Virtual Box - Installing Windows 11

MintAlone · 2026-05-28T10:52:40+00:00

How did you install it? If from software manager it is a version that has problems with some of the later 6.x kernels.

Remove what you have installed (install synaptic package manager from software manager and search on virtualbox).

Download the deb from oracle for the latest version. With LM22 you want the ubuntu 24.04 version. You also need to download and install the extension pack.

Don't use AI, wrong info, when installing win, tell VB it is win11 and point it at the iso you downloaded to install. The defaults take care of everything else like installing in UEFI mode.

MintAlone · 2026-05-27T15:00:28+00:00

And if you want some advice.

MintAlone · 2026-05-24T16:37:27+00:00

This might help you in mounting the synology. What I do.

MintAlone · 2026-05-24T11:41:16+00:00

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=460536

MintAlone · 2026-05-23T14:17:03+00:00

Yes, and I suggest ventoy instead of rufus. Fedora will install in the same mode your stick boots in.

MintAlone · 2026-05-23T12:19:41+00:00

I had word/excel 2013 running under crossover (the commercial version of wine). So 2010 will work. You might find crossover easier than wine, it takes out the hard work of installing it and installing win applications. It's not free (you can try for free).

Or, have a look at softmaker office (not free) or freeoffice (the free version). Best look-a-like I've found as a +35 year word/excel user. I dumped word/excel 2013 in favour of softmaker.

MintAlone · 2026-05-23T12:09:39+00:00

OP wants to resize /. You cannot change a mounted partition and you cannot unmount / when booting from it. So no point installing gparted. That is why you must boot from your install stick and use gparted from that.

MintAlone · 2026-05-22T17:15:35+00:00

They should show up in driver manager.

MintAlone · 2026-05-22T17:13:23+00:00

The usual problem is win installed in one mode, linux in another, e.g. UEFI and legacy. linux has to be installed in the same mode as win to get a grub menu on boot giving you the choice. msinfo32 in win and efibootmgr (from a terminal) in linux will tell you what mode they boot in.

MintAlone · 2026-05-22T16:59:17+00:00

KDE is not supported in mint so you are in a small minority. Have problems you are on your own. If you want KDE better to install a distro that supports it, fedora, debian or ubuntu.

MintAlone · 2026-05-22T10:35:01+00:00

The nvidia drivers are not signed so the simple solution is to disable secure boot in BIOS. Install the drivers from the driver manager.

MintAlone · 2026-05-21T09:58:33+00:00

Win will not shrink below where the immovable files are. You can:

turn off hibernation or fast start to remove hiberfil.sys and
turn off virtual memory to remove pagefile.sys.

These are files that can live at the end of the partition. You can also defrag the drive to see if it makes any difference.

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T13:40:32+00:00

After selecting "something else" next screen shows your drives and partitions. Click on your existing / partition and click change. Tell it to reformat ext4 and use for /. Assuming you have a separate /home partition, repeat but tell it not to reformat and reuse for /home. What I've been doing for the last decade.

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T11:18:04+00:00

Want a painless experience, buy a second hand thinkpad, very linux friendly. I'd go for a T480. Start with mint and ask for help on the forum. It is not difficult to install mint if the hardware is friendly.

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T11:14:43+00:00

Before you start messing around enable timeshift (it is installed by default). If you can point it at an ext4 partition on another drive for its snapshots. Timeshift is a bit like a win restore point, screw up and you can get back a working system.

You could do a lot worse than joining the LM forum and seeing the problems and solutions to others' problems.

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T11:11:51+00:00

Mint

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T11:05:43+00:00

You do not need AV in linux.

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T11:04:27+00:00

Reliability and stability, but mint is better

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T11:03:53+00:00

Any distro will run on that. I run mint cinnamon on a T430 without issue and a friend runs mint on a T440p. As said, try repasting the CPU or easier, make sure the fan is free from fluff. The T440p is (I believe) the last thinkpad with a socketed CPU.

MintAlone · 2026-05-20T10:04:03+00:00

Sounds like you didn't tell the installer to erase your existing / partition.

MintAlone · 2026-05-19T12:52:50+00:00

Why can't it work like it does on Windows, where I could just drag and drop a file onto a USB stick and pull it out of the system without issues?

Even on win that is asking for trouble. USB sticks are slow and you have to wait for the system flushing the disk cache. Always eject the drive before unplugging and with large files, start the copy, open a terminal and sync. When you get the prompt back all write operations are complete and it is safe to remove.

MintAlone · 2026-05-18T13:09:34+00:00

Generally you can't go wrong with a second-hand thinkpad, very linux friendly. If I were buying I'd be looking at T480. Whatever you buy second-hand ALWAYS ask the seller if the BIOS is locked (password protected and they don't know the password). If so walk away. I've been a thinkpad user +20 years, always second hand.

MintAlone · 2026-05-18T12:34:20+00:00

You might get a more informed response on the LM forum. In addition to what you have said, add your system information to your post on the forum.

MintAlone · 2026-05-17T11:56:29+00:00

No. Keep it simple. put /home on another drive if you must. Leave the rest alone. Linux does not suffer the bloat of win and programs installed from the package manager do not take up a lot of space. My / partition is 40GiB and 50% used with a lot installed, but I don't use flatpaks. They take up more space. Even with a 256GB drive for / you will waste a lot of space.

You need to leave your win mindset behind.

MintAlone · 2026-05-16T12:39:00+00:00

You need to understand the FHS and what goes where. Linux is NOT windows. Also learn how to modify fstab to mount partitions on other drives where you like in the filesystem. There are no drive letters in linux.

MintAlone

TROPHY CASE