How to install linux mint

How To Install Linux Mint 20 “Ulyana”

Linux Mint 20, code-named “Ulyana” is a long term support (LTS) release which will be supported until 2025. It comes in three desktop editions: Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce.

To learn more about Linux Mint 20 new features and improvements, see: Linux Mint 20 is Now Available to Download.

In this article, you will learn how to install Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon desktop edition, but the same instructions work for the MATE and Xfce editions as well.

System Requirements:

Download Linux Mint 20

The latest release of Linux Mint 20, can be downloaded using the following links.

Installing Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon Edition

1. After downloading the Linux Mint 20 iso image, burn the image to a DVD or create a bootable USB stick using a tool such as Universal USB Installer (which is BIOS compatible) or Rufus (which is UEFI compatible).

Once the computer boots from the bootable media, you will see the Linux Mint 20 GRUB welcome screen as shown in the following screenshot. Select Start Linux Mint and click Enter.

Linux Mint 20 Grub Menu

3. After Linux Mint loads, click the Install Linux Mint icon as highlighted in the following image.

Install Linux Mint 20

4. Once the installer welcome page loads, select the installation language you prefer to use. Then click Continue.

Choose Linux Mint 20 Installation Language

5. Next, choose your keyboard layout and click Continue.

Choose Linux Mint 20 Keyboard Layout

6. Next, choose the option to install media codes (required to play some video formats and to properly render some websites). Then click Continue.

Install Multimedia Codes in Linux Mint 20

7. Next, choose the installation type. For this guide, we will consider a scenario of installing Linux Mint on an unpartitioned hard drive without an existing operating system. We will show how to manually partition your hard drive for the installation.

Select Something else from the two available options. Then click Continue.

choose Linux Mint 20 Installation Type

8. Next, select/click on the unpartitioned storage device from the list of available storage devices. Then click New Partition Table. Importantly, the installer will automatically select the device on which the boot-loader will be installed.

Create New Partition Table

9. In the next pop-up window, click Continue to create an empty partition table on the device.

Confirm Create New Partition Table

10. The installer will create a free space equivalent to the capacity of the hard drive. Now double click on the free space to create a partition as described next.

Create a New Partition

Creating root(/) Partition

11. The root partition stores the base system files. To create it, enter the size of the new partition (out of the total free space). Then select the file system type to (the default is EXT4 journaling file system type), the mount point should be set to / (meaning root partition) from the drop-down list. Then click Ok.

Create Root Partition

12. The root partition should now appear in the list of partitions as shown in the following screenshot.

Root Partition Created

Creating Swap Area/Partition

13. Next, you need to create a swap partition/area using the available free space. Double click on the free space to create a new partition to be used as swap area.

Choose Free Space

14. In the pop-up window, enter the swap partition size and set the Use as to swap area.

Create a Swap Partition

15. Now, you should have two partitions (root and swap area) created. Next, click Install Now button, the installer will prompt you to accept the new changes in the hard disk partition layout. Click Continue to proceed.

Confirm Partition Changes to Disk

16. Next, select your location and click Continue.

Choose Your Location

17. Next, enter your user details for system account creation. Provide your full name, the computer’s name and username, and a strong, secure password.

Create New Account

18. If all is ok, the installation of the base system files and packages should start highlighted in the following screenshot, wait for it to complete.

Installing Linux Mint 20 System

19. When the base system installation is complete, restart your system by clicking Restart Now.

Linux Mint 20 Installation Complete

20. After the restart, remove the installation media, otherwise, the system will still boot from it. At the GRUB menu, select Linux Mint and allow it to load.

Choose Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon

21. At the login interface, enter your account password to log in. Then click Enter.

Linux Mint 20 Login

22. After login, you will see the start-up welcome message. To disable this message, unchecked the option highlighted in the following screenshot.

Linux Mint 20 Welcome Screen Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon Desktop

Congratulations! In this guide, we showed how to install Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon edition on your computer. Enjoy! Do share your thoughts with us via the feedback below.

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How to Install Linux Mint?

Linux Mint is the second-largest Linux-based distro used in the world. Linux Mint is a community-driven Linux distribution based on Ubuntu which itself is based on Debian and bundled with a variety of free and open-source applications. So here we discuss the installation of Linux mint.

