XP to Linux Mint questions

Norman_Castle

I've got an old pc and am planning on moving to Linux Mint. Few things I'm not sure about.
1, I've got mint on a flash drive. If I boot from this the desktop has an install option. Presumably this can create a partition. Will I get options such as leave xp on the pc and the partition size?
2, As its a 40 GB hard drive I'm moving document files onto a separate drive. I'm assuming I can simply load these onto mint after the install?
3, I don't really want dual boot but want the option to use xp if needed. Do I just set the boot order to mint and use the boot menu when I want to use xp?

forgotmyname

Why not dual boot?

You wont even know the other one is there?

The other option is remove the drive with the OS you dont want to run.

40GB drive? Isnt that painfully slow?

System

Hi

Boot from the flash drive into Linux mint.

Look for it's partitioning tool, probably GPARTED, reduce the XP partition to about half.

Reboot to XP to prove it still works.

Reboot to Mint and install, since you have your documents etc separate you can not do too much wrong. Make a swap partition and a root, home is a want and not a need for the third partition.

Then as Brian Cant might say "Play Away".

henm2

I use the Gparted tool quite often when installing Linux operating systems but if you are not used to it it is very easy to get wrong and hose your existing system.

For your first time installing Linux Mint (on an old pc this needs to be the 32 bit version of either Linux Mint 18 cinnamon or xfce) I would not touch Gparted and instead rely on Linux Mint's default settings.

Quite early on in the installation it will offer to install side side with the existing operating system i.e. XP. Go with that and you will end up with a dual boot system.

Just one more thing at the point it offers to install side by side make sure the bootloader (indicated at the bottom of the screen) is set to install to hard drive not the USB flash drive or else you will end up with a non bootable system.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2955460/operating-systems/dual-booting-linux-with-windows-what-you-need-to-know.html The link is for ubuntu but it is the same process for Linux Mint

fenlander_uk

This might help with a lot of your questions:
How to Replace Windows XP with Linux for Free

ThemeOne

On an old PC you may find the Mate version runs a bit easier than Cinnamon.

Norman_Castle

Installed on Saturday. Installation was easy. Few problems updating firefox but now sorted.
Few problems finding programme locations. Not sure if wifi is working properly. Just tried to install a printer via usb. Apparently I need the printer URI. No idea what this is or where to find it.
I installed the same printer on XP without knowing this. Why do I need it for Linux?

I can see me going back to windows. I want to use a computer, not waste my time messing about with an operating system.

henm2

Linux Mint is quite an easy an easy operating system to use, As with any operating system it takes time to get used to it.

Program locations- just as with Windows 7 and XP just click on the start button (Linux Mint icon left hand side of task bar i,e left hand corner of the screen at the bottom). A tree of program locations springs up.

The Linux equivalents of the most popular windows software can be found here http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software

You don't need usually the Printer URL Which version of Linux Mint have you installed? Also which printer have you got?

There is a piece of printer software called CUPS which is important and may not have yet been installed. With your version of Linux Mint you should have a software download manager called 'Software Manager' or 'Synaptic' or both. Synaptic is in my opinion the best one to use. If Synaptic is not installed use Software Manager to install it then close down Software Manager.

Start 'Synaptic'. You will be prompted for your admin password. Once it has loaded put the word cUPS in the search bar. If CUPS is not installed highlight it in the list which has come up , right click mouse, select 'mark for installation'. While you are there you can mark for installation other useful software such as GIMP (photoshop equivalent), Chromium web browser (chrome browser equivalent), VLC (media player), K3b (DVD burner), Audacious (audio player)

Once you have made your selections click 'apply' and it will take a few minutes to install. Close down synaptic.

Once CUPS is installed go to start button, Administration, Printers, select 'unlock' put your password in and select add. Most connected printers will come up and you just select device 'usb connection', forward, apply. As easy as that.

John_Gray

If you thought you were going to be able to move to Linux Mint without putting in some of the effort we have all expended over the years to learn Windows, then I would say you were mistaken.

Setting up printing and adding wireless to Linux is often more difficult than for Windows 7-10 - but remember what fun you had in Windows XP and before? I've just had to install a Windows XP PC from scratch where the operating system installation disc didn't have a driver for the ethernet NIC on the PC motherboard. And thus you couldn't connect to the internet to download the correct ethernet driver...

forgotmyname

My first experience with XP was trying to install it on a RAID setup and having to get the damn drivers into a floppy disc because it didnt have them included.

Then diagnosing errors was a pain if you had to sky the driver installs becuase your drives would vanish.

But i stuck with RAID and it was worth it. Recently added an SSD and the performance improvement over my RAID setup was neglible.

RAID SSD's??

esuhl

Norman_Castle wrote: »

I can see me going back to windows. I want to use a computer, not waste my time messing about with an operating system.

If you're interested in computers or are a "control freak" who likes to set up their PC so it works exactly as you wish, or if you want to put in a bit of effort to have a much faster, more responsive OS... then GNU/Linux is amazing!

Otherwise, I'd have to ask why you decided to try GNU/Linux. Was it just curiosity? Were you expecting/hoping to see certain advantages over Windows?

I installed about eight Linux distributions until I found one that worked for me. People's brains work differently, and the "simplicity" of Linux Mint is very different to the "simplicity" of Arch Linux.

Also, GNU/Linux is much more customisable than Windows OSes, so you can often change default configurations to get the OS to behave as you want.

So maybe you should try some other distros. But, inevitably, there's going to be some "messing about" and a bit of a learning curve if this is all new to you.

Windows is the most popular OS for home users for very good reason. It may be ugly and bloated, have telemetry privacy issues, and cost money, but it "just works" without a great deal of configuration or expertise from the user... (Well... most of the time!)