GAH!!! Help!

If you pick that, you can use the select button to the right to navigate to your Mint ISO.

Why wipe the operating system every new kernel version when you can simply update the kernel using the bash terminal commands I already specified. It's two commands and you're going through 1000's of steps to do the same result....

Click the black box icon that looks like a command prompt for windows, or click terminal under applications it's simple 10 seconds and you're done. Don't wipe your installation.

a reply to: oxtweezxo

He wants to play around with it and learn new stuff, which is totally awesome! It's more about the journey than the destination.

a reply to: Jason79
He asked how to upgrade his Ubuntu and instead of giving him the knowledge of how, everyone told him to simply reinstall with a newer version which is not upgrading at all. Eventually he's not going to want to wipe his machine every time just to install an update. That's crazy.

If anyone on here is "doing it for the journey" my suggestion is to learn the bash commands that come in your Linux terminal.

Okay, for clarity, allow me to explain where I'm at now.

First, thanks "Jason79" for the clarification. Now Rufus makes sense (I think). More on this in a moment.

Second, thanks "oxtweezxo". Your explanation and instructions also make sense.

Now let me explain... In my OP, I did in fact state that I wanted to upgrade/update the existing Ubuntu 14.04 OS. I didn't go into a lot of detail why (there are some issues). Shortly after this "Hefficide" weighed in and suggested that the new version of Ubuntu (ver 20.4 +/-) is pretty resource heavy and, given my older machine, the upgrade to the existing Ubuntu would likely bog it down. He suggested I go with a Mint light version (Cinnamon, as it turns out). He was also the one who recommended RUFUS to create the startup disc. I did a little research and his approach seemed like a good solution (given my hardware on the machine). So...I started to head that direction.

Following this, you (oxtweezxo) suggested a revised approach. It also makes sense. Prior to your weighing in there were some exchanges wherein I said I would like to learn more about Linux (because I know zero), and I do want to learn more about it. This is the "learning" part. I had several meetings for work after that, and have done nothing as of right now. Now I am going to resume my original efforts to...do something to this box. This is where I'm at as I type this.

Plus, in my exploits so far, I've already learned some things about Linux and how it works. This is a good thing.

I now think I understand how to use Rufus to create the startup disc (and yes, blow out the old system completely). I also understand (I think) what you are saying, oxtweezxo, although I'm not real confident running terminal commands in Linux yet. Heck, I can't even get a program to load properly yet. So, I'm concerned if I go down this path and get stuck, and come back here, and you're not here to answer...then what? If I go down the Mint Cinnamon path, I at least know how I can back out up to a point (a point I have yet to successfully even reach).

Now you know the whole story. Now, what should I do?

a reply to: Jason79

Just an update...THAT worked! You have to drag the download to the Rufus app window (which is far from obvious) and it opens a new window I wasn't seeing before. So now, while I await responses from my mentors here (the both, or three, of you) I am just creatind the startup disc on USB.

Next step will be to either run that, or have "oxtweezxo" talk me out of it. Either way is fine...I'm learning either way.

AND, most importantly, THANK YOU for all your efforts, input and help!!!!! It is GREATLY appreciated!!!

Current Status - 20:48L MDT (USA)

Mint Cinnamon Startup disk completed.

Installing Linux Mint now.

Dual Boot, or No?.....No **Continue**

Past the point of no return now!! LOL!

This is actually pretty COOL! Learning all kinds of stuff here!

Edit: I didn't realise how long I spent on this post, kinda late for it now. Glad you're having fun.

You could also boot into the flashdrive and use Mint without installing it. Depending on flash drive type and usb speeds it might take a little longer to open files or programs, but it's possible to get a good feel of it. And if you like Ubuntu better, It will still be on your hard drive ready to run.

WOW!! Installed the Linux Mint (Cinammon) OS successfully. Ran all updates successfully.

Little ASUS Notebook is now a ROCKET!! Machine runs faster than it ever ran before with Ubuntu 14.04 on it, has more applications pre-installed, is feature rish...and I am tickled pink!!

Many thanks to Hefficide - I went with your solution in the end. Great suggestions, and love the Mint (light) LINUX OS!! Many thanks to you!!

Many thanks also to Jason79, your suggestions helped me learn all kinds of things, including how to run the RUFUS application successfully, which was critical to the successful installation. Without your assistance I'd still be stumbling around in the dark.

Many thanks also to oxtweezxo, your suggestions helped me research and learn more about Linux and how it works.

THANKS EVERYONE!! 100% Success!! **BOOM!** 👍👍👍👍👍🤘🤙👌

Lol teamwork! Ok I can play ball. Good job disk. Now that you have the condensed version, update it when necessary using bash 😜 Now that you have it though, what are your plans for it? What's next?

a reply to: oxtweezxo

Well, right now I'm just going through it all looking at, and understanding, how it works. Looking at what features it has and what compatibility issues may exist (which ain't many so far!). I also went through all the setup features. I'm really shocked at how much 'stuff' (applications) these Linux distributions have in them. Really impressed actually. Ubuntu had a lot too, but I kept running into update issues and things being out of date. For the life of me I couldn't get any of the updates to take (even the small application ones).

I already updated it last night with about 65 updates, but still have some more to go. Didn't have to use anything other than the desktop to do this. Honestly, I'm not sure I understand what "Bash" is and how it works.

For right now I'm just going to use it around the house.

I will say one thing...that Ubuntu 14.04 was dug in deep, and it did NOT want to go! I had to get pretty mean with the machine to get it to finally let me in to the point I could get around Ubuntu. It had changed the BIOS so even starting from a USB was launching through an Ubuntu app. I literally had to crash it to get around that. It was like there was some kind of an Ubuntu shell down at the BIOS level. Never seen anything quite like that before. It didn't even want to let itself be upgraded to a newer version of Ubuntu either. I had read that 14.04 was pretty difficult to kill, and now I understand why. If a person was ever going to let some kids just have free rein on a computer, Ubuntu 14.04 would be the OS to install on it for sure! Not even a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds could screw that up...and they can screw up absolutely everything!!!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Bash in this context means from the terminal - command line entry.

The sudo apt-get update stuff.

And that's the last time it shows FCD online, weird.