Hey, @Gerelyn222!
Thank you so much for the detailed analysis!
The Pis are definitely a strange bunch! As I found out myself via experimentation, is that when you use the traditional flashing methods with Rufus or Etcher, you just end up running a Live USB only. Thatâs what got into trouble in the first place. That and Mint not being compatible!
One worthwhile aspect to know is that the USB card reader is much slower than actually having the SD card in its native slot. Something to remember: when you hold your Pi upside down, the card brand must look toward you. The slot is not exactly ideal, so the card can be misplaced or not make perfect contact. The moment it goes all in, then you know youâre good!
I do have some good news though. You can install Mintâs desktop environment (Cinnamon) on Ubuntu. However, letâs get Ubuntu up first! Yes, you will need to run the Imager on your Windows, (the exe file). Then insert your card reader with the 128GB card, go to âGeneral Purpose OSâ and select the âUbuntu 20.04.3â.
For illustration, you can check this link:
Now you can plug your SD card in and turn on your Raspberry Pi 4. The following are the final steps of the process:
Ubuntu can be a tad slow, due to its Gnome Desktop Environment, but once you manage to go through it, you can open up a terminal and type in:
sudo apt install cinnamon
Normally, it should ask you about a Window Manager and offer you the options between GDM and LightDM. Choose the latter.
If it does not offer you any option, then it bypassed the LightDM installation. In this scenario, we can change it manually.
sudo apt install lightdm
Once it installs, we will disable GDM (Gnome Desktop Manager) via:
sudo systemctl disable gdm
And enable the LightDM:
sudo systemctl enable lightdm
At that point you can restart and you will come through to a new login screen. Right above your password box (to the right) will be a tiny icon. Click on it to make sure you select the Cinnamon session.
Letâs see if this process works out for you!
Please let me know of your results!