Hi, this my first post (question), not sure if it’s in the right place…please be patient because most this is totally alien to me…there are some things I don’t remember exactly and I’ve done the best I can without going through the process again to check
I would like some installing MINT15 with MATE desktop.
The story so far…(what I have done)
I have enabled my laptop to boot from my USB ports
I have downloaded the iso for the above LINUX distribution
I have run Universal USB Installer from Pendrive, selecting MINT15 as the iso
and told it where to find the iso that I downloaded
I told the UUI where to install MINT - my pen (flash/USB) drive
It did put a bunch of stuff on the USB drive, although I had to reformat the USB stick (a facility within the UUI) to make it bootable
I restarted my laptop, and it loaded the MINT screen.
I successfully connected to the internet
What’s wrong…
there’s an icon on the MINT screen saying ‘install MINT’…clicking on this icon starts a process…
first I select ‘other’ as to where the action is going to happen…I do not want to overwrite my copy of Win 7
It opens a screen with what I assume are (virtual) disks… something wrong because the sizes aren’t correct
I manage to select my USB to be the installation target site: I recognise it by it being the only FAT32 formatted one ???/sd4
I select for the boot loader location from the drop-down menu (after I get the hand of working the mouse for this) as the same virtual disk [???/sd4] (previously recogsed as my USB drive), and select the continue button. This is where I get the problem…it says it can’t find or there isn’t a \ROOT…I abandon the process.
On the MINT desktop, there’s a computer icon, which opens a file manager, I see my USB drive there, and click on it…it tells me that it can’t mount that volume…
I had believed that MATE was a GUI-TYPE INTERFACE…
so that brings me here
Can anyone guide me through the remainder of the process (if that isn’t the end, and I just haven’t recognised a successful installation ??) What have I done wrong ? The example ubuntu installation on www.linux.co.uk looks a lot easier…Linux.UK - Articles, News and Events for all things Linux
Dumb_Question
6.August.2013
HP Pavilion dm4 1050ea
Dude, you’ve gotta leave … I’m sure it states somewhere on these forums “there are no dumb questions here” 
So you’re attempting to install Mint onto the same drive it’s being run from ? … the LiveUSB stick ?
Erm … you cant.
If you don’t want to install to your hard drive, you could install to another USB stick, but why bother ? … the LiveUSB stick will allow you to run Mint anyway without installing.
Thank you for your answer, Mark.
So I can’t …well, saves me from trying. I really don’t know how to do what I’m trying to do, and how to recognise that I’ve done it if I have
What I wanted (I think) was create a LiveUSB…to install and run MINT from the USB stick and ignore my hard disk (if I wanted to completely isolate my Linux system from Windows)
have I succeeded in doing that ? (before trying to run the MINT installation command). Was I trying to install MINT on top of itself, in fact ?
The screen I have got looks nothing like the MATE desktop I thought I was going to get, and the iso claimed to include that, how do I get that to come up ? Maybe its because I have no programs, just the OS ? But why can’t I read the contents of the ‘disk’ I have installed it to ? (the USB pen drive) [remember, this volume could not be mounted)
Why does the MINT screen I get on booting from from my USB stick offer me the opportunity to install it ?
Dumb_Question
6.August.2013
The ISO image you downloaded is for a LiveCD/LiveDVD
a LiveCD is a bootable CDROM that can load a working Linux desktop, and run it directly from the CDROM without making any changes to the hard drive, you can also (if you wish) use the LiveCD as an installation media for a “proper” installation to your hard drive … the down side is the CDROM (when running in “Live” mode isn’t writeable, so any changes you make will be lost on reboot.
OK, a LiveUSB takes the same ISO image and puts it on a USB stick … the image is STILL not writeable, and is loop mounted in the same way it would be if running from a CD/DVD, the difference is that a LiveUSB can also have a “persistence” file that CAN save changes.
It won’t let you mount the USB stick as it’s already loop mounted and acting (as far as the system is concerned) as the Linux hard drive.
It still offers you the option to “Install Mint” as it can be used as an installation media for a “Proper” installation to your hard drive.
So if you included a persistence file, your LiveUSB is ready to use “as is” … just ignore the “Install Mint” icon, that’s only there for if you choose to install to the hard drive
You can tell if you’ve included a persistence file by either
a) setting up wireless … and seeing if you need to set it up again after a reboot
or
b) create a file/folder on the desktop … reboot … is it still there after a reboot
I can’t (currfently) comment on the MATE desktop from the LiveUSB … I’ve not tried it … but I’d have expected the Mint/MATE ISO to boot the MATE desktop :o … can you tell me what the ISO image you downloaded is called.
eg.
linuxmint-15-mate-dvd-32bit.iso
references -
http://linux.co.uk/index.php/pages/livecd/
and
http://linux.co.uk/index.php/pages/usb-key/
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