I'm pretty sure the 1.17-loader also works with 1.16. So you only need one.If that were the case, I wouldn't have experienced the issue, would I ?
Let me explain what I think has happened:You have a symlink /usr/bin/aes that points to /c/mint/1-16//xaaes/xaloader.prg.
Now when you run this under 1.17, SYSDIR is set to 1-17 and the 1.16-loader starts the 1-17-XaAES.
When you remove the 1-16-loader the file (the loader) is not found.So you should not use a symlink but a real copy of xaloader in /usr/bin/aes.
Is /etc/ttytab really useful and/or mandatory ?
I guess init won't work without. -- Helmut Karlowski