Alaric Adventures in Linux split from Windows Crossover

[securitybreach]

4GB is great. Most of us are dealing with 1-2GB RAM on our Linux boxes.

Come on, I can't be the only one with a lot of ram (24gb)....

[abarbarian]

Come on, I can't be the only one with a lot of ram (24gb)....

 

Nah I got 24 GB of ram.Oh no wait is that a 2 in front of the 4 , darn it I only got 4 GB of ram with no more slots for an upgrade

[Hedon James]

Come on, I can't be the only one with a lot of ram (24gb)....

 

I've got 16GB RAM and 2x 1TB drives. Sweet spot for my needs. Can bump to 32GB RAM, but just don't see the need...yet?!

[Guest LilBambi]

Wouldn't be a bad idea to pull the Windows 8 hard drive and put it away for safe keeping and put in another hard drive, maybe even a 128GB SSD to play with for Linux. If you can. They are not cheap...even a standard SATA magnetic drive would be great. That way you would still have your Windows 8 drive if you ever want to go back.

[Hedon James]

While Bambi's advice is solid, I'd advocate burning that bridge! No retreat!

[Guest LilBambi]

Never hurts to hang on to that bridge. Might come in handy if you ever intend to sell the laptop.

[Cluttermagnet]

You guys are both right. But Fran wins out on economic practicality.

If alaric76 has a bigger HDD, I say a swap would be good.

Hey, we've already established that he is losing patience with Windows.

So view it as a long term (and slow) victory, a victory of empowerment!

But there are gadzillions of software writers making utilities that run on

Windows. Personally, I want a couple of working copies of the OS around

to run those utilities.

[Hedon James]

Truthfully, I would do exactly what Bambi suggested. I would tell the user that the bridge is burned (psychological warfare), but it would actually be stored in a box or desk drawer, for exactly the reason you cite! "Burn the bridge" was meant to be rhetorical, or satirical, or whatever the appropriate word is...

[Guest LilBambi]

I do not lie to my customers, family, friends. It's just not a good thing to do. Unless they ask you to do that.

[Guest LilBambi]

I understand what you are saying and you do not intend any malice in doing this. I just couldn't do it.

[Hedon James]

I wouldn't lie to them Bambi, I'd just tell them truthfully "it's been completely removed from your system." It's just my way of encouraging them that this is the way forward. Of course, this is all predicated on the understanding that this is what THEY asked for. I don't "push" linux on anyone; I just put it out there until eventually they conclude they want it too. This is followed by my counsel on how linux is similar, how it is different from Windows, and numerous questions regarding their use of computers and the software they use. I'll also provide a LiveCD/USB demonstration and ask them to try it out for awhile to ensure it suits their needs. But once they give the green light to replace windows with a linux distro "it is completely removed from their system". Of course it's always available for reinstallation, but I don't want them second-guessing themselves after they've made a well informed, intelligent decision based on the criteria they stated to be important. Fortunately, I've only ever had to re-install once, and that was due to a graphics chip that would periodically and randomly freeze up the entire system. Turns out it was a blacklisted chip that was never going to work with linux.

 

So, lie to them? No.... Trick or mislead them? Not in my opinion... Just a little hand-holding and reassurance that they've made a sound decision and don't second-guess yourself...just move forward.

[alaric76]

Clutter, thanks a million! I got the cd today, just need to be able to turn off secure boot!

[securitybreach]

Clutter, thanks a million! I got the cd today, just need to be able to turn off secure boot!

I posted it earlier: http://forums.scotsn...19

[alaric76]

Welcome alaric, nice to meet you!! This link will give you some tips on how to setup Windows 8 so you can install Linux:

http://askubuntu.com...=active#tab-top

 

I went to this article and it is quite too geeky for me. Isn't there a relatively easier way to do this? I still am prepared to reformat my disc if neccesary but want to make sure I can just load my new Mate17 at that point.

[securitybreach]

Here you go: http://technet.micro...y/dn481258.aspx

 

(needs to be done on win8)

[Cluttermagnet]

Alaric-

I am slowly digesting the article securitybreach posted. Your situation differs because you want to wipe Win8

instead of dual booting. This may take a while to wrap my mind around. It may help if you know how to do

partition work from within Windows. But OTOH that may not be necessary. This is probably going to be a

little hard because I'm not there with you to see what is happening.. I think out earliest experiments are

going to center around the UEFI (modern day BIOS)- getting into it, learning what windows and what choices

there are in there. In general, we want to disable Secure Boot, but needn't necessarily disable UEFI. If we

do 'disable' UEFI, it will only be in the sense that we are going to tell UEFI to behave more like the traditional

BIOS. I need to do some homework. It would be very useful if I could get a copy of your manual online and

look it over. It will probably cover a lot of these settings situations. So I'll look into that first...

Edited July 20, 2014 by Cluttermagnet

[securitybreach]

Yes, you have to disable secure boot in windows first.

[Cluttermagnet]

OK this second link from securitybreach looks pretty straightforward. Turning off Secure Boot from within Win8 doesn't

sound too very hard. We can try that first. If successful, and if you have your boot devices order correct, you should then

be able to boot into a live DVD session.

