Installing Linux Mint 13 - Maya Cinnamon within Windows in HP Pavilion

Yes, I have upgraded to Linux Mint 13 - Maya Cinnamon in my HP Pavilion if you had read my previous post of installing Linux Mint 12:

http://topicalls.blogspot.com/2012/10/installing-linux-in-hp-pavilion.html

Actually I have un-installed the previous version and reinstalled the new version 13 which is code named as Maya. The reason behind reinstalling is that there is no feature of automatic OS upgrade in Mint unlike Ubuntu.

There are various editions of Mint namely - MATE (32Bit/64Bit) , Cinnamon (32Bit/64Bit), KDE, Xfce, etc and also Linux Mint Debian version. As you might be knowing we can create a USB boot loader and test run the OS without installing it. I tried all the versions of Mate, Cinnamon and Debian. I liked Debian very much because it allows you to choose between Mate and Cinnamon during your Login Session every time. So, you will be able to experience both the editions in a single install.

So, which is the right version to install within windows in HP Pavilion ? Cinnamon 64-bit is the only option you have because of the following reasons:
 - Only 64 bit is supported in Windows installer. 
 - Debian cannot be installed within Windows since it does not support wubi unlike ubuntu.
 - During the test run, the single tap click on the touch pad did not work for both Debian and Mate.

Installation:

Follow the same procedure mentioned in my previous post, i.e :
 1. Download the iso of Cinnamon 64 bit from linuxmint.com
 2. Download and install Virtual CloneDrive from:
        http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html
 3. Once the installation is done. Right click the iso file and click the " Mount" option.
      A drive will be created under your "My Computer", on clicking it you will be able to install Linux. If you find it difficult : check this link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20079/install-linux-mint-on-your-windows-computer-or-netbook/

This software will create a virtual partition which will allow you to install linux in it.

Note: If you don't care about recovering your Windows OS, you can go ahead and install Linux, the distro of your choice (I prefer Linux Mint Debian) by deleting the "Recovery" Drive/partition in your HP laptop which is of 20GB size and it is more than enough to install Linux. And you don't have to worry about the above installation stuff.

Brightness Issue:

 Once the installation is complete in your Windows, you have to reboot your system. Now, you will be able to see the GRUB loader where you can choose between Windows or Linux Mint.
Choose Linux Mint and press enter. After a few seconds your screen will be still dark.  Don't worry press the F3 / Brightness  few  times which is to increase the brightness in your HP system.
The installation is not yet complete, once the login is completed. You will see a "Install " icon on the desktop. Click that and complete the installation.
After the installation is complete, go to Update Manager and install all the updates.

Fixing the Brightness issue in HP Pavilion:

The brightness issue can be easily fixed so that it will automatically adjust the brightness each time Linux is loaded. Follow the below steps :

 1. Open terminal and type the command : gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub
 2. This will open the grub file in the editor. Take a backup of it.
 3. Edit the original file by typing acpi_backlight=vendor in between the " " in the line as :  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor"
 4. Save the file.
 5. Run the command  sudo update-grub . 
  This worked perfectly for me, the brightness was automatically set every time I logged in.

Now that the installation is complete you can play around with personalization

Login Screen:

If you don't worry about security, you can select "Allow automatic login" at the time of installation or later in the settings.
Since, Linux 13 offers you a feature of MDM : Multiple Display Manager, the login screen is different from Linux 12. Linux 13 asks you to enter both your username and password every time. I wanted my Linux 12 login screen back where you can enter only the password.  This can be done by the below command :
 sudo apt-get install lightdm

During the installation it will give you a dialog box which asks you to choose between "Lightdm" and "MDM" . Choose Lightdm and hit enter.
You will get your Linux 12 Login screen back !!


Themes:

The settings also is different from Linux 12. You will not be able to find the Themes under the usual "System Settings" instead it is available in "Cinnamon Settings"
which can be opened from the Start Menu Favourites or from the Taskbar/ Panel Settings - Other Settings.  

I did not like any of the Window border themes in Cinnamon, all were grey with light colored text.

Installing themes is very easy. Thanks to one of the videos in Youtube.

Mint 13 Bug: 

When you change the Window themes under the "Other Settings" tab in the "Themes" window. The change is not reflected instantly as in Linux usually. The workaround is :  Press Alt+F2 and enter "R" - hit Enter.
You will able to see the change of the window theme reflected now.

Installing Themes: 

Download the required theme - it can be either the OS theme or the window theme, usually comes in a zipped file. Extract it.
Open the Home Folder. Press Ctrl + H. This will show the Hidden Files. If you don't find "./themes" folder. Create a New Folder with the name "./themes". Copy the extracted themes folder to the "./themes" folder.

When you open the "Cinnamon Settings -> Themes" settings, you will be able to see the saved New Theme. You can choose it and enjoy.

