My first hurdle is understanding that i need to add a boot sequence and navigate to the EFI file in my mounted pen drive.

second hurdle is understanding i need to disable secure boot so that the dell bios doesnt think something is wrong and always run the bios repair program.

third is understanding that i need to disable Intel rapid storage for the full install (luckily linux mint tells us this)

and honestly the hardest thing was installing fastfetch cuz theres a lot of outdated information out there on how to install it on Mint.

the process took about 4 hours, i consider it very lucky that i was able to do it so fast.

resources that helped me:

https://devicetests.com/boot-usb-uefi-mode-dell-inspiron-workaround

https://youtu.be/FY-OSdd1ByQ

  • db2@lemmy.world
    1·
    3 months ago

    8GB is the practical minimum these days, most will go to your browser of choice unless it’s like Links or something.

  • cRazi_man@europe.pub
    1·
    3 months ago

    Welcome to Linux. Glad to see you’re not letting the hurdles get in your way and are working through solutions. There’s more to come.

    You say “5 year old laptop” as if that’s ancient 😄. I don’t even look at laptops newer than 5 years. Don’t need much more for internet tasks and office work.

  • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    3 months ago

    My god your install process sounded really difficult.

    This coming from someone running a Surface Go 1 and MacBook Pro 2012 which weren’t really linux friendly for the install process.

    In the future, I’ll probably only get used devices as I’m kind of anti consumerism, but I’ll be careful to always get something reslly Linux friendly.

    My last experience with anything from Dell was my first Linux install in the 00’s and it was really easy. I guess Dell has regressed in this regard.

    Anyway welcome to Linux!

    • blobchoice@feddit.uk
      1·
      3 months ago

      I’m glad you said this, I was thinking “I just plug in the USB stick and install Linux”

      In fact, the hardest but for me is remembering the special key to press upon boot up so it goes into boot selection mode and I can just select my USB stick…

      • HouseWolf@pawb.social
        1·
        3 months ago

        Some laptops don’t really let you boot from external install media so easily nowadays.

        I helped a buddy get Linux Mint on their “old” laptop to try it out. But it turned out you needed some manufacturer provided code to unlock booting from anything but the main harddrive within the bios.

        We contacted support but never heard back. We did find a work around when they decided to swap the existing HDD for an SSD, they used a USB to sata cable to install Mint on the SSD from their desktop then installed the SSD into their laptop in place of the original drive so it booted straight into that.