Installation is divided into four parts :

Phase 1: Creating installation media

RUFUS BURNING LINUX MINT

If you’re using a Linux machine, (We strongly recommend using Etcher). Use the same procedure as specified for Rufus.

Phase 2: Booting

After Flashing, Unplug the USB flash drive and shutdown the target machine. Plugin the USB to the target machine. Turn on the machine and keep pressing the boot key. Boot key for the various machines can be found here. When the boot menu appears select the USB flash drive. The machine starts booting. Wait for some time till then the desktop appears. Double-click on the Install Linux Mint icon on the desktop.

Phase 3: Installation

Select your language.

Then connect to the Internet:

If you are connected to the Internet, tick the box to install the multimedia codecs:

Choose an installation type. It is recommended to create a new partition for Linux(10 GB min) in EXT4 type and a swap partition(8 GB).

If Linux Mint is the only operating system you want to run on this computer and all data can be lost on the hard drive, choose to Erase disk and install Linux Mint.

If another operating system is present on the computer, the installer shows you an option to install Linux Mint alongside it. If you choose this option, the installer automatically resizes your existing operating system, makes room, and installs Linux Mint beside it. A boot menu is set up to choose between the two operating systems each time you start your computer.

Next Select your timezone:

Select your keyboard layout:

Enter your user details:

Then click continue:

Installation may take a while. When the installation is finished, click Restart Now. The computer will then start to shut down and ask you to remove the USB disk (or DVD). Upon reboot, your computer should show you a boot menu or start your newly installed Linux Mint operating system.

How to Install Linux Mint 20 [The Simplest Way Possible]

Undoubtedly, Linux Mint is one of the best Linux distributions for beginners. It is easy to use, doesn’t consume lots of system resource and has tons of software available.

There are various ways to install Linux Mint:

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to install Linux Mint removing other operating systems from your computer.

Install Linux Mint by replacing Windows or any other operating system

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-300×169.png» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint.png» width=»800″ height=»450″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint.png» alt=»Install Linux Mint» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint.png 800w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-300×169.png 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-768×432.png 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint.png?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″>

I am using Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon edition. However, the steps work for other Mint versions and desktop variants like Xfce and MATE. The screenshot might look a little bit different but the steps remain the same.

Minimum system requirements for Linux Mint 20 default Cinnamon edition:

This method of installing Linux Mint formats your entire disk. That means any data present on the system will be wiped out.

For this reason, please save your data on an external USB disk so that you can copy it back after installing Mint.

Step 1: Download Linux Mint ISO

Go to Linux Mint website and download Linux Mint in ISO format. This file is used for creating the installation USB.

You’ll find three variants:

If you do not know about them, go with the default Cinnamon edition. When you click on that, you’ll find various mirror websites and torrent link to download the ISO file.

If you have a good internet connection for downloading 2 GB of file without any issue, use a mirror which is closer to your country of residence (for faster download).

If you do not have a good, consistent internet connection, opt for the torrent version (if you know what torrent is).

Download Linux Mint

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/download-linux-mint-300×169.png» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/download-linux-mint.png» width=»799″ height=»450″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/download-linux-mint.png» alt=»Download Linux Mint» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/download-linux-mint.png 799w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/download-linux-mint-300×169.png 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/download-linux-mint-768×433.png 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/download-linux-mint.png?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″> Download Linux Mint

Step 2: Create a live USB of Linux Mint

Now that you have downloaded the ISO, it is time for creating a live USB of Linux Mint.

You’ll need a dedicated software that creates a live USB. There are several such tools available for free. You can use Etcher which is available on Windows, Linux and macOS.

If you are using Windows, you can also use Rufus. In the example here, I have used Rufus.

You select the ISO. You may confuse over the partitioning scheme. Almost all the computers in last 7 years or so use GPT partitioning scheme. Older computers may use the MBR partitioning. You should check which partitioning scheme your system uses to be sure.

If you choose the incorrect partitioning scheme, you may not be able to Linux Mint. In that case, come back to this step and recreate the USB by choosing the other partitioning scheme.

