Linux mint cinnamon reinstall

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Andow Level 3
Posts: 125 Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:41 am Location: Sydney Australia

Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by Andow » Sun May 19, 2019 4:00 am

I need to reinstall LMC OS again after encryption lockout. I still have the original USB drive I used to install the OS, can I use it for reinstalling ?, do I need to wipe the partitions first or not. Or any other issue I may encounter.
Thank you Andow

Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by xenopeek » Sun May 19, 2019 4:11 am

If you only have Linux Mint installed on this system (so no dual booting with Windows for example) you can just boot from the original USB thumb drive and install Linux Mint anew and select to use the entire disk. That will overwrite all the partitions on the disk.

As for encryption lockout, that’s a real bummer. Did you have full disk encryption (passphrase asked during boot, before login screen) or only home directory encryption (only password asked at login screen). Depending on how you got locked out there may be a way back in.

Andow Level 3
Posts: 125 Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:41 am Location: Sydney Australia

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by Andow » Sun May 19, 2019 5:08 am

xenopeek wrote: ⤴ Sun May 19, 2019 4:11 am If you only have Linux Mint installed on this system (so no dual booting with Windows for example) you can just boot from the original USB thumb drive and install Linux Mint anew and select to use the entire disk. That will overwrite all the partitions on the disk.

As for encryption lockout, that’s a real bummer. Did you have full disk encryption (passphrase asked during boot, before login screen) or only home directory encryption (only password asked at login screen). Depending on how you got locked out there may be a way back in.

Sorry I should have said its duel boot LMC and Win10. Now when I boot into Mints the 1st window asks “please enter passphrase for disk (XXXXXXXXXX) (cryptswap1)on none”, it doesn’t matter what I enter for a pass phrase it goes to user acc window, then asks login acc user name, then ask for users password. I am not 100% sure its encrypted, it seems to be.
In the past it never asked for disk phrase or user name. only password, I only have 1 user acc in any case. I am very confident I used the correct password, there were only three possibilities I tried all combinations all failed. Could it be the password encryption system has been corrupted. This happened after the grub was lost, win 10 system update, that was 9 months ago.
When shutting down Linux, text appeared very quickly said something about kernel maybe missing, but all seems ok to me.
Thank you Andow

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by xenopeek » Sun May 19, 2019 5:26 am

That complicates it a bit.

This sounds like you have home directory encryption, with an encrypted swap partition (which is needed with that). I’m not confident as to what’s going wrong with user login. Does on login it actually say your password is incorrect, or does it just return you to the login without any message? In the latter case it means something broke in your user account that may be fixable. I’m not sure about the encrypted swap asking for a passphrase though.

To reinstall Linux Mint I’d recommend to boot from the USB, start GParted from there (install it first as needed), and then delete the Linux partitions. You can take a screenshot of GParted and share it here if you need help on figuring out which partitions specifically to remove. After removing the Linux partitions you can start the installer and select to install alongside Windows. That way it will just use the available free disk space on your system to install in.

Do you want to install with encryption again? I’d suggest to use entire disk encryption instead of home directory encryption. Despite the name, it would only encrypt the Linux Mint partitions.

Andow Level 3
Posts: 125 Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:41 am Location: Sydney Australia

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by Andow » Sun May 19, 2019 11:21 pm

xenopeek wrote: ⤴ Sun May 19, 2019 5:26 am That complicates it a bit.

This sounds like you have home directory encryption, with an encrypted swap partition (which is needed with that). I’m not confident as to what’s going wrong with user login. Does on login it actually say your password is incorrect, or does it just return you to the login without any message? In the latter case it means something broke in your user account that may be fixable. I’m not sure about the encrypted swap asking for a passphrase though.

To reinstall Linux Mint I’d recommend to boot from the USB, start GParted from there (install it first as needed), and then delete the Linux partitions. You can take a screenshot of GParted and share it here if you need help on figuring out which partitions specifically to remove. After removing the Linux partitions you can start the installer and select to install alongside Windows. That way it will just use the available free disk space on your system to install in.

Do you want to install with encryption again? I’d suggest to use entire disk encryption instead of home directory encryption. Despite the name, it would only encrypt the Linux Mint partitions.

Hi Xenopeek. Yes it said user name or password is incorrect, in that case I’ll do a another OS install. On the encryption can it be encrypted some time after instillation say week or months later if desired.
Is it feasible to move Win 10 to a usb stick and use it on a adhoc basis.
Thank you for your help. Andow

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by xenopeek » Mon May 20, 2019 4:07 am

Disk encryption is only possible during installation. You can encrypt your home directory at any later time with the ecryptfs-migrate-home command (for which you must create a new temporary admin account first, because you can’t run ecryptfs-migrate-home while logged in to your own account). If and when you need to do this in the future you can of course ask for help in a new topic.

Pierre Level 21
Posts: 12958 Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 am Location: Perth, AU.

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by Pierre » Mon May 20, 2019 6:35 am

you can use Windows To Go — — on an usb stick, if you’ve got the Pro version, of Windows.

otherwise, most folks would, just suggest to run your Windows System in an Virtualbox:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
is what is generally suggested — — use the Debian 10 version.

NB: do you really Need to use Any Encryption what’s your reason ?
— — since I’ve yet, to see any Really Valid Reason, given by anyone, on this Forum,
your Linux System is Far More Secure, than that Windows System, will ever be .. .

Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] — when your problem is solved!
and DO LOOK at those Unanswered Topics — — you may be able to answer some!.

Andow Level 3
Posts: 125 Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:41 am Location: Sydney Australia

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by Andow » Mon May 20, 2019 10:34 pm

xenopeek wrote: ⤴ Mon May 20, 2019 4:07 am Disk encryption is only possible during installation. You can encrypt your home directory at any later time with the ecryptfs-migrate-home command (for which you must create a new temporary admin account first, because you can’t run ecryptfs-migrate-home while logged in to your own account). If and when you need to do this in the future you can of course ask for help in a new topic.

Hi Xenopeek. I was wondering after the loss of the grub window, I changed UEFI to legacy and the grub returned, although with the extra disk passphrase window which I didn’t have originally, could the change from UEFI to legacy be causing issues with user acc password. Does LMC normally boot in legacy.
Thanks Andow

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by xenopeek » Tue May 21, 2019 1:33 am

I don’t know what caused the password prompt. Linux Mint boots in whatever mode you installed it in. That’s UEFI for modern systems.

Andow Level 3
Posts: 125 Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:41 am Location: Sydney Australia

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon solved

Post by Andow » Tue May 21, 2019 4:37 am

xenopeek wrote: ⤴ Tue May 21, 2019 1:33 am I don’t know what caused the password prompt. Linux Mint boots in whatever mode you installed it in. That’s UEFI for modern systems.

pbear Level 16
Posts: 6540 Joined: Wed Jun 21, 2017 12:25 pm Location: San Francisco

Re: Reinstall Mint Cinnamon

Post by pbear » Tue May 21, 2019 10:46 am

FYI, it looks like you might have installed Mint in legacy mode while Windows is in UEFI. You don’t want to do that. To confirm your Windows mode, boot that, open Run and run msinfo32 . BIOS mode is line fourteen and will say either UEFI or legacy mode. If it says UEFI (very likely), be sure to install Mint in the same mode. Might have to fiddle with secure boot, though normally that’s not necessary. By the way, to confirm the boot mode of your Mint live session, run ls /sys/firmware in Terminal. If “efi” is listed, you are booted in UEFI mode.

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