Linux Mint 18.3 install is stuck on login

[FredRdr88]

I have used the DVD to install Linux Mint 18.3 (Cinnamon) on other PCs. This Dell does not seem to have any secure boot flags in the BIOS. Should I go into compatibility mode before the automatic boot is over (ie. pull up the boot screen of the live boot).

It seems to think that I'm a user called "mint". So I would think if I supplied no password and just hit enter, it would let me in, but it always says, "invalid password".

I can't get past the live boot login screen to install Linux Mint on this pc.

Any ideas - is it a BIOS setting, or is it some other weird thing?
Any help appreciated. Thanks.

 

[FredRdr88]

In January of this year, which to ME, is a long time ago, I had the same problem on another similar machine (of being stuck on the install screen unable to log in - so at least this problem has already happened to me once, and I resolved it the previous time :lol. I am wracking my mind trying to remember what I did - I suspect strongly that I did something to the hard drive with a utility of some sort - could it be GParted? I don't know. I just know that I resolved the problem and made a note about it - but I didn't say in the note, how I resolved the problem.

Hmm?

Update:
So let's say hypothetically, that I have my GParted CD/DVD on my desk, which I think I can find. I put it into the drive and boot to it - what should I do? Should I set some flag? I will simply install Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon using the default hard-drive partitioning. But I suspect that there is still something I need to do to the drive - I just can't remember what?

It's also possible that I used a flash stick - a likely case as I often install stuff from flash, but so far, I can't find any flash sticks that have Linux Mint 18.3 iso on them - I'll keep looking though.

 

[FredRdr88]

I had posted to this forum in January - I'm reading that post - I notice that I had used an external DVD suspecting that the internal DVD was slightly bad or something, so I need to hunt around for an external DVD and simply try that. Strange, but you have to do what you have to do. I'll report if I succeed.

 

[FredRdr88]

I just booted to the DVD from an external DVD, but this time, I get the same problem as with the internal DVD. I will read my January post, but apparently, there is something else I need to do first.

 

[FredRdr88]

I guess I should not get a login screen or else is there a password I can supply?
I've tried mint;(just Enter, mint, passwd, password, ...) nothing works.

 

[FredRdr88]

I'm running Check integrity this time after doing some stuff in GParted to make it look like I'm ready to install an operating system? I'm sort of grasping at straws and just experimenting.

 

[FredRdr88]

I've decided to burn a new iso DVD as the Integrity Check claims it found 1 errors.

 

[FredRdr88]

I burnt the new DVD using ImgBurn and I've now made it to the Install Linux Mint screen that has the 3 icons in the upper-left and Menu bar at the bottom so it very well may have been a bad DVD that I was using. My bad on this forum post for not realizing that.

 

[FredRdr88]

I will give my answer as follows:

When installing Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia (Cinnamon) onto a machine that has nothing (no windows, linux, or mac), I would suggest doing the following:

- Use GParted to establish an MSDOS boot sector (can be small or large, even as small as < 50MB probably, mine was 400 MB, depends on your grub, etc.. situations). Mark the boot sector as boot in the manage flags. And then it's fine to set the rest of the hard-drive as ext4. NOTE: This step MIGHT be optional but the install seems to go better if you do this first.
- Burn an image (ImgBurn does the trick fine) of the downloaded .iso for Linux Mint 18.3 (your appropriate number of 32 or 64 bits of course, and amd, etc..).
- Then try to install Mint by booting to that DVD. If you wind up with a login screen and mint is the user - you probably have a bad DVD. I would suggest running the "Check Integrity" install option and see how many errors you got - I got one in my case but that was enough to mess up my install. The install should simply give you a desktop that allows you to proceed with the install.
- When you install, the simplest way to guarantee success is to choose the top-most radio button to reformat everything.

Note in that above that it is NOT necessary to make your cd/dvd/usb cd/dvd as the first bootable, since you can click on F12 (or your bios's boot setup key), and change it for each boot, that way, your hard-drive will be already
selected as the first boot drive when you succeed and it reboots for the first time with the new operating system.

Your mileage may vary, but this should help with installing Linux Mint for people who have had a bad experience with login prompts and just couldn't get past that screen. It's probably best NOT to even try to go past that screen as you may have a corrupt image. I don't know exactly why a corrupt image behaves that way - I would think it would fail in other ways - so perhaps there is a deeper understanding of this process than I can offer at this time. Good luck!