Step 3: Boot from the live Linux Mint USB

Once you have successfully created the Linux Mint USB, it is time to use it for installing the awesome Linux Mint.

Plug in the live USB of Linux Mint and restart your system. At the boot screen when you see the logo of your computer manufacturer, press F2 or F10 or F12 to enter the BIOS settings.

In here, you should make sure that booting for USB or removable media is on the top of the boot order.

This screen may look different for different manufacturers. You’ll have to find this setting on your own or search the internet.

Make the changes, save and exit.

Step 4: Install Linux Mint

Now you should boot into the live Linux Mint environment. You’ll see a screen like this that gives you a couple of options. Go with the first option.

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-boot-300×174.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-boot.jpg» width=»634″ height=»368″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-boot.jpg» alt=»Linux Mint Boot» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-boot.jpg 634w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-boot-300×174.jpg 300w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 634px) 100vw, 634px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-boot.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″>

In a few seconds you’ll be inside the Linux Mint live environment. It may take more time if you have USB 2.

You’ll see a “Install Linux Mint” icon on the desktop. Click on it to start the installation procedure.

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-from-live-usb-300×121.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-from-live-usb.jpg» width=»798″ height=»321″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-from-live-usb.jpg» alt=»Install Linux Mint From Live Usb» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-from-live-usb.jpg 798w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-from-live-usb-300×121.jpg 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-from-live-usb-768×309.jpg 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/install-linux-mint-from-live-usb.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″>

It will ask you to choose some basic configurations like language and keyboard layout. Choose the most appropriate ones for your system.

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/keyboard-layout-selection-linux-mint-300×192.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/keyboard-layout-selection-linux-mint.jpg» width=»800″ height=»513″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/keyboard-layout-selection-linux-mint.jpg» alt=»Keyboard Layout Selection Linux Mint» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/keyboard-layout-selection-linux-mint.jpg 800w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/keyboard-layout-selection-linux-mint-300×192.jpg 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/keyboard-layout-selection-linux-mint-768×492.jpg 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/keyboard-layout-selection-linux-mint.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″>

Avoid connecting to internet during installation

I strongly advise NOT connecting to internet while installing Linux Mint. This way the installation is quicker as it does not try downloading updates while installation.

Not connecting to the internet may also save you a few unpleasant surprises. I encountered a “‘grub-efi-amd64-signed’ package failed to install into /target” error and my installation failed. I plugged out the live USB and tried installing it again without connecting to the internet and the error didn’t appear this time.

The next screen is the most important part of Linux Mint installation. You are going to format the entire hard disk and install Linux Mint. Linux Mint will be the only operating system on your computer.

Again, this means that you’ll lose all the data on the disk. Please copy important files on an external disk.

In this method, Linux Mint handles everything on its own. It creates an ESP partition for EFI boot manager of about 500 MB and the rest of the disk is allocated to root partition. The root consists a swapfile for swap usage and your home directory. This is the easiest setup with no extra effort.

You’ll be warned that disk will be formatted. Hit continue and you’ll have to select timezone in the next. You may change it later as well.

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timezone-selection-linux-mint-300×193.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timezone-selection-linux-mint.jpg» width=»799″ height=»514″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timezone-selection-linux-mint.jpg» alt=»Timezone Selection Linux Mint» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timezone-selection-linux-mint.jpg 799w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timezone-selection-linux-mint-300×193.jpg 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timezone-selection-linux-mint-768×494.jpg 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timezone-selection-linux-mint.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″> Timezone Selection Linux Mint

After that, you’ll face a screen that asks you to set username and password. Use an easy to remember password because you’ll have to use it all the time.

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/create-user-while-installing-linux-mint-300×193.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/create-user-while-installing-linux-mint.jpg» width=»799″ height=»514″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/create-user-while-installing-linux-mint.jpg» alt=»Create User While Installing Linux Mint» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/create-user-while-installing-linux-mint.jpg 799w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/create-user-while-installing-linux-mint-300×193.jpg 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/create-user-while-installing-linux-mint-768×494.jpg 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/create-user-while-installing-linux-mint.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″> Create User and Password While Installing Linux Mint

Things are pretty straightforward from here. You just have to wait for like 5-10 minutes for the installation to complete.