I downloaded the themes and window borders from the site :
http://linuxmint-art.org/

You can install Linux without losing your Windows. Linux 13 is fast and secure. Try it and Enjoy !! 

Installing Linux in HP Pavilion

I recently bought an HP Laptop with Intel core i3 processor, 500 GB HDD installed with Windows Home Premium edition.

I'm a big fan of the Linux OS and wanted to install one along with the Windows 7 as dual boot system. I would like to share what I have gone through.

Why I mentioned specifically HP in the title because, it was such a pain installing in a HP laptop and I had to search for help in the entire web.  So, thought this might help some soul who is wandering in search for help for the issues faced in a HP.

Many may feel that installing Linux isn't a big deal these days as the installation process has become very user friendly. Yes you are right, if you want only Linux to be installed as a single OS removing the existing Windows it can be easily done. But, if you want to keep the Windows and install it along with it as a dual boot, its not easy particularly in HP.

Why ?
The usual method is to create a new drive by doing a disk partition and delete it.
And install the Linux in the deleted partition.
But in HP, you cannot create a partition. There are 3 partitions available. C:\ = 450 GB, D:\ - 20 GB (The HP Recovery drive - to restore your system if it crashes) and E:\ = 4 GB (HP Tools) . When I tried to create a new partition out of C:\, I was getting a warning message that "This partition will be created as a dynamic disk and all the other existing drives will also become dynamic and the operating system will not be loaded".

If the E:\ had a few more GBs we could have deleted that partition and could have happily installed in it. Who cares about the HP Tools.

Only other option left is to delete the D:\ the Recovery drive and use that.
We can make Recovery DVDs (5 is required) and delete it. There are some forums which advice this method.
But I didn't want to take such a risk in a new system since it is Windows.

Which Distro to choose ?

The Linux Distro iso can be used to copy it to a USB and make it as a installer with the help of softwares (I used Universal USB installer) instead of writing it to a CD/DVD.


I chose Ubuntu first, downloaded the latest iso and created the USB installer. When I tried to install, after the first page, the screen went black and something was vaguely seen. When checked in the net, many has reported problems in installing Ubuntu in a HP system. Later I found out that there is bug which makes the screen brightness to low. And I pressed the f3 button which is also used to increase the brightness.
So, the screen got displayed and Ubuntu was loading endlessly.

Next I chose Fedora 16 and tried the same with the USB installer. After the first page nothing happened. So had to abort that too.  Then from the forums I found that USB installer would not work for fedora and has to be installed from a CD. So, I burned the iso to a CD and then tried. But, still nothing happened.

Later I chose Linux Mint. There were 3 versions available, 32-bit DVD version, CD version with Windows Installer and a Linux KDE DVD version.

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Created the USB installer, first tried the DVD version, it didn't work. Then tried the KDE DVD version, it worked fine.
In all the Linux installers, you can do a test drive using the Live CD option and try as you are working in the real OS without installing it.
The Linux KDE Live CD was awesome, I fell in love with it at the first sight. The UI was too good and I wanted it to install it somehow. (I highly recommend this, just give it a try)

This is when I started facing the partition issue. Because as per the user Manual, the installer should give 3 options :
1. Install along with Windows
2. Linux  Full installation
3. Do Manual installation.
But for me, it asked only the last options and the first option was missing. When I tried to do the manual installation, no free partition were available. Tried many options with the Windows Disk Management. But unfortunately, nothing happened. 

I then tried the 32bit CD version, the Windows installer using the USB installer, the Live CD worked perfectly , but could not install this too due to the partition issue.
I was thinking that if I install this cd inside the Windows , I should every time login to Windows to go to Linux. So, I didn't want to try it.


Later I stumbled upon the below page and it inspired me to install the Linux Mint in windows. It will be installed as a Windows application and it can be un installed any time as a regular application uninstall. And it boots with a option to choose between Linux or Windows (Not from within Windows) and you don't have to worry about the partition issues.
 
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20079/install-linux-mint-on-your-windows-computer-or-netbook/

I followed the steps and installed Linux Mint successfully. The USB installer didn't work here too had some issues completing the installation. So, I burned the iso in a CD and it worked fine.

In all the above installations using the different Live CDs, the screen went black upon booting and I had to press the f3 key to increase the brightness.
I had the same issue in this installed Linux Mint too. I fixed with the help of the below link, by changing few lines in the grub loader as suggested in the method 1.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=45271

Finally, Linux Mint is up and running beautifully without any issues. Its a joy to work in it.
Once the installation is complete, there is a option given in the menus to "Upgrade to DVD version' , you can click it and get the full version with all the applications installed.
Otherwise too, if you go to the Software Manager , there are more than 35k applications available freely under various categories. You can install them freely.

The default File Manager does not show your C:\ drive files. So, you can download the Dolphin File Manager and use it. It will show all your drives and files.

Below are a few screenshots of my Linux Mint.

Try it . You will Enjoy.
You can always do a test drive without installing.
Note: This post is created using the Mint.