Interesting #tech problem: I have a Thinkpad X230 and a keychain full of USB drives. I’ve been trying to install a new distro, but no matter what ISO (Slack, BSD, etc) I try, it fails to boot from the USB anywhere past the initial disk enumeration.
Whatever bootloader the distro uses will load, but the actual installer never starts. Tried multiple USBs and multiple distros. CSM is enabled. Ideas? #Techsupport #linux #thinkpad
@starbreaker it has UEFI+legacy, CSM enabled.
@moz Try setting it to legacy only.
@starbreaker that worked...awesome! had CSM enabled before, but was booting EFI-first. For some reason that worked for the Antergos installer but not for Slackware or BSD installers... strange
@moz The Slackware and BSD installers probably need to be updated to handle UEFI. If you're going to use those, make sure to partition with MBR instead of GPT, and put GRUB in the MBR. Then legacy boot shouldn't be a problem.
@starbreaker good to know. Partitioning and getting bootloaders set up is my least favorite part of installing OSes. So fragile and unreliable sometimes. Wish there was a robust UEFI bootloader solution that could chainload into MBR-only OSes.
@moz I'm not convinced UEFI was ever necessary, let alone a good idea.
@starbreaker it isn’t, but it’s everywhere now so I’d rather make it work than keep using systems from pre-2013.
@moz look for a docking station with a cd drive and try to boot off that?
@amsomniac no DVDs to burn, only an external DVDRW drive, and no bootable DVDs laying around
@moz take out the disk and install like, the first step of arch? 😂😂
@amsomniac ...I already have an arch install running on this system. It’s my screw-around experimentation system so I can nuke and reinstall weird distros all day.
I’m trying to figure out why it’s hanging when I boot from USB *now*, since it was working fine beforehand, when I installed arch from USB. I don’t have DVDs to burn to, and there’s about 3 feet of snow outside so I’m not gonna be able to get any.
@moz good luck with your bios gremlins or whatever magick it turns out to be 🙃🙃
@amsomniac it was in fact bios gremlins. had to set uefi to legacy only mode... even though the usb drive was getting past the boot loader before freezing. weird.
@moz 64 or 32 bit EUFI?
I think only Ubuntu can install a 64bit OS with a 32 bit EUFI, with some finagling.
@UberGeek Unsure. It’s an x64 system, so I assume it’s an x64 UEFI?
@moz There are some oddball systems with a 32 bit EUFI, but are 64 bit machines.
@moz
1. disable secure boot
2. install it gnu/Linux distribution
3. make a partition of type "bsd" from Ur gnu/Linux distribution
4. now start the openbsd installer and choose to use existing partition
@srinicame I got Slackware working, had to set the BIOS to Legacy only.
@moz update Ur uefi through the Os with which the lappy was shipped
@srinicame it came with win 10 as a refurb, I nuked it and installed arch day 1 lmao
@moz somehow try to update Ur uefi. majority of the lappys shipped have incomplete implementation of uefi which they upgrade regularly
@srinicame I’m actually gonna try and nuke the UEFI on it and install coreboot to get rid of Intel’s shady bullshit
@moz omg, that really killed this discussion. please do keep us updated on your endeavour
@srinicame will do. this is my random fuckery system so I’m very ready to experiment with it
@moz in case, it missed Ur eyes http://slackware.osuosl.org/slackware64/README_UEFI.TXT
@srinicame hmm this would’ve been useful when I was installing slackware. Still good to have for reference
@moz Is your X230 set to boot using UEFI instead of legacy mode?