What’s your partition layout?

I understand why, but that’s not my preference. I use the normal interface for Lemmy, and the old version for Reddit.

Old Reddit because the redesign just seems like a pseudo-Tiktok hole full of ads. Lemmy, however, does not have that problem, and using the “old reddit” style would be a downgrade on features.

I used to use New Reddit before it got really bad, so I like the “Old New Reddit” style.

Which errors are you getting? Because if it’s these ones…

then everything is OK. Those are perfectly normal boot messages.

If it’s the same errors, try the same solutions. If it’s different errors, tell us what they are.

Is it external? Then try disconnecting it.

Looks like this could be a BIOS problem. Does it actually attempt to boot from the Mint USB?

If not, then you will need to enter the BIOS setup screen and change the boot device order. Put “USB HDD” at the top, “internal HDD” and “CD drive” in the middle, and anything else at the bottom.

This might get rid of the “boot from URL” you’re seeing, by demoting “PXE network boot” from the boot order.

/dev/sr0 is the CD drive. Does your computer have one?

Do they have buttons you can use to turn them off?

Have you set up your /etc/crypttab

Yes, yes I have!

(e. g. do you need hibernation?)

No, I do not.

I’d just like to interject for a moment…

If your ethernet works, then you can connect and then install NetworkManager using apt.

If it doesn’t work, try booting into the Live ISO, downloading the package onto the hard drive without installing, then rebooting into the normal environment and installing from the file.

• Do you have NetworkManager installed?
• Do you have the right network driver?
• Does this machine even have a wifi card?

Another recommendation: Peppermint Linux, a lightweight Debian-based distro with XFCE as the desktop. Designed for older computers, and has a 32-bit version. Not to be confused with Linux Mint.

Safety info: Do not use Damn Small Linux, it is unmaintained and will not receive any security fixes.

About Debian, OpenSUSE not taken into consideration: Linux under-the-hood (not the desktop components) are fast even on old hardware. If you use a light DE/WM like XFCE or IceWM it will run quite smoothly. I have installed Debian on an old computer (2GB RAM, single core Celeron CPU, spinning HDD) and I have not noticed any significant slowdowns.

About Windows 7: I know it’s absolutely unusable, I just don’t want to see it destroyed. Like a rusted-out undriveable classic car that I don’t want to see in a junkyard. Maybe copy the HDD image or something?

Maybe the Windows partition is getting automounted. If so, there’s nothing to fear. And if you installed Ventoy yourself, there’s even less to fear.

However, if you suspect something untoward is going on, run a virus scan. Use Defender on Windows, and ClamAV on Linux.

ClamAV is unintuitive, so I wrote a helper script called Mussel. Read it, copy-paste it, put it in your PATH.

#!/bin/bash

getpath1() {
    echo $PATH'/*' | sed 's/:/\/\* /g'
    # print the path, with a /* on the end;
    # then substitute every : with a /*[space]
}

getpath2() {
    echo $PATH | sed 's/:/ /g'
    # print the path only;
    # then substitute every : with a [space]
}

scanselect() {
	echo "How do you want to scan?
Select from 'path-scan', 'home-scan', 'full-scan', 'total-scan', or 'custom-scan'"
}

path-scan() {
	sudo clamscan --bell -r --move=/.quarantine `getpath2`
}

home-scan() {
	sudo clamscan --bell -r --move=/.quarantine /home/`whoami`
}

full-scan() {
	sudo clamscan --bell -r --move=/.quarantine --exclude-dir='/dev'  --exclude-dir='/sys'  --exclude-dir='/proc'  --exclude-dir='/.quarantine'  --exclude-dir='/.snapshots'  /
}

total-scan() {
	sudo clamscan --bell -r --move=/.quarantine /
}

custom-scan() {
	TARGET='unknown'
	printf "Select target files or directories to scan: "
	read TARGET
	if [ -d $TARGET ]; then
		sudo clamscan --bell -r --move=/.quarantine $TARGET
	else
		sudo clamscan --bell --move=/.quarantine $TARGET
	fi
}

