Replace Linux Mint with MX and keep windows dual boot

[TouchOdeath]

I currently have a dual boot setup of linux mint and windows 10. I want to replace my linux mint with MX linux without messing up my windows 10. How do I go about doing that? My partitions look like this currently:

/dev/nvme01p1 /boot/efi
/dev/nvme01p2 16mb unknown fs
/dev/nvme01p3 NTFS 131gb windows 10
/dev/nvme01p4 ext4 100gb linux mint
/dev/nvme01p5 swap

How do I install MX linux over Linux mint without messing up the windows stuff? Please keep the instructions simple for a layman newb like myself.

My backup/restore strategy is this:

My plan was to backup /home directory and all subdirectories, although I'm not sure what other directories are needed. Then make a script to install the software thats needed.

Help would be much appreciated, Thanks!

ANSWER:

If I would have identified the linux partitions and just deleted both of them to create 'Free space' the MX installer, along with all the other Linux installers (when using default install options), would have recognized the Free space and used that free space to install on. Everything would have been fine. Also as far as the home directory backup/restore, the home directory would have contained most everything (but not everything). The problem is the home directory for different linux distros vary, so copying/pasting the home directory didn't work (that froze my MX distro), but atleast I could selectively copy/paste what I wanted/needed.

/dev/nvme01p1 /boot/efi - Because this exists, we know that I was using UEFI. Leave this partition alone. For More Info: https://askubuntu.com/questions/783413/ ... fferent-di AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_system_partition
/dev/nvme01p2 16mb unknown fs - Probably some UEFI stuff.
/dev/nvme01p3 NTFS 131gb windows 10 - NTFS = Windows
/dev/nvme01p4 ext4 100gb linux mint - Linux Mint main partition
/dev/nvme01p5 swap - Linux Swap

Now that I'm using Legacy instead of UEFI, my partitions look like this:

/dev/nvme01p1 - ntfs 549mb
/dev/nvme01p2 - ntfs - windows 10 partition
/dev/nvme01p3 - extended - 118.59gb (combined total of linux partition and linux swap)
/dev/nvme01p5 - ext4 - linux partition
/dev/nvme01p6 - swap - linux swap

Notice the windows partitions are both NTFS and thats it, the rest are linux partitions.

Also check out the following 3 posts for answers.

[azrielle]

Why don't you just split the 100GB Linux Mint partition into 60GB for Mint, and a 40GB unallocated space using gParted? And install MX to the 40GB? That way, MX can "piggy-back" onto Mint's uefi setup.

[sivaraj]

Safe side just copy the home folder to windows partition.
If you start from live installer , choose the custom installation (usually default) ,then during Partition selection select the right partition location to install.
root location <ext4 100gb partition > (from the pull down list. name may be different like sda...)
swap location to < swap partition>.
Rest the installer will take care of

As suggested in above post you can shrink the Mint partition and create a ext4 partition from the remaining space.Use this new partition to install Mx-linux
During choose partitions option select right partition for root location
You will have all three windows10,Mint and Mxlinux in grub menu boot option.
Just choose which one to boot

[Pierre]

well - technically, you would just point the MX installer to that partition '/dev/nvme01p4 ext4 100gb linux mint",
and select the option to erase & install into that same partition, then click on Next to continue with the installation.

otherwise, you could also do as suggested by the above contributors, and go with a tri_boot system,,
- most of my machines are indeed a tri_boot system, but only using Linux Systems. ..

[TouchOdeath]

I really just want to cry... I knew I shouldn' t have messed with this and just kept my mint... I now have my windows install messed up. So Now I have to burn a windows disk and repair my windows boot stuff. The reason I want to cry is I don't have much time, and I wasted the entire day trying to do this and I'm not even close to finished.

My Mistake was, I should have asked for step by step instructions.

So I tried MX Linux, I used the option to keep my /home directory in tact. When MX booted, it wouldn't load anything but the desktop background. Also MXs grub didn't give me an option to boot windows. So I reformatted with mint to see if it would fix my grub, and it did. I was able to boot to windows and mint. So I reinstalled again but this time wacking the home directory. This time everything installed right for MX (minus the grub of course). The problem I was having now was the computer kept freezing. I've installed MX before on an older computer and it worked flawless. For some reason it doesn't work well on my hardware.

The reason why I wanted to get away from mint was because of systemd. I'm not an expert, but alot of linux experts don't like systemd, so I figured it was wise to get away from it. Also I wanted to save on hardware resources with a lighter weight OS. So now what OS? Linux Lite? Zorin? I'll probably go with Zorin, even though Zorin has systemd as well....

