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Lenovo Laptop Love..Not!

Posted by Scott_Ruecker on · 23 comments
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LXer Feature: 1-Nov-2019

I was recently given a laptop that came with Windows 10 on it and wanted to install Linux over it because well. Windows sucks.

Hello Everyone,

The story below is my journey in getting Linux installed on a laptop that was given to me, hope you enjoy..

I was recently given a new Lenovo laptop with Windows 10 on it and at the moment it is the only computer I own. I have tried everything I know (which I know is limited) and looked up all kinds of information on the internet and I cannot get it to boot from anything other than the internal hard drive it has and/or install Linux on it.

I would like to state for the record that having been a Linux user for many years and trying and using many different versions of Linux that the Windows 10 I am stuck at that moment using is a serious pain in the behind. It is slow and using the internet reminds me the the dial-up days in that I get choppy performance and frozen browser pages all the time. If Windows 10 is supposed to be an upgrade or update from the previous version of Windows..LOL! Yeah right.

The laptop is a new Lenovo Idea Pad S340-15IWL, Model Name-81N8 with 4G of RAM, a 926gig SSD and a Intel Core i3-8145U 2.30GHz chip running an x64 version of Windows 10. Not the greatest specs but then not the worst either. It could have more RAM and a faster processor but a huge Hard Drive.

For the heck of it I decided I would try to install Linux on a 128G USB 3.0 jump-drive I happen to own. I downloaded Linux Mint 19.2 on the laptop and I installed a free program called rufus to attempt to install the Linux Mint .iso on to the jump-drive so as to be able to then boot from the jump-drive but I got an error saying that some windows program was using the .iso and cannot be written to the jump-drive. Now if I try it I get an 'ISO image extraction failure' error. Like I said it I did it just to see if I could, and I can't.

I still need to figure out the boot loader issue. I have tried to change the boot sequence to no avail. I actually have not been able to change anything about the boot sequence even with all the tips and tricks I have looked up and in my trials have learned that Lenovo is notorious for disabling options on their boot loaders so I am at a loss as to where to go from there. If the boot loader really is impossible to change in any way I may have to come to the realization that installing Linux on my Lenovo is just not going to happen. But I'm not going down without a fight.

Unfortunately I do not have the receipt for the laptop. It was given to me 'as is', for free, no strings attached. Brand new I have found that it was worth roughly $400 so I don't think I would get much for it if I were to sell it to a pawn shop. I'll have to look into that more though. I can still reset it and take it back to "day one" whenever I want so I know that is a positive for me.

I know that this article may seem a lot like the two previous ones by James Dixon. The links to those articles are here and here. But in having what at first seemed to be similar issues I thought I would share my experiences and see what you think.

Update: 31-Oct-2019

Well one of the scripts I looked up did change the login prompt on the boot screen and add the option to boot from a USB. Now I just need to figure out how to get Linux Mint installed onto the jump-drive. I wiped the USB drive and started from scratch with rufus in installing Linux on it and it installed successfully.

--

I think I got it figured out! I was able to get it to boot into Linux Mint and Install. I'm actually not sure what exactly what I did but I was able to get it to boot into Linux Mint and Install. I installed it alongside of Windows (In case I need it..Not!) and split the hard drive into two equal 500gig partitions. I have the option to boot into Linux or Windows at the startup screen.

My laptop is like night and day compared to Windows 10. The speed difference is amazing. I can have multiple tabs open in a browser window without the computer freezing up on me for minutes at a time. What a gift!

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Comments (23)

3 earlier comments in the full thread.

gus3 ·
I think "how much does ${OS} get in the way?" should be hung over every door in every corporate OS development house in the world. And I'm sure you (the reader) have some ideas of who should read it.
jdixon ·
> has anyone here tried running linux through WSL?

The command line version of Ubuntu worked fairly well when I tried it out.

There are now two versions of WSL though, and I haven't tried the later one.

> unfortunately for banking i need windows with USB support, which, as i understand may not be working well inside a virtual machine,

The VirtualBox extensions handle USB fairly well, as far as I know. For business use you need a license though.

But why not use Windows as the host OS and use Linux in the virtual machine? No one says you have to primarily use the host OS.
nmset ·
>But why not use Windows as the host OS and use Linux in the virtual machine?

