Hi there.

Since I’m using Windows10 on decade-old hardware (can’t upgrade to Windows11 even if I wanted to) I’ve decided to check out what Linux is all about. After a couple of flowcharts wanted to try out Mint. Bought a fresh USBstick, downloaded the ISO, flashed it with Balena Etcher, created a separate partition on a HDD in the case I decide to fully install it.

Trying to boot I get the options to select any bootable media, but choosing either UEFI or the other option to boot from the USB drive I get to a menu where I can select to boot to Live or in compatibility mode (among others), but whatever I choose I end up with rolling errormessages, main one being /init: line 38: can't open /dev/sr0: No medium found Googling around I’ve tried unplugging the USB and using it in another port, enabling/disabling stuff in the bios (but I have no idea where to start or what stuff actually does) but nothing really works.

After some time (10+ minutes) of rolling errors I get the prompt to boot from URL (or something), haven’t tried that yet as I don’t know if the network is even enabled…

So I have the next questions: Where do I begin with troubleshooting? Is there a way to interrupt the stream of errors it keeps spitting out for more than 10 minutes? Once the errors stop I seem to be in a full screen terminal with an unsuccessful boot, can I try to get it to boot from there?

Update: Ventoy seems to be more promising, it’s got a nice menu and I can choose which bistro to load, but currently it’s loading Mint quite a long time…

I suspect it’s loading everything it can at once, but at least I can see the Mint logo for longer than 10 seconds in a splash screen.

But 15 minutes later it seems to be still loading…

Will update when I can

Update 2: YES! It got past the boot errors by unplugging the USB and plugging it back in.

Life is calling, so it’ll take a while before I can start figuring out why my mouse isn’t working (or how I can install without a mouse), but at least I can confirm that Linux works on my PC.

  • @Dagge
    2•12 hours ago

    I haven’t personally tried etcher but I read in a similar post that it oftenly led to errors when booting from usb-sticks, you could try Rufus instead and see if it works better.

    • TheOtherGOPEnglish
      2•11 hours ago

      Got recommended to try Ventoy or Rufus instead of Balena, so I’ll be reflashing once I’m home again. Thanks for the quick response

      • chi-chan~
        2•1 hour ago

        +1

        If nothing works, you could also try a native command dd.

        • unplug the flash drive
        • watch -d lsblk
        • plug the device - you’ll see a device added that you didn’t see before - that’s your device
        • sudo dd if="/home/$USER/Downloads/filename.iso" of=/dev/sdc bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync
        • chi-chan~
          2•56 minutes ago

          if (input file) = path to file - here it’s the downloads folder - just change the file name after the slash

          of (output file) = here we’ll use the device instead - enter the device you saw popping up - it should be /dev/sdX - don’t add a number after (i.e. /dev/sdc, not /sdc1)

          To stop a command (almost) anytime, press Ctrl+C. To enter a command you used already, press Up (↑).

          GL!

          E: don’t instead of dont