I appreciate the advice....

[KoO]

Have you tried F8 or go into your bios and change the boot order.Your old mint grub my still be their and use this to get too windows..

[turtlebay777]

The reason why I wanted to get away from mint was because of systemd. I'm not an expert, but alot of linux experts don't like systemd, so I figured it was wise to get away from it.
I appreciate the advice....

Load of nonsense talked about systemd, I always use it with MX17.1, in fact one program I use every day Vokoscreen, crashes when I don't use systemd as a boot!
There may be valid technical reasons due to the size of systemd opposed to the other one, but from the user's point of view there's nothing to fear.

BTW I triple boot off one hard drive, with options of MX17.1, Mint 17.3 Mate, and Win 7 x64.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: mx Kernel: 4.15.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 
           Distro: MX-17.1_x64 Horizon March 14  2018 
Machine:   Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron 1545 v: N/A serial: <root required> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0G848F serial: <root required> BIOS: Dell v: A14 date: 12/07/2009 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 48.8 Wh condition: 48.6/48.8 Wh (99%) 
CPU:       Topology: Single Core model: Intel Celeron 900 bits: 64 type: MCP L2 cache: 1024 KiB 
           Speed: 2194 MHz min/max: 1200/2200 MHz Core speed (MHz): 1: 2194 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express v: 2.1 Mesa 13.0.6 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-1-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Marvell 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet driver: sky2 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: a4:ba:db:cf:8a:25 
           Device-2: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: wl 
           IF: wlan0 state: dormant mac: 22:8c:46:1f:b7:27 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 188.39 GiB (80.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9250315AS size: 232.89 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 65.38 GiB used: 47.68 GiB (72.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 3.66 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 58.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3800 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/mxlinux/antix/stretch/ stretch main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://free.hands.com/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://free.hands.com/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox.list 
           1: deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/hawkeye116477:/waterfox/xUbuntu_16.04/ /
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/mxlinux/mx/repo/ stretch main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/waterfox.list 
           1: deb https://dl.bintray.com/hawkeye116477/waterfox-deb release main
Info:      Processes: 167 Uptime: 1h 32m Memory: 2.90 GiB used: 999.0 MiB (33.7%) Shell: systemd 
           inxi: 3.0.25 

[TouchOdeath]

Have you tried F8 or go into your bios and change the boot order.Your old mint grub my still be their and use this to get too windows..

At the time I hadn't checked that, but even if it was there, I would still have to go through the BIOS to get to windows. That is a big inconvenience when I could just go through the grub menu.

Load of nonsense talked about systemd, I always use it with MX17.1, in fact one program I use every day Vokoscreen, crashes when I don't use systemd as a boot!
There may be valid technical reasons due to the size of systemd opposed to the other one, but from the user's point of view there's nothing to fear.

BTW I triple boot off one hard drive, with options of MX17.1, Mint 17.3 Mate, and Win 7 x64.

From my understanding, the creator of systemd doesn't follow the linux/unix principle of 'do one thing and do it great', or something like that. Also he doesn't understand the intricacies of linux. Thanks for your opinion, its good for me since I am a linux newb.

UPDATE:

MX Linux is the only systemd-less OS that uses XFCE. I tried re-downloading and also using different USB drives, tried Legacy instead of UEFI, MX Linux definitely isn't 100% compatible with my hardware, so unfortunate :/. I've installed MX on an older computer and it worked like a top... So it looks like I'm stuck with a systemd OS. I tried Linux Lite 3.8, the only thing that doesn't work, is when I shut my laptop lid, it doesn't suspend with lock screen. That is huge for me, I have to have that. I've tried Zorin, it freezes on 'Copying Files...' which is very weird.... Going to try Peppermint 9, if that doesn't work... back to linux mint... which is where I started....grrrr

[azrielle]

You might want to try Sparky's MinimalGUI (which is Openbox), and then install the DE of your choice.

[Artim]

In reply to:

MX Linux is the only systemd-less OS that uses XFCE.

SalixOS is my second-favorite distro. Slackware-based, simple enough for a technophobic kid, Xfce desktop, and completely systemd-free. I'm sure there is an Xfce community spin of PCLinuxOS as well, also completely unencumbered by systemd. And there's probably an xfce version of Devuan out there too. There are plenty of options. MX has systemd but it's just "there" as a dependency, not as the init. It goes unused, but satisfies dependencies you need for whatever Gnome stuff you have, Pulseaudio, those kinda things.

While I really like Salix for it's simplicity and being "truly" systemd-free, it doesn't have the cool tools or the cool forum support that we enjoy for MX-Linux here.