Hi guys. Bought a librem 15 and am new to linux. Would like to try a more PC user friendly distro such as linux mint. I have spent days trying to figure out how to do this, with no luck. Most of the guides say that I need to create a partition first. I cannot change partition file sizes because the Pure OS has them encrypted. Cannot for the life of me figure out how to get around this. I have the Linux mint ISO on a flashdrive and tried to boot from it but it says- “Missing Operating System”. I am so stuck I dont know what else to do. Most guides for changing distros are from the perspective of someone running windows, and this does not help me. Also, the Pure OS encrypted partition is just another level of complexity and I am waaaaay in over my head. Someone help!
It sounds like you probably want to do a clean install of Mint. Did you creae a live/bootable Mint USB drive or just copy the iso file onto the USB. Easiest way to do this install etcher, download and unzip and run.
It will ask where the iso file is and what drive you want write it to, the USB stick. Make sure you select thoat correctly.
Once this is done turn off the macine. Put the USB stick in. Start the machine hit the “ESC” key when the machine comes on and the white rectangel appears. THen select the USB boot option. That should launch the “live” version of the Mint OS. You can look at things beofre installing.
Once you are ready, there should be an icon (been a while with Mint) that will start the install process. When doing that select the whole disk. This will wipe the full disk. You can reinstall PureOS later but once you are more comfortable with Linux.
I applaud your efforts. It seems like another world in another language or 10 but soon enough it will all make sense.
Hope this helps.
thank you Russ! yes you got me, i just copied the ISO file to the flash drive without doing anything else. I will try the etcher flash. Thanks for being so kind.
Glad to help. Nobody ever learns anything if they don’t ask questions. We have all been there are happy to help others on their journey.
Good luck