Salam & good day,
sorry for the title, looks like "tagging" list. well, i try as much to help others like me; facing this kind of problems.
Story start; several days ago, i thought, hey, "it's been a while (Mint 15), why not install to the newest linux distro now...must have a lot of improvements!".
1st step... explore/browse the best, lightest linux distro. Very easy, type in youtube something like "best linux distro 2016". i like lightest so i can have the best, fastest OS (operating system). my old knowledge tells me LXDE type is the best...but then i found "
SLAX". just below 300MiB, ready for live USB. Woaaah, I immediately loved the KDE. large buttons, simple and slick. I used to Linux MATE, and old Ubuntu (since Feisty Fawn up to Precise Pangolin i guess). And i like to replace my dual Linux Mint 15 (Maya?). My main OS is Windows 10.
Too bad, I'm not sure how to install SLAX. being resourceful, i cleverly check the status at
distrowatch and noted that red status:
dormant. This is not good. My PC uses kinda recent system, 64-bit, etc. etc.... well, have to find another option.
There i go, all i really want is the KDE. so, top 1 in distro watch as usual, Mint. so, i
downloaded the .iso (KDE of course) and make it
live USB using lili, my favourite. I think u can also directly use Lili without first downloading the .iso file. The Lili will find and download it for you.
Reboot computer, install, then come part where i have the hard disk partition. There, i already have swap disk, ext4.. i have to overwrite that old linux Mint 15. Not sure, because the installer look like wanting to reformat all my HDD. I rebooted to windows (win10), and manually delete that known linux mint partition.
Suddenly... ehhhhh, where's my D: ?! (not THE D). Then i remember, long ago, when in Mint 15, i got problem mounting D: where all my files kept (media files usually); i create D: while in Mint 15, format as NTFS. I guess, when I delete Mint 15 in Win10, no more referrence to D:.
Turn out, there's more problem to it. the next day when the computer restart, I cannot boot to windows. because, dual boot runs using GRUB. take out my
Chuwi Hi10 (cheapest (about MYR1000), most powerful (IMHO) windows environment table) for solution. Luckily i have several live USB, including Linux Mint 17. Turn out, those recent/latest live USB cannot access my "deleted" D: but my SLAX can. so, i backup what i can. wait...i forgot the real story now...how did i access the 'deleted D:' ?
I remember installing Easeus, but before that i already backed data up...aaaah. next, another note. you have to wait...very long time, to press that "PROCEED" button. looks like greyed out...but wait. that night, i leave it. only the next morning i click it. Saved my D:
Now, GRUB problem. easy, just reinstall. so, using Mint 17, i reinstall and use that ex-mint 15 allocation. Done. next, editing Grub to make Win10 as default.
Discouraging, now my Linux Mint 17.3 don't have internet. my Win10 uses Tenda wireless (wifi) usb dongle to connect with my fibre-optic internet (5mb speed). After several day looking for solution, very tricky here and there, i take my time to try. down to 2 ways. #1, get gui installation as mentioned
here. But, i failed to locate the required .inf file. go the #2, download driver, sudo, make, install, etc, error2, update, fatal error, ...aaaah,... finally i look back the solution from step A.
first, open Terminal (Konsole in Mint 17.3), type
lsusb to view what USB connected. Hah, thats the real name. [us 003 Device 003: ID 148f:7601 Ralink Technology, Corp. MT7601U Wireless Adapter]. And the solution pretty easy, as
found here.
sudo apt-add repository ppa:thopiekar/mt7601
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mt7601-sta-dkms
Restart computer, and I got wifi now.
tl;dr?:
. slax distro kde
. deleted partition
. easeus disk recovery cannot proceed
. delete linux partition, other partition gone
. wireless usb dongle installation
. tenda ralink