cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/29272050
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 foundGoogling 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.
/dev/sr0is the CD drive. Does your computer have one?My pc does have one, but it’s unused for a while… Would disconnecting it prevent a bunch of these errors? Or can I ask for it to not check the CD drive? I keep seeing these error on occasion, even after installing Linux Mint and running it for a bit.
Can you test the boot USB on another PC (or in a VM) to make sure it was created correctly from the image and the image was okay ?
Don’t have another PC I can use to test and I’m quite a noob in anything that isn’t surface level Windows usage (I have messed with the registry a tiny bit, but purely following a guide) so VMs are close to magic for me.
Got recommended to check the USB ports (thanks to @[email protected] ) and if that doesn’t work I’ll reflash using other tools than Balena. Will post an update once I’ve tried this.
Thanks for the help
i meant to say you should try another usb stick (maybe a 2.0 one if you used a 3.0), not a port, sry
Ah, I didn’t check the USB stick itself.
Just checked, the stick is 2.0, so that shouldn’t be the issue.
What motherboard/cpu are you on? is this a laptop or a desktop? What usb drive are you using?
People are saying it’s an issue with USB 3.0 drive compatibility, maybe try a different one.
When changing settings from things you find online I’d recommend searching up what changing that option does, it makes troubleshooting more clear and it shouldn’t take too long.
If all fails, maybe try another distro. I’ve had PCs and laptops that for some reason couldn’t boot it install one distro, but worked like a charm with a different one. Maybe Aurora or bazzite, if you want to game, might be a good choice for a noob (unfortunately they don’t support live boot atm I think)
