Seeing that my Dell Venue 11 5130 is now useless from a Win10 “update”. It could not update the system, so it tried and tried and tried (still trying) to bring back the old system. To heck with that.
I tried to installed Mint 19.2 on it by way of a flash drive (using rufus v3.6) . I still cannot get the BIOS to see or let the flash drive install a new OS. Could I have a flash drive configuration problem? Can anyone help here in getting the flash drive to work? My biggest problem is that I know nothing about UEFI, which I think is my problem in getting Linux installed.
Is there any ISO files I can get to “restore” my Dell system? Or wipe it clean in order to install Linux?
REALLY, a big THANKS! ahead for any suggestion / solutions that will help me.
Check if your model supports UEFI.
a. If yes, press F2 or DEL when the computer boots up, to get into the UEFI. Change boot mode to UEFI only. Flash the ISO (after verifying its checksum) onto the USB with Rufus in UEFI mode. It should now be able to boot into the stick’s OS.
b. If no, flash the ISO with Rufus in BIOS mode and boot into the stick’s OS.
For both flashing operations, you should use DD mode within Rufus and tick on bad blocks checking, if you want to be extra sure that everything works fine. You of course have to additionally verify the checksum of the ISO after download.
Looks like this device is a tablet. I found this remark on the internet.
" It (Linux) won’t work on all tablets . With so many different tablet processors and architecture, it’s tough for Linux to support them all. That means your particular tablet model may not have a Linux distribution out there that supports it. Jun 30, 2018"
Windows 10 could works best without any UPDATE ! Majority of updates too many headaches, ( included Linux OS ) my suggestion: Turn Off Updates in security central. Even MS-Antivirus could turn off also, if the user have some
experience with computers.For install Linux Mint 19.2, you could to use the command " dd " for create the .iso file for a pendrive.Use the Linux Mint in live mode for make it.Major explications about “dd” command in Google.
Disabling updates is a bad idea, no matter if it is Windows or Linux. But I agree that Windows updates are a bit of a mess. It is also not easy to stop them. Only thing close to it is to defer it.
Thanks to all for the suggestions -
Here’s the latest, called Microsoft support and with over an hour on the phone, they admitted something was not right and I should take it to a Microsoft store (luckily there is one in town) for a no charge repair. At the store and almost 2 hrs later they admitted they have never seen anything like this. They manage to get everything back (with my OK for no apps installed) except for one thing. THEY COULD NOT GET WIFI TO WORK! Now, how and the heck is this any good without WIFI. This weekend (given free time) I’m going to see what card is in the system and “try” and get a d***n driver for it. Once I have a working network I am going to create a full backup image and then it is LINUX MINT 19.2 TIME!
I’ll update you all later when I have a REAL system running
As easyt50 mentioned, this is a tablet device and while it’s not running an ARM CPU like most mobile devices, you still may run into issues both getting Linux to run and installing Linux on it, due to lack of support for the widely various hardware in such devices.
Do keep us posted though, I’m curious to know how it goes and I hope you can get Linux to run on it. Mint 19.2 is pretty awesome.
‘Bit of a mess’ is a major understatement. I’m almost convinced the update that trashed my Win 10 was deliberate to push me further into Linux distro? The unknown amount of bad updates since 2017 has probably furthered interest in Linux more than the community could do? (wasn’t there a major issue every 2~3 months?) Even my wife has now tried Mint out (but couldn’t get MS office suite to ‘play nice’ with Libra Office 2yrs ago)
@_dave Have you sorted this yet or is it still open? If you have sorted it perhaps you could let the community know how please. If it is not sorted then it is okay to leave it open so that another might be able to help
Thanks
Sorry for the long delay. I have put everything on the back burner since I have more pressing issues right now.
The end result is two fold.
Microsoft did manage to get windows reinstalled (not a doorstop any longer). But somehow my on board WiFi chip got fried. It worked fine before the “upgrade”. Otherwise how could I upgrade the laptop. So, I got a WiFi google and it works now.
Was totally unable to install Mint due to the restriction of the bios and the fact that I think the OS is not a good match for the “Atom” processor. I think my problem was that I do not know enough about the bios configuration to be able to get the Linux Mint installed.
Until I get my other issues squared away I will not be doing anything with this project. I will leave this open for a little while longer in case someone has a working idea. Thank you all for the help.
I have read comments from the people who use software defined radio’s that they only use win 10 professional because the updates are different than on the less win 10 as in home 10 or what ever it is called, the problem with using win 10 if it is not Pro, every time you update it changes all the settings on the usb’s and other settings in the software defined radios, and it a whole time consuming function to replace all the setting and start over. So you are forced to spend the extra money and install win 10 pro. I dont, I use Linux, hee hee har har.
I’m almost convinced the update that trashed my Win 10 was deliberate to push me further into Linux distro? The unknown amount of bad updates since 2017 has probably furthered interest in Linux more than the community could do? (wasn’t there a major issue every 2~3 months?) Even my wife has now tried Mint out (but couldn’t get MS office suite to ‘play nice’ with Libra Office 2yrs ago)