Once the installation finishes, it will ask you to restart the system. Restart it.

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-installation-finishes-300×91.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-installation-finishes.jpg» width=»799″ height=»243″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-installation-finishes.jpg» alt=»Linux Mint Installation Finishes» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-installation-finishes.jpg 799w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-installation-finishes-300×91.jpg 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-installation-finishes-768×234.jpg 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-installation-finishes.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″> Linux Mint Installation Finishes

When the system turns off, it also asks you to remove the live USB and press enter.

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/finish-linux-mint-installation-300×130.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/finish-linux-mint-installation.jpg» width=»795″ height=»345″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/finish-linux-mint-installation.jpg» alt=»Finish Linux Mint Installation» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/finish-linux-mint-installation.jpg 795w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/finish-linux-mint-installation-300×130.jpg 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/finish-linux-mint-installation-768×333.jpg 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 795px) 100vw, 795px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/finish-linux-mint-installation.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″> Remove the USB and press enter

Well, that’s it. You’ll now boot into Linux Mint. Enter your password you had created earlier and you’ll enter Linux Mint to see a welcome screen like this:

Linux Mint Welcome Screen

» data-medium-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-welcome-screen-300×204.jpg» data-large-file=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-welcome-screen.jpg» width=»800″ height=»543″ src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-welcome-screen.jpg» alt=»Linux Mint Welcome Screen» data-lazy-srcset=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-welcome-screen.jpg 800w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-welcome-screen-300×204.jpg 300w, https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-welcome-screen-768×521.jpg 768w» data-lazy-sizes=»(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px» data-lazy-src=»https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/linux-mint-welcome-screen.jpg?is-pending-load=1″ srcset=»data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″> Linux Mint Welcome Screen

Enjoy Linux Mint

Since you just installed it, do read our recommendation of things to do after installing Linux Mint 20.

I hope this tutorial helped you in installing Linux Mint 20 easily. If you face any issues or difficulties or if you have any confusion, feel free to leave a comment below.

Creator of It’s FOSS. An ardent Linux user & open source promoter. Huge fan of classic detective mysteries ranging from Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes to Detective Columbo & Ellery Queen. Also a movie buff with a soft corner for film noir.

Installation of Linux Mint 21 [Cinnamon Edition] Desktop

Linux Mint is a modern, polished, easy-to-use, and comfortable community-driven GNU/Linux desktop distribution based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. It is a great and recommended distribution for computer users switching from Windows or Mac OS X operating system to the Linux platform.

Linux Mint 21 code-named “Vanessa” is the latest version of the popular Linux Mint desktop operating system that is available in three versions, namely Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE. It is an LTS (Long Term Support) release that is built atop Ubuntu 22.04 and will be supported until 2027.

Linux Mint 21 ships with several updated software, improvements, and many new features that will offer you a more pleasant desktop experience:

This guide will walk you through the steps to install Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon edition, but the steps below also work for Mate and XFCE editions.

Before you proceed, ensure that you have a 4 GB USB drive for the installation medium and a stable broadband internet connection to download the ISO image.

Step 1: Download Linux Mint 21 ISO Images

First of all, you need to download the ISO image from the links below:

Once you downloaded the preferred desktop edition, make sure to verify the ISO image by generating the SHS256 sum as shown:

Verify Linux Mint ISO

Compare it with the sum presented in the sha256sum.txt which you can download from the ISO download page as highlighted in the following screenshot.

Verify Linux Mint ISO Image

Next, you need to create a bootable media-USB flash/DVD using the Rufus utility or these useful USB creator tools in order to create a Linux Mint bootable USB drive.

Step 2: Installation of Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon Edition

Now plug in the bootable USB flash drive into your computer and reboot. Once the system has rebooted, press your BIOS key for selecting the boot device and select the USB drive to boot from it. Once the system has booted, from the grub menu, select the first option and click enter to load Linux Mint.

Linux Mint 21 Boot Menu

From the desktop, click Install Linux Mint to launch the installation wizard as highlighted in the following screenshot.

Install Linux Mint 21

After the installation wizard opens up, you can optionally read the release note, then click Continue.

