How to Install Linux Mint

Linux Mint is one of the most approachable distributions available, shipping with a familiar desktop, a curated software set, and a stable Debian/Ubuntu base underneath. If you are moving away from Windows, Mint is designed to feel immediately recognisable. This walkthrough covers everything from downloading the ISO to logging into your new desktop for the first time.

Choose Your Edition

Mint ships three desktop flavours. Pick one before downloading:

• Cinnamon — the flagship. Taskbar at the bottom, start menu, system tray. Closest feel to Windows 10/11. Recommended for most newcomers.
• MATE — lighter on RAM, classic two-panel layout, excellent on hardware from 2012–2018.
• Xfce — the leanest option. Good on machines with 2 GB RAM or less.

If your computer was bought in the last five years, start with Cinnamon. The steps below apply to all three.

What You Need Before Starting

• A USB drive of 8 GB or larger (contents will be erased).
• The target machine has at least 2 GB RAM and 20 GB free disk space (4 GB RAM and 100 GB recommended).
• A stable internet connection is helpful but not required during install.
• Access to your BIOS/UEFI to change the boot order, or the ability to press a boot-device key (usually F11, F12, or Esc) at startup.

Step 1: Download the ISO

Get the latest release from the official site. At time of writing that is Linux Mint 21.x (based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS). Always download from linuxmint.com/download.php — avoid third-party mirrors unless listed there.

After the download completes, verify the checksum to confirm the file is not corrupted. On Windows you can use PowerShell; on an existing Linux machine use sha256sum.

# Linux / macOS
sha256sum linuxmint-21.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso

Compare the output against the sha256sum.txt file linked on the download page. If the hashes do not match, re-download.

Step 2: Write the ISO to a USB Drive

Several tools work here. Balena Etcher is the simplest cross-platform option — download it, select the ISO, select your USB drive, and click Flash. The process takes two to five minutes.

If you prefer the command line on Linux, use dd. Identify your USB device first with lsblk, then write to the whole device (not a partition). Replace /dev/sdX with the actual device node — double-check this; dd will overwrite whatever target you give it without further warning.

lsblk

# Example — your device will differ
sudo dd if=linuxmint-21.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso \
     of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

Step 3: Boot from USB

Shut down the target computer, plug in the USB drive, and power on. Immediately press the boot-device key for your motherboard — common ones are F12 (Dell, Lenovo), F11 (ASUS), F9 (HP), or Esc then a boot menu (some ASUS). Select your USB drive from the list.

If the machine boots straight into Windows, you need to either change the boot order in UEFI settings or disable Secure Boot. Mint 21 supports Secure Boot on most hardware, but if booting fails, enter UEFI (usually via Delete or F2 at startup), find the Secure Boot option, and temporarily disable it.

You will see the Mint boot menu. Press Enter on Start Linux Mint. The live desktop loads in about 30–60 seconds.

Step 4: Try the Live Desktop (Optional but Recommended)

You are now running Mint entirely from USB — nothing on your hard drive has been touched yet. Use this time to check that Wi-Fi, audio, and display resolution work correctly. If your hardware functions in the live session it will function after installation.

Step 5: Run the Installer

Double-click the Install Linux Mint icon on the desktop. Walk through the screens:

1. Language — select your language and click Continue.
2. Keyboard layout — auto-detected; test it in the text box and correct if needed.
3. Multimedia codecs — tick Install multimedia codecs. This installs MP3, H.264, and other restricted formats automatically.
4. Installation type — this is the most important screen:

• Install alongside Windows — the installer resizes the Windows partition and creates a dual-boot GRUB menu. Safest if you want to keep Windows. The slider lets you decide how much space each OS gets.
• Erase disk and install Linux Mint — wipes the entire drive. Backup first. Tick Encrypt the new Linux Mint installation here if you want full-disk encryption (LUKS); you will be prompted for a passphrase on every boot.
• Something else — manual partitioning for advanced users who want a separate /home partition or a specific layout.

For most newcomers, Erase disk and install Linux Mint (on a dedicated machine or spare drive) or Install alongside Windows covers all needs. Make your choice and click Install Now.

Confirm the partition changes when prompted, then continue through timezone selection and user account creation. Use a strong password — this account has sudo access.

The installer copies files in the background while you fill out forms. Total time is typically 8–15 minutes depending on drive speed.

Step 6: Reboot and First Login

When the installer reports completion, click Restart Now. Remove the USB drive when prompted. The machine reboots into GRUB (the bootloader). If you set up dual-boot, both operating systems appear here. Select Linux Mint and press Enter.

Log in with the username and password you created. The Welcome screen opens automatically — work through it to set up system snapshots (Timeshift) and apply updates before anything else.

Step 7: Apply Updates and Install Drivers

Open the Update Manager from the taskbar or the application menu. Click Refresh, then Install Updates. This pulls in security patches and bug fixes for the Ubuntu base.

For GPU drivers and other hardware, open the Driver Manager (Menu → Administration → Driver Manager). Mint will list available proprietary drivers — commonly NVIDIA binary drivers or firmware for Wi-Fi cards. Select the recommended option and click Apply.

Verification

Confirm the system is up to date from a terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Check the kernel version and confirm you are on Mint:

uname -r
cat /etc/os-release

The output will show something like PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint 21.3" and a 6.x kernel if HWE (Hardware Enablement) is active.

Troubleshooting

Black screen after booting from USB

At the Mint boot menu, press e to edit the boot entry, find the line starting with linux, and append nomodeset before quiet splash. Press F10 to boot. This disables kernel modesetting and is a common fix for NVIDIA and some AMD systems. After installation, install the proprietary driver via Driver Manager to resolve it permanently.

Wi-Fi not detected

Some Broadcom and Realtek chipsets need firmware not included in the live ISO. Connect via ethernet, install, apply updates, and run Driver Manager — the correct firmware package usually appears there. Alternatively install linux-firmware if it is not already present:

sudo apt install linux-firmware

Dual-boot: Windows does not appear in GRUB

Run the GRUB update command to re-scan for operating systems:

sudo update-grub

If Windows still does not appear, check that os-prober is installed and enabled:

sudo apt install os-prober
sudo update-grub

Clock shows wrong time after switching between Windows and Linux

Windows stores the hardware clock in local time; Linux uses UTC by default. Fix it in Mint rather than changing Windows:

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock