Looking for a special Linux distro for installation on a laptop

Find Me a Distro
61

I’m afraid I lost your point. :thinking:
“S mode” is an attribute of the installed Windows (be it 10 or 11), not an attribute of the device itself.

62

Hi all, :wave:

thanks so much for your replies. :heart:

@nevj :

Thanks Neville. That´s exactly what I wanted to know.
Of course that´s very important to me.

@4dandl4 :

Thank you Daniel, but I´m with @kovacslt here.

That´s what I was thinking as well.

I was of the opinion that if I wanted to install a Linux distro I wouldn´t have to power up WIN even once (whether in S mode or not).
Just make a clonezilla disk backup (to be on the safe side), then nuke WIN and afterwards install Linux.

Why would it matter if WIN was in S mode :question:

@kovacslt :

Thanks a lot, László. :heart:

I see.
Yes, I guess that would be the worst case scenario.

In this case: wouldn´t a 32 bit Linux be good then :question:
Just a thought…

Thanks to all of you.

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

63

AFAIK, no 32 bit distro has UEFI startup. So that’s 32 bit UEFI is a special (weird) case.
I thought, I have to dig it up :slight_smile:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=218237

https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Howto/32-Bit_EFI/

These are just for hints only, don’t waste your brain capacity investigating this deeper. Do it only if you really need (i.e. your installed system doesn’t boot on that machine).
:slight_smile:

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64

Hi László, :wave:

thank you so much. :heart:

Yes, like you, I think what we´re talking about is a rather unlikely case.
I don´t expect to run into difficulties with that and I hope to be able to install a 64 bit Linux distro all the same.

Still: thanks for the links (especially for the ubuntuusers one).
I´ll have a look at them out of interest.

Just an afterthought:

My original plan was to make a clonezilla disk backup without starting WIN even once.
Do you think it would be better to make such a backup after powering up WIN and going through its initialization process instead :question:

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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65

If I wanted to be that safe, I think, I’d conserve the clean factory state untouched.
So when it comes to sell that laptop, restoring that image will wipe any personal data that may be there after those setup steps.

Knowing myself, I’d just take my Ventoy drive, boot it up, and repartition the whole drive, and just get to the Linux install as quick as possible.
But this is not what I recommend you :slight_smile:
Just take that drive image, to be safe :smiley:

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66

Thanks László,

That was my initial thought as well. Just wanted to know what you think of it.

But this way we wouldn´t be able to opt out of WIN´s S mode.
Let´s hope this isn´t necessary after all. :wink:

I´ve already prepared a ventoy stick with (amongst other OS´s) clonezilla.
As I don´t know which of these keys will be the right one for accessing the boot menu: F9, F12, DEL …
… I hope I´ll get the correct one right at the beginning.

Otherwise WIN would start, which is a situation we don´t want to run into. :wink:

I´ll try F12 first. It´s just my gut feeling…

Thanks a lot for your help, László. :heart:

Cheers from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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67

Gerne wieder :smiley:

F10 may be there on the list too.

If you see Windows starting, long press (more than 4 secs) the power button.
That’s a cruel power off, so Win won’t reach the target to ask for user data and finish initial steps, and when next time it has a chance to boot, starts over again from scratch.

Looking forward to a report how it went with the install?

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68

Hi László, :wave:

Nagyon szépen köszönöm a segítséget :smiley: .

Thanks.

So F9, F10, F12 and DEL are hot candidates. That´s good to know. :+1:

Cutting the WIN boot process short the way you described is a good way (I guess the only way) to get out of an otherwise evolving misery.
Thanks for the hint. :heart:

Of course, Laśzló. After all the help I received from all of you that´s the least I can do.

As my ex-neighbour lives a bit far away from me we´ll have make an appointment for the procedure.

I´ll keep you up-to-date.

Thank you very much all of you. :heart:

Cheers from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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69

Hi all, :wave:

László kindly requested:

… which of course I would´ve done anyway.

Yesterday was the big day when I attempted to install some Linux distro on my ex-neighbour´s new laptop (Medion Akoya E3223).

But I´m sorry to say the attempt utterly and miserably failed.
It ended uo in a catastrophe…
… which means even after hours on end I didn´t achieve anything. :frowning_face:

The problem was: I couldn´t get the laptop to boot from the ventoy (usb) stick, where clonezilla and e.g. Linux Lite iso reside.

I presume the laptop´s UEFI is to blame.

It´s an American Megatrends Inc. version 2.20.1270
Aptio Setup Utility

Try it as I might, I couldn´t get it to recognize the stick (or any usb device for that matter).
I literally tried everything, from disabling secure boot to what-have-you.
Nothing seemed to work.

What I could achieve:

  • access UEFI with all of its settings (it was the F2 key)
  • access boot menu (I think it was F10)

The boot menu however displayed just 2 entries:

  • the laptop´s internal SSD with WIN on it
  • some other entry, which I cannot remember. I think it had something to do with EFI…
    I believe it was the uEFI Shell.

No way I could have chosen the usb-stick for boot…
I wonder whether there´s any hope left at all. :thinking:

My ex-neighbour was so disappointed. She said if everything else fails she´d apply an hammer or an axe to the laptop… :astonished: .
I don´t think she really meant it but she repeated her sentiment a few times more.

Any ideas what could be done to solve the problem :question:

Thank you so much in advance.

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

P.S.

something odd in UEFI settings:

Boot Options / Priority Boot Options:
Disabled (otherwise just W10 available)

70

Hi @Rosika !
Sad to read the story. :frowning:
I expected a succesfull install process with a happy-end.

Did you look for something like “USB boot -->Enable / Disable” in that EFI?
Maybe USB boot is disabled in general.

Additionally I would try to create a “clean” install pendrive for Linux Mint (or whatever you want to try to install) without involving Ventoy, and see if it seems to be bootable?

If it does boot the install pendrive so, I’d try the same for Clonezilla.

Update:

Does this help?

71

I’d say, if you are using Linux Lite, that is the way to go for your friend/ex-neighbor. If you’re installing it on her new computer and based on other related posts, you’ll be providing tech support. You’ll have a better time supporting a distribution you’re familiar with than something you know little about, especially when it comes to trouble-shooting and configuration, etc. Besides, Linux Lite is fairly resource friendly IIRC :slight_smile:

My2Cents,

Ernie

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72

Hi again, :wave:

thanks all for your new input. :heart:

@kovacslt :

Thanks for the sentiment. You´re too kind.

Yes, I expected it to be a no-brainer as I had set up quite a lot of systems before…

… even for a friend of mine who lives very far away. I did it via phone and anydesk.
So I never would´ve expected to run into this kind of difficulties… :slightly_frowning_face:.

Thank you very much for the youtube-link. I downoaded the video to have a closer look at it.

  • opting for “fast boot disabled”: that I did
  • “Legacy USB Support” under “Advanced”: The UEFI wouldn´t offer me anything like that. I would´ve chosen this one of course.

I fear it´s a bit more complicated than that.

I´d need a manual which describes all of the available options and settings of American Megatrends Inc. version 2.20.1270.

It seems there´s no such thing on the internet. I was looking around for quite a while but couldn´t find anything…
Do you have a clue about that :question:

However I found the following recommendations:

  • fastboot has to be deactivated in UEFI, but also in WIN.
    Well, I deactivated it just in UEFI as I wanted to avoid having to start WIN altogether.
    But I still don´t get it. How could any setting in WIN affect how the UEFI bahaves if WIN hasn´t started at all (i.e. is not running). … :thinking:

  • use only an USB2.0 port for the stick. USB3.0 would not necessarily be available at that particular time.
    I tried both of the two available USB ports, first of all USB2.0

Yes, of course I did. There´s nothing like that available. That would´ve been easy then.

Well, here come the embarrassing part:

I actually managed to boot the ventoy stick. It worked exactly one time.

Unfortunately clonezilla wouldn´t work as expected, so I attempted start it anew.
But I cannot for the life of me remember the exact UEFI settings .

I changed them “a thousand times” in order to get ventoy running again but nothing worked.