Choose Linux Mint Language

Next, select the keyboard layout and click Continue.

Choose Linux Mint Keyboard

In the next windows, check the option Install Multimedia codes (which are required to play certain video formats and more), and click Continue.

Install Multimedia Codecs

Now pick the installation type by selecting the second option, Something else to enable you to manage partitions for installing Linux Mint.

Note: If you already have existing partitions where you wish to install Linux Mint, for example, a partition with an existing installation of another Linux Mint version installation or Linux distribution, simply ignore the partition creation steps, simply select the root, and swap partitions and set the properties.

Choose Linux Mint Install Type

Next, in the partition setup window, click New Partition Table.

Choose New Partition Table

And confirm the new partition table creation step by clicking Continue in the pop-up window.

Confirm New Partition Table

Next, you need to create the EFI system partition, a mandatory partition for UEFI systems. It will hold the EFI bootloaders and drivers to be launched by the UEFI firmware. Select the free space, and click the add (+) button to create a new partition.

Create New Partition

And set the EFI partition properties:

Next, create the root partition which will store the system files. Select the free space again, and click the add (+) button to create a new partition with the following properties:

Next, create the swap space by selecting the free space and clicking on the plus (+) sign to create a new partition with the following properties:

Finally, create a “Reserved BIOS Boot area” partition of at least 1 MB, which will store the boot loader code.

Create Reserved BIOS Boot Partition

After creating all your partitions as shown in the following screenshot, click Install Now.

Linux Mint Partition Summary

In the pop-up window, click Continue to accept the new partition table setup.

Confirm New Partition Table

Now select your location and click Continue.

Choose Linux Mint Timezone

Next, create a user account with a password and set the computer name as shown in the following screenshot. Then click Continue to start the actual installation of system files and packages to the root partition.

Create Linux Mint User

Wait for the installation of the system files and packages to complete. Once all is done, click on Restart Now.

Linux Mint Installation Completes

Once the system has rebooted, log into your new Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon edition installation.

Linux Mint Login Linux Mint 21 Desktop

Congratulations! You have just successfully installed Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon edition on your computer. For any questions or additional information, you can use the comment section below.

If You Appreciate What We Do Here On TecMint, You Should Consider:

TecMint is the fastest growing and most trusted community site for any kind of Linux Articles, Guides and Books on the web. Millions of people visit TecMint! to search or browse the thousands of published articles available FREELY to all.

If you like what you are reading, please consider buying us a coffee ( or 2 ) as a token of appreciation.

We are thankful for your never ending support.

Scope of this tutorial

This tutorial only covers Hybrid ISO images.

Starting with the release of Linux Mint 12 KDE RC, Linux Mint switched to Hybrid ISO images.

Previous releases such as Linux Mint 9, 10, 11, or even the main edition of Linux Mint 12 are not covered by this tutorial.

What is a Hybrid image?

Traditionally, tools such as ‘Startup Disk Creator’ or ‘UNetbootin’ were needed to install Linux Mint via USB.

With hybrid images, you can simply write the content of the ISO and make a bootable USB stick which can install Linux Mint by using the ‘dd’ command.

How to make the USB stick?

Using mintStick

mintStick is installed by default in Linux Mint.

Launch «USB Image Writer» from the menu, select your ISO image and your USB device and press «Write to device».

Using the Terminal

It is really simple. Go to a Terminal and type:

/Desktop/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdx oflag=direct bs=1048576

/Desktop/linuxmint.iso’ is the name and location of your downloaded image (located at the desktop in this example) and ‘/dev/sdx’ is the target USB drive. If your system doesn’t support ‘oflag=direct’, you can just leave it out as it is simply intended to speed up the process a bit.

If you don’t know about the target USB drive path, run this command and figure out your destination drive.

Warning: Make sure to set the correct device path, as this process will delete all data that was on the specified device previously!

Remember, don’t include an integer for the USB drive, e.g. ‘/dev/sdx1’, as it would refer to the existing partition on that drive and not the drive itself.

