I seem to have taken a wrong step somewhere while upgrading from Linux Mint KDE 17.3 to MATE 18.1 :-(

So the computer works fine and both Linux Mint and Windows XP start up just fine but in the grub menu I am offered Ubuntu, not Mint as the Linux choice but it starts Mint anyway. The grub menu used to be on its own partition on the hard disk. I guess here is where i went wrong because now that partition is no longer invisible and it does not contain the new kernels at all, which seem to be found in my normal partition in a folder called 'Boot'. Question: What to do so as not to lose ability to boot into Windows AND Linux?

I can always just let it all be as is as it works just fine.

picture from Gparted

New approach uses UEFI partition for storing GRUB, and separate boot partition isn't needed really anymore. But if you didn't have UEFI partition before, I doubt it can just make one for you out of nowhere.

Do not post your grub.cfg or the fstab from your Mate (Ubuntu?) install. Also, what partition/device is Mate installed to vs Mint?

I think things are getting a little confused here -- MATE is a desktop environment, as is KDE, whilst Mint is a distribution.

Mint offers the MATE desktop enivronment, as does Ubuntu.

Just trying to clarify -- are you trying to change distributions, or trying to update your desktop environment?

Sigh! Sorry everyone that I was a bit unclear. Linux Mint KDE 64bit 17.3 >>> Linux Mint Mate 64bit 18.1, so I have both changed to a newer version AND changed desktop environment from KDE to Mate.

This old computer does not have UEFI but BIOS.

My single physical hard disk is basically split into two main partitions, first one for Windows, second for Linux which is then split into smaller parts (swap, old grub part and main part where Linux Mint resides)

Alright, I will not post them... <reads my grub.cfg and googles what fstab is> Your question was answered above.

To me it seems to be a classic BIOS bootloader (legacy mode). And, let me guess, the disk uses MBR. In this mode the GRUB bootloader resides in the first 1KB of disk drive (first-stage bootloader).

Also, apparently you did not assign "/boot" mount point to your "/dev/sda5" partition, so now it is completely unused (not even mounted automatically).

Nevertheless, you still can configure GRUB the way you like using "grub2-mkconfig" utility and/or editing "/boot/grub2/grub.cfg" file.

if it is only the name of he menu entry that bothers you, you can just change it in your grub.cfg to something else.
look for the 'menuentry' line:

sth like this:

Oops me! I left sda5 untouched in the state it was when I recieved the computer and stupidly assumed it would be fine like that.

Thanks! It is only bothering my eye slightly if there is no ill effect of it being like that. I guess Windows XP needs MBR.

So, can I just remove the /dev/sda5 partition, all 237MiB of it (that used to be the grub partition)? I am only worried about the antique Windows XP here (tempted to kick it out completely.)

EDIT: Formatting and hiding it did not affect my computer at all :-) Both OSs work fine. The Ubuntu choice in the grub menu corrected itself to Linux Mint after an update.

Thanks nice people for your help! With new insights I had a better idea what to search for on the internet.

Yes, I know. AFAIR, upgrading from Mint 17.3 KDE to 18.1 is not supported. Unless that's only when moving to the 18.1 KDE edition. He's the one who mentioned Ubuntu first, but after reading your post I finally realized that's the problem that he's seeing in the grub menu. I was a little confused. :p
Come to think of it I may have ran into this before with this one Mint PC. It might have fixed itself when upgrading to a newer kernel or a grub update.

I did do a new install, which is why I mucked around with the partitions. Scary stuff as it is all too easy to destroy lots of data.

EDIT: All working 100% now

Hi all,

I'm running Mint 17.3 at the moment and wondered if there are any "Dummies guide to Linux" type websites that people can recommend.

There are a few books that I've seen that cater to different flavours of Linux and ideally, I'd prefer something that was Mint based.

Can anyone recommend a website and/or book?

Many thanks in advance.

Mint is actually based on (and use the same repository as) Ubuntu, so any website/books/tutorials that you read about Ubuntu, it will also works on Mint.
Basic terminal commands are all the same across debian-based Linux, so any tutorial on Google that you read will still apply no matter which distribution you use.

I think by stating Mint-based, you meant the desktop environment? If so any tutorial you want to find will need to be based on what desktop environment did you use (either Cinnamon, Mate, xfce, KDE etc)

There is also the Linux Mint Debian Edition, which is based on Debian instead of Ubuntu (which itself is based on Debian.... I know).

While searching for information I have often encountered outdated articles and how-tos so be careful of that.

Ah, thanks for that clarification. I must admit: going from the relatively straightforward Windows to Linux is a steep learning curve full of unfamiliar jargon. That's why I need guidance!

Yeah I forgot about that part. There's so many tutorials that were based on older kernels. They should've put some kind of warning though since it might break your OS. I can't remember how many times I broke my Mint the first month of using it just because I blindly copy-pasted terminal commands from tutorials.

Which is goes without saying you should have that live usb kept somewhere just in case. Or just dual-boot with Windows until you fully familiar with Linux before going for full transitioning.