qview() {
	echo 'These are the files in quarantine:'
	#sudo ls -hal /.quarantine
	#echo `sudo ls /.quarantine | wc -w`" entries in quarantine."
	sudo tree /.quarantine
}

qempty() {
	ANSWER='unknown'
	qview
	echo "Do you want to delete them all? (y/N)"
	read ANSWER
	if [ $ANSWER = 'y' ]; then
		sudo rm -rf /.quarantine
		echo 'All quarantine files deleted.
Returning to mussel interface.'
		sudo mkdir /.quarantine
	else
		echo "Returning to mussel interface."
	fi
}

show-help() {
	echo "List of commands:
	scan: Does not scan anything, just prints a list of commands for scanning.
	path-scan: Scans all files in the path. ($PATH)
	home-scan: Scans all files in your home directory. (/home/`whoami`)
	full-scan: Scans all files on the system (/), except for virtual filesystems and quarantine
	total-scan: Scans /all/ files on the system (/), nothing is excluded
	custom-scan: Scan a specific file or directory
	update: Update the threat database
	quarantine-view: List files in quarantine
	qview: Same as quarantine-view
	quarantine-empty: Delete all files in quarantine
	qempty: Same as quarantine-empty
	help: Print this list
	?: Same as help
	exit: Exit Mussel, return to the shell"
}

if ! [ -e /.quarantine ]; then
	sudo mkdir /.quarantine
	echo "Quarantine directory did not exist, just created it now"
fi

COMMAND="unknown"

echo "This is Mussel, an interactive command-line frontend to ClamAV.
Type 'help' or '?' for a list of commands."

while (true); do
	printf '] '
	read COMMAND

	if [ $COMMAND = 'scan' ] ; then
		scanselect
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'full-scan' ]; then
		full-scan
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'path-scan' ]; then
		path-scan
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'home-scan' ]; then
		home-scan
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'custom-scan' ]; then
		custom-scan
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'total-scan' ]; then
		total-scan
    elif [ $COMMAND = 'quarantine-view' ] || [ $COMMAND = 'qview' ]; then
		qview
    elif [ $COMMAND = 'quarantine-empty' ] || [ $COMMAND = 'qempty' ]; then
		qempty
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'update' ]; then
		sudo freshclam
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'help' ] || [ $COMMAND = '?' ]; then
		show-help
	elif [ $COMMAND = 'exit' ]; then
		break
	else
		echo 'This command does not exist'
	fi

done

The distro itself doesn’t matter that much for performance. Pick whatever you want, and use XFCE or IceWM for the desktop (or even go CLI only).

I recommend Debian or OpenSUSE for an easy install, and Arch, Artix, or Void if you’re more experienced.

PS: Windows 7 is one of the best versions of Windows and it’s not distributed anymore, that’s a piece of history! Don’t overwrite it, even if it does suck.

Is this like the Stalin sort?

If the Debians you installed weren’t Live ISOs, then I recommend Arch or Artix for CLI, and Manjaro or Ubuntu for GUI.

You’ll have to mount the drives, chroot into the one on the drive that has the EFI partition, then grub-install and grub-mkconfig into the EFI partition.

Boot problems are really tricky to fix on the computer that’s having them.

If any of your other OS’s still boot, then use them to download a live ISO of your preferred linux distro, and write it to a USB stick.

Then you can diagnose the problem using a new boot environment that doesn’t rely on the main disk.

The manuals. RTFM exists for a reason. If there’s ever a command or a config file you’re not sure about, just type in man the_command.
If you can’t access the man pages for some reason, there’s an online version on linux.die.net.

Also, the Arch Wiki, Gentoo Wiki, and Debian Wiki offer good information for all distros. I like Arch Wiki the best.

PGP or GPG, however you spell it. You can encrypt stuff, protect your email from prying eyes!

Also FOSS in general.

Upvoted solely for the last line

Everything here reminds everyone of that.