When the USB has been properly created by ‘dd’, there should be an output similar to this:

/Desktop/ linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdb oflag=direct bs=1048576
706+1 records in
706+1 records out
740601856 bytes (741 MB) copied, 91.7024 s, 8.1 MB/s

Using Microsoft Windows

From Windows, you can use ‘Pendrive Linux Universal USB Installer’:

Alternatively, you can use ‘Image Writer’, an open source project from Launchpad.

Comments

Thank you very much

Hasn’t worked for me.

Hi!
I’m stuck at a point.

I made a USB of mint 18 to install it on my HP Envy TS u110dx. All worked fine except when I boot from USB and choose to run Linuxmint from grub it just show a black screen and stucks there. I waited for a long time but nothing happened.

Any idea or solution??

can there be an explanation on how to create a live usb using mac.
please

My laptop is lenovo, 4x Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz,
Memory 6GB. I see the tutorial is 3 years old. I guess that everything Clem wrote in the tutorial worked back then, but now with this latest Mint 17.2 RC and a Non Uefi computer it seems that even the dd command completed ok, the computer still doesn’t boot from the USB flash. First of all I am not a programmer, but a gnu/linux beginner(who want to learn more :)) and I thought I should write all the troubleshooting details to save many hours from other beginners time who just want to make a bootable USB flash drive with this release.
Here are the steps i taken: (on Mint 13(64bit) which I have installed now)

-1- on a 4GB USB flash drive I used Gparted to create a msdos Partition Table, and formated with fat32 Filesystem
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 7843839 3920896 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 4016 MB, 4016046080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 488 cylinders, total 7843840 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3519853a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 0 3201855 1600928 0 Empty
/dev/sdb2 59432 63975 2272 ef EFI(FAT-12/16/32)

———
P.S. Success with unetbootin! After the failures above I repeted step 1, and at the step 2, I used unetbootin-linux-608 on the same usb flash drive. At step 3 both Gparted and fdisk reported everything normal(both partition table(msdos) and filesystem(fat32) were the same as before writing to the flash drive). At step 4, it did boot from the flash drive but directly into GRUB 2 command shell(but right before the grub I could see a line for 1 second saying «Secure Boot Not Enabled»). Then at the prompt grub> I typed exit, and after pressing Enter, it finally gave me the Unetbootin menu from which it succesully loaded Mint 17.2 but only when selecting «Start Linux Mint».

I know this is late for this page but it also involves a wider issue I hope you can expand on in another feature. I have people telling me that the main differences between running a OS like Puppy or Porteus vs Mint on a flash drive is because they cause less «wear and tear» on the flash drive and are supposedly faster. Can you clarify this, and secondly, if partially true, are there any «tricks» to improve Mint on flash drives like assigning its caches to RAM and so forth?

Thanks for any input on this!

the above procedure is only for creating a bootable usb stick in order to install Linux Mint?is it possible to fully install Linux Mint on a usb stick in replace of of a bootable cd/dvd?

screenshot of linux mint 14 cinnamon running on MacBook Air Gen 2

I successfully installed linux mint 14 cinnamon on my macbook air gen 2 via a bootable usb stick, here’s how to create the boot stick inside mac osx:

works well but I’m running Ubuntu 10.04 and i have to run imagewriter as root:
«cryptic@whitehouse.gov:

I’m running Windows Vista and want to create a bootable Live USB of mint 13 for which I’ve downloaded the ISO file.
I’ve downloaded «Image Writer» from the link here, but I’m finding it impossible to «Simply run the uitlity» as the readme note says.
Can anyone explain how to use this please?

Thanks. Can’t wait to try this to get mint on the netbook.

@Tuber: to be precise, KB, MB, GB, etc. refer to the metric system (base 10) so 1 MB is 1,000,000 bytes. If you wish to represent a number in an abbreviated base 2, use MiB, GiB, TiB, etc.

The convention of using a single char to represent a unit of measure as you correctly demonstrated in the dd command is a convention specific to the developer, not at all tied to the base if the numbering system.

I have been using that Pendrive Linux tutorial but it drives me crazy because of the lack of «persistence». You appear to have taken care of that problem!

