sounds like the machine has an issue like bad ram/failing hd or something.. ive installed mint on hundreds of machines with random hardware and never had these issues...
what machine did you make the stick with that crashed?
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Yup, get a recovery/tool ISO and run a memory test.
Doesn't The Linux Mint ISO also offer to run Memtest86+?
Otherwise: https://memtest.org/
I've never installed Mint, but I've had a patriot memory stick go bad, and the RMA process involved sending both sticks to Patriot. Never buying from that garbage company again...
I have a bunch of there SSD's and they have been working fine for a few years. Not super performant but they also have been reliable especially for the cost.
I think computer ram is just easily damaged in shipping.
Memtest is quite shit, seriously unstable ram will still pass. If it doesn't pass memtest it's actually dead.
Can you recommend a better solution?
The last time I've used it, it well identified the addresses of the RAM blocks that were broken.
Sadly most good tools are windows only but: OCCT, karhu Ram test and testmem5 (anta extreme config) Are all good choices, but id usually recommend running more than 1.
I followed the instructions to use Etcher, etcher itself crashed but it was a pretty easy fix running it in administrator mode and apparently a known issue. Its weird because the live preview works fine. The stick was made on the same machine I'm trying to install linux on.
that definitely indicates some kind of hardware failure
etcher sucks ass. I read about it even breaking usb sticks, I've had it fail the flashing too multiple times. in mint I use the preinstalled usb flashing tool, in other distros popsicle and in windows rufus.
I've tried Etcher many times and I feel like I've had issues every time, unfortunately. I don't remember the exact issues, but I recall both having problems with writing ISOs and with booting them. I would highly recommend Rufus instead, which has been much more consistent for me.
If it's crashing when even burning the ISO, it's not Mint.
Define crash: exception thrown, Windows crashing, hard freeze...etc
Sure sounds like you have a bad USB drive to me if it's only happening when using this USB device. Error messages would be helpful.
Sounds like your USB is fucked to be honest.
- Download ISO
- Create bootable USB
- Boot from USB
- Install
- profit
This was my experience with Mint.
No, I wouldn’t expect any issues with Mint.
- what’s your hardware
- you say burn, but then mention USB, what are you using to create the install media? If I’m making a bootable usb in windows I exclusively use Rufus and haven’t had issues to date
Seconding rufus. I dont use anything else. This is the way.
Fedora Media writer and Etcher are fine as well
Disks works for this on Ubuntu / Pop_OS too
Gnome disks will work on anything gnome based. It isn't great for writing images though. I would rather just use dd since I'm on Linux already
To add to this, if you’ve only been trying to write the ISO to a USB drive this whole time have you tried different USB drives as well?
Just want to say this it sucks that you're experiencing issues with something that should be so easy, always frustrating when something like that happens. Can assure you it's not an issue with Mint though, hopefully this doesn't put you off from using such a great distro.
This definitely wasn't my experience, what USB drive are you using?
If you're looking for a good USB drive I highly recommend the standard Sandisk Ultra (the bulky usb3.0 one) , it's very performant and reliable for the price.
After reading the new behavior I’m fairly confident it’s hardware failure from the laptop, most likely the drive. I’ve experienced odd install failure behavior like this before which was a sad going bad.
OP has said a few times that they have installed windows from the USB previously without issues. Please remember that all hardware will eventually go bad. Just because it worked in the past, that doesn’t guarantee it would work today.
It's sad that hardware issues can prevent linux from working. One has no way to know the core of the issue..
anytime I see linux + crash and no hardware specified, I assume it's Nvidia and stop reading.
Sure, but it’s a serious issue which is worth mentioning. Lots of Linux fanboys conveniently sidestep the whole “having the most popular GPU on the market will wreck your install” issue.
It’s absolutely something worth mentioning when you’re pushing someone to try Linux, because the “it’s so easy nowadays” rhetoric does nothing to help when it doesn’t turn out to be easy. If you’re genuinely trying to get people to use Linux as a daily driver, it’s worth warning them about some of the common pitfalls so they can go in with realistic expectations.
If they go in all starry-eyed and discover it’s not easy, they’re less likely to try it again in the future. After all, they were lied to the last time someone told them it was easy. Why would this time be any different?
I'm probably still gonna try it later, managed to re-format the laptop back to windows and get it working again... still no issues outside linux related things but I'm open to the possibility that it might just be bad luck with hardware.
Managing Nvidia isn't all that bad. It used to be awful but now it is in the realm of not ideal.