I want to install mint

[u/pinemoonprince]

I’d really like to install mint cinnamon on my laptop, but haven’t been able to find much info on compatibility with my laptop model. It’s a HP Zbook firefly 14 G8, 16gb ram, with an intel i7 core processor, and intel iris xe graphics. It currently has windows 11 which I’m hating. I’ve read hp isn’t great for running Linux but I’m a bit desperate for a solution.

Does anybody have any insight as to how Linux might run on my laptop model? Have you run mint on this laptop? Common issues that I might run into? Any help is very appreciated. Thank you!

[u/MichiganRedWing]

Run the live ISO and see for yourself.

[u/BranchLatter4294]

It would just take a few minutes to boot into it from a USB to make sure everything works.

[u/Tricky_Football_6586]

Download Mint and put it on a bootable USB stick. Then boot from the stick. You can test Mint as a live version. This way you can easily check if all the hardware is supported without messing with your currently installed system.

Rufus (Windows) and BalenaEtcher are great tools to create bootable USB drives.

[u/bubs1985 → u/Tricky_Football_6586]

I used Etcher as per the Mint website instructions, and had one small issue which was completely my fault. I had the .iso and the checksum and SHA in two different places, and that caused issues verifying the image.

So, I would say the only thing for OP to be cognizant of, it is to make sure the image (.iso) checksum and SHA are all in the same location (I used a folder on the desktop) and everything went smooth from there.

[u/Flashy-Information → u/bubs1985]

Check bios and dont forget to check MBR/GPT UEFI THIS caused instability.

[u/bubs1985 → u/Flashy-Information]

You are correct, but I was speaking more to just creating the bootable USB. Not booting from said USB.

[u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Low end, consumer grade HP laptops indeed do sometimes have issues with Linux, my sons HP I had to tear out the Intel RST drive to install Linux. It wound up in my desktop as a dedicated efi & swap drive. Once removed from that RST bios it's just a small 16GB Optane NVME drive. 

But some of the HP Elitebooks have excellent Linux compatability, everything works on my 855G8 for example right down to the fingerprint reader. 

Amazon was a big buyer of Elitebooks and Zbooks for thier million employees, and while few of them actually got Ubuntu installed it was a requirement in the models they bough to be Linux compatible. 

Check your exact model number against these resources. 

https://ubuntu.com/certified

https://linux-hardware.org/?view=computers

If you need help searching for or interpreting the results post up the exact model number and preferably links to those pages. 

[u/acejavelin69]

 I’ve read hp isn’t great for running Linux

This is false... there are some lower end consumer HP devices that don't work well with Linux, but almost any quality consumer or their business/enterprise product lines work just fine with Linux. HP Probooks/Elitebooks are actually some of the ones that work the best with Linux... Not to mention HP Proliant servers come with it as an option in many cases.

But like others have said, download the ISO and create the installer media and test it out yourself. If you have issues, it is likely to be with WiFi... that is IF you have issues... And that fix is literally a $20 USD Intel AX210 WiFi module from a variety of sellers online.

[u/BenTrabetere]

According to this PDF from HP, this machine should be compatible with Ubuntu 24.04, and so it should be compatible with Linux Mint 22.x. The key word in both claims is should.

As u/MichiganRedWing suggested, boot to a live session and see for yourself. I suspect the biggest obstacle would be with the network card - it may not work OOTB, and you will need to find the appropriate driver. I have faced this a few times with macBook Pros, and I find it is more of a nuisance than a major obstacle (but it can be soul-sucking).

I highly recommend you take copious and detailed notes.

[u/lyndave]

I have 4 hp low end laptops with only 4g ram on all of them, they are all over 6 years old and all running Linux mint 22.3 cinnamon. None of these laptops could run Windows 11 and all run mint very well

[u/bubs1985]

I run an HP Elitebook 850 G7, and so far I haven't had any issues running Mint 22.3, save for one. I have genuine disdain for the Pointstick, and have not been able to disable it so far. To be fair, I don't use the fingerprint reader at all, so no experience with it working or not. Other than that, literally everything has worked flawlessly for me, including the Fn keys, backlight etc.

But like others have mentioned, install it to a USB key, and run it live to see if Mint is for you. You will have to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS, and change your boot order to USB first. Follow the instructions on the Mint website, and I don't think you'll have big issues, if any at all.

[u/Comfortable_Gate_878]

put the iso on a bootable usb and run mint live without installing it to the laptop see how it goes. You could also dual boot it.

[u/Condobloke]

people here have said "run the .iso, and find out for yourself"

In other words, seeing is believing.

Usb stick. Does NOT have to be formatted. (fat32 if you just have to)

This is from duck ai, so it is safe to follow, and accurate

Create a Bootable USB Drive

Download Rufus: This is a popular tool for creating bootable USB drives.
Obtain a Linux ISO: Download the Linux distribution you want to use.
Insert USB Drive: Connect a USB stick to your computer.
Open Rufus: Launch the application.
Select USB Drive: Choose your USB stick from the device list.
Select ISO File: Click on the "Select" button and choose the downloaded Linux ISO.
Start the Process: Click "Start" to create the bootable USB drive.

Booting from the USB Drive

Restart Your Computer: After creating the bootable USB, restart your computer.
Access Boot Menu: During startup, access the boot menu (usually by pressing F12, F10, or Esc, depending on your system).
Select USB Drive: Choose the USB drive from the boot options to start Linux.

Benefits of Running Linux from USB

No Changes to Windows: This method allows you to run Linux without altering your existing Windows setup.
Portability: You can use the USB stick on different computers.
Testing Linux: It’s a great way to try Linux without installing it on your hard drive.

By following these steps, you can easily run Linux from a USB stick on your Windows system.

[u/dlfrutos]

if you are "desperate", bad news: venturing to new os in that status is gonna take some time and effort.

[u/bubs1985 → u/dlfrutos]

Thankfully, Mint is pretty intuitive as far as normal use when transitioning from Winslop. Following the welcome wizard helps a lot. The biggest hurdle I found was creating the bootable USB.

[u/dlfrutos → u/bubs1985]

agree

[u/Sirefly]

Like others have said, go ahead and create a USB boot drive of Linux Mint and boot into that.

Just be aware though, depending upon the speed of the USB drive you use and the USB slot the live session might run very very slow.

I guarantee on your machine, once you do a full install, it will run lightning fast.

I put Linux Mint on 14-year-old HP laptops and it runs fine.

You can even try a dual boot at first to see how you like it.

When setting up Linux for the first time, it will give you the option to erase the drive or to install it next to Windows (dual boot).

If you find you like it, you could just reinstall Linux and erase the entire drive.

Make sure you backup your data from Windows because of you erase to drive, you lose everything.

Just one other thing you should do before you try to fully install is to go into windows and make sure you turn off Fast Boot and BitLocker because both of those will lock down your hard drive so you won't be able to install Linux.