 

 

Here you go: http://technet.micro...y/dn481258.aspx

 

(needs to be done on win8)

 

1. 
   from Windows, hold the Shift key while selecting Restart. Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options: UEFI Firmware Settings.
   
2. 
   Find the Secure Boot setting, and if possible, set it to Disabled. This option is usually in either the Security tab, the Boot tab, or the Authentication tab.
   
3. 
   Save changes and exit. The PC reboots.
   

 

See if you can follow these 3 steps, go ahead and try this. Let us know if you got through it or if you

got stuck...

Edited July 20, 2014 by Cluttermagnet

[securitybreach]

Let us know how it works out. I have never messed with secure boot although my motherboard has dual bios (can use uefi or legacy bios).

[Cluttermagnet]

This is where the phone coaching is probably going to help a lot. Well, it's 3AM here and I'm dead tired, so going to hit the rack.

Let's email and set up some time windows that will work for both of us, the next few days. I get something like 90 minutes of free

air time per month on my cell phone (you have the number). Late afternoon and evenings work best, often up to midnight or

even a bit later

Edited July 20, 2014 by Cluttermagnet

[Guest LilBambi]

Welcome alaric!

 

Here's a great place to start.

 

http://forums.scotsn...=25#entry390169

[alaric76]

Well, I managed to disable secure boot! Is that permanent until I change it? I put the Mate17 disc in and it gave me a list of files on it. What do I do now?

[securitybreach]

You have to reboot into the livecd. You may need to change your bios settings to boot from the cd/dvd drive.

 

Then follow this:

[ebrke]

Yes, Secure Boot should remain disabled unless/until you change it back again. If you're seeing a list of files on the disk, I'm wondering if you booted into windows rather than booting from the disk itself. This may mean you need to get into UEFI again to change the boot order--the list of possible boot devices for your hardware. New machines may have USB first in the boot list. I'm sure Clutter, SecurityBreach or LilBambi will be along before too long to continue the process.

EDIT: Yep, SB beat me to it!

Edited July 20, 2014 by ebrke

[Cluttermagnet]

He called me. I just missed his call. Got his message, though. So I know his status as outlined above.

He was not picking up his phone, however, so I didn't get to speak with him. Called him back twice.

 

Yes, Secure Boot should remain disabled unless/until you change it back again. If you're seeing a list of files on the disk, I'm wondering if you booted into windows rather than booting from the disk itself. This may mean you need to get into UEFI again to change the boot order--the list of possible boot devices for your hardware. New machines may have USB first in the boot list. I'm sure Clutter, SecurityBreach or LilBambi will be along before too long to continue the process.

EDIT: Yep, SB beat me to it!

 

Agree, his boot order may be wrong, may be looking at the HDD first and ignoring the DVD for a boot device.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Cluttermagnet

[Cluttermagnet]

I was able to talk alaric76 through changing the boot sequence. That did it- he was immediately able to boot into Linux Mint 17 Mate 64bit. Then we tried Firefox and I realized he is doing everything wirelessly there. So right now I have him moving to his downstairs where his router lives. Once we have a solid, wired connection to the net, we can do his install. It's been a pretty good day so far...

[ebrke]

I was able to talk alaric76 through changing the boot sequence. That did it- he was immediately able to boot into Linux Mint 17 Mate 64bit. Then we tried Firefox and I realized he is doing everything wirelessly there. So right now I have him moving to his downstairs where his router lives. Once we have a solid, wired connection to the net, we can do his install. It's been a pretty good day so far...

That's great!

[Guest LilBambi]

I was able to talk alaric76 through changing the boot sequence. That did it- he was immediately able to boot into Linux Mint 17 Mate 64bit. Then we tried Firefox and I realized he is doing everything wirelessly there. So right now I have him moving to his downstairs where his router lives. Once we have a solid, wired connection to the net, we can do his install. It's been a pretty good day so far...

 

Awesome! Thanks for keeping us posted!

[Cluttermagnet]

I'm pleased to announce that Alaric76 and I talked our way through his install *and* updates.

He now has Mint 17 Mate on his Toshiba laptop. It took a while. I had to get him to move

where he had a wired internet connection. After some hemming and hawing there

"where does this cable go?" we had internet and all went smoothly with the install after that.

 

I had to take a break, finally. Where I left him was he was working on getting the laptop

with LM17 to talk wirelessly to the router. Hope he got through that OK. He thinks he

proffered an incorrect password to the router. Seems the router shut up after that and didn't

give him any subsequent windows he expected- like "try again" etc...

[alaric76]

Many, many thanks to Clutter and everyone on this forum!

 

Now, where do I go to debug my Wifi? I inadvertently entered the wrong password to enter wifi and now I am locked out! Rebooting computer and then the router, I still cannot get a 2nd shot at logging in! I have Linux on my laptop, but now I can't use it. Maybe I have to wait a day to retry wifi. Any suggestions? Is wifi handled differently by Linux than Windows?