Linux Mint a PITA to install on Win 11 (self.linux)

submitted 2 months ago by JustOneMoreCat to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I have a Windows 11 laptop and recently gotten excited to try Linux. I read good things about Mint being pretty good to go out of the box, and while I can be a fast learner I'm also tired and don't have a tremendous amount of bandwidth.

So I followed all the installation instructions, verified, flashed a USB, booted into it and started to install a dual boot of it. Made it through installation until it told me my computer had BitLocker on, and I'd need to go turn it off and try again. Fair enough.

Went back into my Windows OS (after booting it went to "diagnosing your PC"). I don't seem to have bitlocker installed - looks like a Pro version thing which I don't have. It did show that encryption was enabled, so I turned it off.

Restarted to boot to USB. Nope, "mmx64.efi - Not Found" error.

OK, googled it, renamed it, let's go.

error: shim_lock protocol not found error: you need to load kernel first

OK... I googled it just enough to see this is going to be a pain.

I tried remaking my USB just in case, didn't help. It's extra frustrating because my first attempt to boot into Linux went so well! How did it go from booting into it flawlessly to giving me a series of errors?

Did I anger the Microsoft gods and now they're blocking my path? Is this a bad omen that Linux is going to be a problem on my laptop in general?

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[-] JustOneMoreCat 1 points 2 months ago

Interesting, what distro did you end up using?

[-] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I've tried quite a few but right now the longest surviving one is Manjaro. This system still dual boots (technically a actually triple boot lol), so you can fix the issue.

I also have Fedora on another pc and I don't care for it. I also have dabbled very lightly with Debian (hosting some services), Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Endeavour, Cachy, Mint, KDE Neon, and PopOS.

I have liked the Arch based distros the most so far, and highly prefer KDE Plasma as a desktop environment.

this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025

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