As I said, it´s awfully embarrassing. :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

For what it´s worth: we definitively know that there must be a way of starting the stick.

The basic problem is: the stick (or anything attached to an USB port) is not recognized by the UEFI at all. Therefore the boot menu won´t list it.
I have to tackle that very problem. I wish I knew how… :thinking:.

Thanks so much for your help, László. :heart:

@ernie :

Thanks, Ernie, for your recommendations.
I was thinking exactly the same.

It was my plan last Thursday, but it didn´t come to this. . :neutral_face:

I have to come to terms with this UEFI version of hers first.

Many greetings to all.

Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

73

Until you take the laptop out of S mode and boot into W11, no boot menu will be offered, unless it is installed from the MS Store App.

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74

Hi Daniel, :wave:

thanks a lot for your reply.

O.K., I didn´t do that, I have to admit.
But if that really is the case I´m afraid I don´t understand anything anymore.
As László already pointed out in post #60:

…

I fail to understand why WIN should have an effect on the UEFI if it isn´t even running :question:

Of course I´ll try opting out of WIN´s S mode next time I´m with my ex-neighbour.

WIN really shouldn´t have the power to meddle with BIOS/UEFI settings. Things like that make me angry. :rage:

Thanks a lot and many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

75

@Rosika
Simple, you have not booted W11 yet!!!

76

I’m with Rosika there. Not sure why not booting into W11 would have any effect. I’d be interested in seeing the result though.

Maybe there is a custom BIOS that expects to boot into W11 and won’t do anything else. I could see that being a “thing” maybe.

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77

Rosika,

Search instead for a user manual for the laptop using it’s manufacturer and model name. For my old Dell Inspiron 5555, I’d search for “Dell Inspiron 5555 user manual”, keeping the quotes so I’m looking for the entire search term as a single item, not a list of words/terms. If that search fails, I’d go to the manufacturer’s website, navigate to support, then use that pages functionality to search for the laptop’s model name. Somewhere in the support page for that laptop there is usually a download section from which you can get the user’s manual, and maybe the service manual too, although getting the service manual is often less likely. As a final option, try searching for the manual on https://manuals.com

I hope this helps,

Ernie

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78

If I read it correctly, it was posibble to boot Ventoy once. So I most doubt the never bootec S mode Win affects that.
It’s something the BIOS does not recognise the pendrive to boot from it.
Maybe power down completely, have the pendrive inserted, and switch on, and try to access boot menu, and try to boot Ventoy?

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79

If the ability to boot from a USB device is enabled in the UEFI settings, and I suspect it is because you were able to boot the Ventoy drive at least once (maybe double-check to be sure), you should be able to reboot/start the computer and press the correct function key to bring up the boot menu. On my desktop PC, its the F8 key and on my primary laptop PC it’s the F12 key. When you find the correct function key, you should see all the boot options available for your computer. One of the choices should be the Ventoy USB stick. The menu item for your USB stick won’t be named Ventoy, it’ll be names with the device name of the USB stick. If the correct function key is not F12 or F8, thy all the other function keys, one at a time, until you find the correct one. As a last resort, if none of the function keys bring up the boot menu, with the USB key connected, go into the UEFI settings and check the boot order. If your laptop has the ability, set the USB device as the first boot option, then exit UEFI settings, saving your changes (you’ll have to figure out how to save your changes yourself because different computer models may use different option. On my desktop, it’s the F10 key, but YMMV). If you tell me the computer’s model name, I may be able to give you more accurate help,

Ernie

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80

Is it possible that the Ventoy stick changed something when booted?
If you can alter bios settings, then a program may be able to alter them
I would not trust Ventoy with its hands tied, it is way too complicated.

I like Laszlo’s idea of having some sticks without Ventoy. I think SystemRescueCD and Clonezilla and Lite… 3 sticks. Maybe also Knoppix. No Ventoy

Is there a factory reset ?

I dont understand @Daniel_Phillips S mode.
Can you elaborate please Daniel?
and what would booting W11 do … will it alter the UEFI settings?

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