Member Avatar for h6rny69

Hi guys, I'm not a Linux newbie, I have been using Backtrack for a few years and now Kali, I've installed and used many other distros and I've come accross many problems and always solved them with no further problems. Today I've just finished re-building an old PC for my step-daughter and started installing Peppermint 4 and I am having problems that I cannot solve. I get to the part where it asks if I want to try peppermint or install, I click install and it begins but it's very slow and not very responsive, I can select my time zone setting, click the option to delete all data and install pepermint and then the screen goes black and stays that way for ages. Next, it loads into peppermint as if I were trying it before installing but it won't let me use the mouse or keyboard so I cant do anything more from there. I am installing from a iso burned to dvd, I did a check on the dvd and everything was fine, nothing corrupted etc. If I try peppermint before installing it will load into peppermint but again very slow and not responsive and if I click "Install Peppermint" the machine crashes.

My machine has an Intel Celeron D, with 512mb RAM and 80gb HDD. This machine worked fine just the other day with a different HDD with Kali Linux installed on it, the HDD that I have put in today was what I used to have in another computer running XP SP3 and there is nothing wrong with this hard disk as I also used this one last week to remove some old files.

So as far as I know my install disk is fine, HDD is fine so maybe a problem with my BIOS? Which I have checked and everything looks fine. I would appreciate any help. Many thanks in advance.

  • 2 Contributors
  • 1 Reply
  • 172 Views
  • 4 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by mike_2000_17
Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

As stated on the Peppermint website, your system is on the limit of being good enough to run the OS. So, that might just be the reason behind your slow issues. You could try an older versions with less requirements.

One thing to check is, of course, the md5sum on the ISO that you downloaded.

Also, it goes without saying: you got the 32bit version, right? If you got the 64bit version, it will be extremely slow for sure.

Then, to run the system live (to "try it", before installing), you should really be using a USB drive instead of a CD/DVD. This is because when you run from a CD/DVD, the system has to be entirely loaded to RAM. But if you run from a USB, the configurations can remain on the USB drive, and there is swap space on it too, making it much faster overall. I'm sure the installation would run better off a USB too. I'm sure you have an old USB stick laying around with 1-2Gb of space on it.

Next, it loads into peppermint as if I were trying it before installing but it won't let me use the mouse or keyboard so I cant do anything more from there.

Last I remember when installing a recent version of a Ubuntu derivative, the installation process (after the basic settings are passed) looks as if it's booting into the OS, although it's still part of the installation process (there are a few more things to enter while the installer is working in the background). So, I think that is the part where it's stalling in your case.

The main thing I recommend is really to use a LiveUSB instead of a LiveCD, as it will put less strain on your very limited RAM memory (and will provide a swap space to prevent an overload and a crash if RAM runs out).

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.