recoverable, although some of it will be overwritten with new data as you install Linux. Leave it unchecked to speed up the installation.

Linux Mint Installation with LUKS 03

When it's done scroll to the top and select your new encrypted volume and click on the Change button to mount it as / root.

Linux Mint Installation with LUKS 04

Having the encrypted partition selected press Install Now button.

Credit: this part is inspired by https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=298852.

5.4.2 - User details

Linux Mint Installation 4-2 - User details

Your name is only used locally, in the screensaver and on the login screen. The username is what you log in as, and computer's name is the name of your computer on the local network.

On Linux you will have to type the account password very often such as during updates or when you install some apps so it shouldn't be difficult to type. As far as I know, it is not that critical to have a simpler password but feel free to research on this. I just picked something that I can type in 3 seconds.

If you previously opted to encrypt the full disc, encrypting the home folder is not necessary and by selecting to log in automatically you only have to type one password - the one to decrypt the disc.

I hope you succeed with your Linux installation. If so, see you in the next part on how to customize Linux.

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