Here are the steps for Mac OS X (similar to the steps using Terminal):

1. First, I used diskutil to reset the USB key to a single partition.

2. Next, I ran the following commands from a terminal window:

# Become root
$ sudo su
Password:

# Lst current drives, to get device name for USB key (in this example, the USB key is /dev/disk1)
sh-3.2# diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *100.0 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 99.7 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *4.0 GB disk1
1: DOS_FAT_32 UNTITLED 1 4.0 GB disk1s1

# If the USB key has a partition from it that is currently mounted, then unmount it.
sh-3.2# diskutil unmount /dev/disk1s1
Volume UNTITLED 1 on disk1s1 unmounted

sh-3.2# ls
linuxmint-13-xfce-dvd-32bit.iso
linuxmint-13-xfce-dvd-64bit.iso

# Write the Linux Mint ISO image to the USB key.
sh-3.2# dd if=./linuxmint-13-xfce-dvd-64bit.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=1048576
795+0 records in
795+0 records out
833617920 bytes transferred in 490.581580 secs (1699244 bytes/sec)

As an update Please note I was referring to the Binary zip version of Image writer 0.6 and running it under Windows xp. Just download it and unzip then run Select the Linux Mint ISO making sure to rename it to an IMG file. Then select where your USB Drive is and off you go.

This worked perfect for me using an USB on an old Compaq4000 wunning win xp Do note I used win Image Writer. But please note when you go to download do use the binary.zip version 0.6 and make the change from ISO to Img. note the edit.in the file name. Also note I’m using Linux Mint 13 iso

Isn’t bs=1M easier to type? 1024×1024=1048576 bytes, or 1 Megabyte, which can be abbreviated in dd by 1M.

c =1
w =2
b =512
kB=1000
K =1024
MB=1000*1000
M =1024*1024
GB=1000*1000*1000
G =1024*1024*1024
and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.

See man mkfs.vfat for the manual page and switch details.

Good one. For those who need to reformat their drive when done.

For those in Windows, a fine program to reformat to FAT32 is RMPrepUSB, you can use the «clean» option first if it gives you issues; http://www.rmprepusb.com/ It is an advanced removable drive prep tool, but also good for formatting.

this is to mugabuga What it did was creat a partion on your usb key what you need to do is delete the partion and refoment your usb key you can do this by useing gparted if you do not have it install go to the termail and type sudo apt-get install gparted

once it is install just find your usb drive:»WARING» DO NOT DELETE OR FORMAT THE WRONG DRIVE» BECAREFUL.

once you do that it should fix your problem i hope this helps.

if you want your usb compatible with windows use ntfs if you just want it compatible with linux use something like ext

i hope this helps.

I used imageWriter and now I can’t seem to figure out how to re-format my USB back to 8GB. It’s current capacity is reading 1.1GBs. Any way to reformat it to it’s correct size?

How to:
Download Bootice 0.9 from the address below.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Bootice-Download-180137.html
Extract bootice_0.9.rar
Run BOOTICE.EXE
Select the USB you want to restore under «Destination Disk»
Click on «Parts Manage»
Click on «ReFormat USB disk»
Leave «USB-FDD mode» checked and click on «Next»
Select «FAT32» and give it a label if you wish then click «OK»
Click «Yes» to confirm and voila
Now your USB has a new MBR and its full capacity is restored!

The Tutorial above covers everything you need to do in order to get a fully working bootable LiveUSB for LinuxMint12. Don’t waste your time with LinuxLiveUSB if you’re doing this in windows. I will note that whilst the terminal command did create a LiveUSB, my bios would not boot it since the USB wasn’t FAT32. Also, I could not figure out how to use ImageWriter or StartupDiskCreator in Lighthouse64 which is not based on Debian at all. I’m a noob when it comes to compiling source code, nor am I familiar with the terminal commands Lighthouse64 uses. So Win32-Disk-Imager on my Win7 laptop was my best choice.

For a nube, all these options were non-intuitive and missing instruction. However, I found a really great install program called «linux live usb creator.» Here’s the youtube video and the link for download is there. Totally foolproof.

we must delete partition table, rewrite it and format it in fat32.

@danpe91
‘oflag=direct’ explained above: «you can just leave it out as it is simply intended to speed up the process a bit» ie avoiding the buffer cache, and ‘bs=1048576’ equal to the ‘bs=1k’ it means block(s) is/are 1MB