The Nightmare. Moving to Linux Mint

Yesterday I did a RAM replacement on my Windows 10 computer. Upgraded to 32GB DDR3 (I said it was old). Well Windows nerfed knocked out my mbr boot loader, which really upset me. Several resets later, going back to my old 16GB RAM, Windows not only would not boot, but no longer detected my drive and demanded a bootable disk. YAY!!

Already in a mass fit of rage, cussing loudly, and my blood pressure boiling over, and eventually talking to my fiancee who could calm me down. I went to bed.

Next day, I experimented again with a clear head, nope. Nothing worked. Decided that since Win98SE I'm finally done with Windows for good. I am officially on Linux Mint 22.2 (WILMAAAAA! yes I had to) Cinnamon desktop. I love Linux, but to fully commit after 26 years on Windoesn't it's a nightmare.

Issues getting Steam to read the new partition (my fault for not chowning and chmodding the partition) I am able to slowly rebuild my Steam library.

I looked up on ProtonDB and Trainz 22 PE is listed as Gold, but it requires tweaking settings. Not much info out there, but if you have done this what were your steps?

Also I have a feeling that since Trainz has no cloud saving, I might have lost the Fall Harvest Nebraska dlc I bought last year. I do have all of my .cdp files and I think my master picklists saved though.
 
Download Mint, write to USB stick and run from the Boot Menu but do not install at this point. Use the file manager to save any files to removable storage. Locate the partition manager ‘Gparted’ (not on all Linux distributions) and run, delete all existing partitions on the hard drive and replace them with a single FAT32 partition which ensure you have no unwanted partitions and access to all the hard drive.

Install Mint using defaults and run. Install all updates including any drivers using ‘Drive Manager’.

Install Wine directly from WineHQ not by using the Software Manager which misses a couple of essentials: https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Debian-Ubuntu

This page covers a number of Debian-Ubuntu distributions but you will only need the following steps: Preparation (which you already know i.e. Mint 22.x): Add the repository: Noble (for Mint 22): Update: and Install Wine (I would suggest Standard Branch). Once complete, Reboot.

Run winecfg in the Terminal, right click on the taskbar icon and select Create shortcut, you now have access to a utility via the Wine Menu to configure Wine as necessary.

Open File Manager, from the View menu, select Show Hidden Files. Navigate to .wine/drive_c/windows and right click on explorer.exe and select, open with Wine Windows Program Loader. Again, right click on the taskbar icon and select Create shortcut. You now have a Windows file manager to manage Windows programs. When using it unlike the Linux file manager, Windows can be found in drive C: and Linux out the way in drive Z: which you are use to.

You can now either install Trainz directly from any of the downloadable options, after unzipping it as necessary, or through Steam by first installing Steam using the Software Manager utility within Mint. Programs in Steam are managed basically the same for Windows and Linux.

My advice would be when running Linux programs 'think Linux' but when running Windows programs 'just think Windows'. For example to open Windows .exe or other executable files with Windows Explorer just double click as usual, however with Linux file manager you would need to remember its right click then, run with……. etc.

Proton and Lutris are both handy utilities for tweaking the way Windows programs run on Linux but with few exceptions I've always found that Trainz runs quite well without them and any tweaking has generally been cosmetic. Peter

(Details on how to install Wine for other distributions can be found at https://www.winehq.org and following the instructions by selecting 'Download' at the top right hand side of the page.)
 
I don't think you read this post correctly. I have already installed Linux Mint, and already partitioned my drive with GParted. I am also aware of dualbooting, but as it has been stated on many Linux forums that can create issues (like corruption of the Grub boot loader or mbr loader. So I at this point I don't care about saving Windows because I moved on from that disaster.

What I wrote what everything that I went through to even get to that point. Windows 10 failed to boot, and it forced me to build my system into a full on Linux Mint dedicated computer (No Windows). I have all but fully obliterated that drive save for the my Steam Games, and a few other folders that contained game saves etc.

25 years in IT and I have never had a more hellish time trying to fix stuff.
 
A bit late to discover and I'm very sorry you found out the hard way but dual boot is as dangerous as it it helpful. When it goes wrong, which too frequently it does, it really goes wrong as I now understand it has for you, because it can crash all three elements, Windows, Linux and the boot loader. If you need dual booting the safer method and assuming there is the finance and hardware to do it, is to use two independent drives. You connect one drive and install one of the OS, then disconnect it completely, connect the second drive and likewise install the second OS. You then reconnect both drives and set boot priority in the BIOS. The machine will boot into the preferred OS and using the associated 'F' key for the boot menu the alternate OS can be easily accessed. You can install both OS with both drive connected but Windows 11 plays up if its not installed first then tries to install a boot loader the one thing you are trying to avoid. Windows 10 was less demanding.

Now you are up and running I hope Linux and Trainz are working out for you. Peter
 
I got rid of Windows more than a year ago now and have been running Debian Linux instead with no regrets.
Excuse me Ann , how do you handle CM ? I thought the problem was Dx ... or I missed something along the way ...
The only reason I still have W10 ( or 11) is Trainz ... If I could run Content Manager on Mint certainly I'd say goodbye to Uncle Billy.
 
Excuse me Ann , how do you handle CM ? I thought the problem was Dx ... or I missed something along the way ...
The only reason I still have W10 ( or 11) is Trainz ... If I could run Content Manager on Mint certainly I'd say goodbye to Uncle Billy.
In Linux CM needs to be refreshed after every mouse movement to scan a page. It's a pain, but after a while I got used to it. Otherwise it functions just the same. Still better than having to put up with bloatware Windows 11.
 
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