====== Preparing the Machine ====== You should have at least two USB Keys available to experiment with this. One 4GB and another one 16GB are a recommended minimum. The 4GB key will be used as a "live CD" to initiate the install process, while the bigger one will be used to host your effective Linux Mint installation. This second key can, of course, be replaced by a hard drive of any size in case you plan to go beyond experimentation and use it for real work. ===== Getting the Installer ===== First, you will need to download the LMDE installer. The MATE (64bit) edition can be found on this page:\\ [[http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=100]] While the CINNAMON (64bit) edition can be found on this page:\\ [[http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=102]] You have the choice between two desktop environments: Cinnamon or MATE.\\ All descriptions in this wiki refer to the MATE environment by default. Cinnamon is supposed to be a fancier environment but requires more computing power... Choose the architecture that fits your hardware, 32 or 64-bit, click the link and then select a mirror that's close to your location to download the installer's ISO image. ==== "Burn" the ISO Image to a Live USB Key ==== Once the ISO file has been transfered to your disk, you'll need to write (burn) it to an external drive (the 4GB USB Key in our example). <WRAP important> Here, the most important thing is to **identify the correct device path** corresponding to the external drive on which you want to install the "Live CD", as this process will delete all data that was on the specified device previously! </WRAP> === On OS X Machines === To do so, in Mac OS X, first unplug the external drive (unmount it first if necessary by putting it's icon on the trash), then open the "Disk Utility" application (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app). Re-plug your device and look at what appears in the left column listing all connected devices. A new device should appear corresponding to your target.\\ Control click on your target device and select "Information" from the pop-up menu. In the window that appears, look for the "Disk Identifier" line and write down the corresponding ID. Now, open the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app), and type the following command **replacing the "X" with the number corresponding to the one identifying your target disk**, also notice the 'r' used in front of the previously recorded id: <code> sudo dd if=~/Downloads/linuxmint-201303-mate-dvd-64bit.iso of=/dev/rdiskX oflag=direct bs=1048576 </code> Where '~/Downloads/linuxmint-201303-mate-dvd-64bit.iso' is the name and location of your downloaded image (located in your user's default Download directory in this example). === On Linux Machines === You'd use a command like this one to figure out your destination drive: <code>sudo fdisk -l</code> Issuing the command first when your USB Key is NOT inserted, then, re-issuing the command once it's inserted and examining the newly available device (i.e. something like /dev/sdc). Finally, a command like this could be used to "burn" the ISO file to the key: <code> sudo dd if=~/Downloads/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdX oflag=direct bs=1048576 </code> Don't forget to change the "X" value in the previous code with the effective identifier for your USB key and <wrap important>PAY ATTENTION TO PUT THE RIGHT IDENTIFIER AS THE TARGET DEVICE, of=, WILL BE COMPLETELY ERASED BY THE dd COMMAND !</wrap> 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. Using sudo might ask you for your system administrator's password. When the USB has been properly created by 'dd', there should be an output similar to this: <code> 706+1 records in 706+1 records out 740601856 bytes (741 MB) copied, 91.7024 s, 8.1 MB/s </code> <WRAP center round tip 80%> From a Linux Mint installation the easiest way to create your Live Install Boot Key is to use the "USB Image Writer" application available from Menu > Accessories > USB Image Writer. Selecting the downloaded Linux Mint LMDE .iso image and your target USB Key, then restarting your machine is almost all you'll have to do to start a fresh LMDE install. </WRAP> === On Windows Machines === From Windows, you can use 'Pendrive Linux Universal USB Installer':\\ [[http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/]] Alternatively, you can use 'Image Writer', an open source project from Launchpad:\\ [[https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download]] Note: You might need to rename the ISO file and change its extension from .iso to .img for it to be accepted by Image Writer. To do this in Windows you can disable the setting 'Hide extensions for known file types' under 'Folder Options'. === Next === We now have a device that can be used to boot our machine, although we still need a way to effectively boot from it. As neither Macintosh, nor Windows PC, will natively recognize the device as bootable, we need to tweak the bootloader. ===== Modify the Boot Loader ===== <WRAP important> Please keep in mind that changing the configuration of the boot manager and/or boot loader on your computer **can very easily render it unbootable**.\\ As they say **YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED**, so please take caution when attempting any of the suggested actions.\\ Everything you will do, **you will do at your own risks**, and I will not take responsibility for anything bad that could happen to your system. </WRAP> BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) equipped motherboards usually let you select the boot order of available devices by pressing a specific (combination of) key at startup. This won't be covered here. In case your computer's motherboard is equipped with an EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), selecting the boot device can be quite an ordeal. You will have to prepare it in order to be able to boot from the device/partition of your choice. <WRAP tip> To prevent anything bad from happening to your data, it is strongly recommended that you use a completely separate disk to experiment with. An external USB Key for experimenting things could be a good start, switching to an external USB hard drive as well. **Swap out your current hard drive if necessary!** </WRAP> ==== rEFInd to the Rescue ==== One [nice] solution to allow dual-boot (or even multi-boot) on your EFI system is to install rEFInd.\\ [[http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/]] <wrap todo>TO BE COMPLETED</wrap> ===== Get Set, Ready, Go! ===== You should now be all set to start the LMDE installation, follow this [[install:base-up6|Base Installation of LMDE (UP6)]] link to step further on the path...