His machine is already choking while running Windows as the host OS, another OS on top of that would be near impossible, guessing.
mbaehrlxer ·
well, it comes down to a test. keep in mind that i want linux to be my primary GUI desktop. so it depends on how well that works. having windows in the VM would be my preferred option really, if i can make it work. but that is straight forward to test. so what i am really asking is if anyone has experience with the alternative solutions.

Linux in a VM would require the laptop to have sufficient memory. i am currently targeting 8GB, as i found that 4GB is not enough for my day-to-day work. the VM solution might mean that i need more so that i can give 8GB to the VM.

the reverse case would not have this problem, as i can put a windows VM to sleep and free the memory while i do normal work, and i'd only need a few GB when i wake it up. however, that is also subject to testing.

i do believe that WSL would not have this memory problem, but that in fact may not be true. after all, windows is still running and taking up memory, so i might need more than 8GB there too.

so the questions are (my homework to figure this out, and for anyone who likes to play along :-) :

how much memory does windows need as a host, with linux as a VM? how well does linux work as a desktop when running inside a VM?

how much memory does windows need as a host, with linux running in WSL? how well does WSL work as a linux desktop? (does it at all?)

how well does USB work in a windows VM? (meaning: i need to test my particular use case of a bank security token)

is there another option? can i hibernate linux while booting linux? (the short answer is that i actually have this working on an old laptop. it is annoying to switch and have to disable linux while booting windows, but at least i don't loose state on the linux side (it also keeps state on windows, but i care less about that)

greetings, eMBee.
Read the whole comment
nmset ·
>how well does linux work as a desktop when running inside a VM? ... how well does USB work in a windows VM?

There are two machines at work dual booting Linux and Windows 7. On one host OS, the other one is guest in VirtualBox. The latter forwards very well specified USB peripherals to the guest. Linux as a guest, allowed 4GB RAM (half of total RAM) and all four cores runs nearly as native. Don't expect to play GPU intensive games here. Windows 7 as a guest is more quiet if allowed 2GB RAM instead of four, and two cores instead of four.

How about changing bank for tokenless ones ? LOL ! But not really. AFAIK, tokens are not used in internet banking here (FR).
mbaehrlxer ·
changing banks is not an option, as this is not personal but for a company, and changing that would be a bureaucratic nightmare.

> forwards very well specified USB peripherals to the guest

this is what worries me. i fear that the banks USB token may not be well specified since it is not a standard peripheral (like a disk, but could be something entirely custom)

games is another issue. not as critical, and the games i like to play are not the newest, so they may work in the VM but we'll see...

greetings, eMBee.
ckrzen ·
@mbaehrlxer: I run Win10(1903) in KVM/QEMU(libvirt) using "GNOME Boxes". USB redirection is working well in Fedora 30/31. I usually setup a customized VM using "virt-manager" in a "qemu:///session" with Spice guest tools so that I can access it from gnome-boxes. This is so that we can deposit checks using a USB check scanner. All F/OSS, so no need for a business-use license.
Scott_Ruecker Story submitter ·
Update:

So far my Linux Mint install is running perfectly. Every program I have opened works, surfing the web is awesome in that I can have 10-15+tabs open in my browser and they all load and I have no freezing issues. I have wanted to try out a chromebook in the recent past but after finally getting my love (Linux) installed on my laptop I have no wants or needs anymore. :-)

Scott
caitlynm ·
My work laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad T480. It's running CentOS 8.1 (8.0 before today) and everything works as expected. It did need a firmware upgrade when I first did the install but that was easy enough. I do like the machine.
Scott_Ruecker Story submitter ·
Well..There's not much you can do when it will not turn on any longer. :-(

About two weeks ago my wonderful Linux Laptop decided not to power up anymore and there is not much I can do about it besides take it to a 'repair' shop and pay more than it is worth to try and fix it. I took it to one and priced it and they won't even tell me how much the final cost might be. The laptop brand new cost roughly $400 and besides, I don't have the money to fix it. I am better off 'saving up' to buy another one if possible.

Without it even turning on I am basically carrying around a paperweight. It just makes me sad that after succeeding at finally getting it the way I want it now it does this. It was given to me so I can't complain that I didn't get "my money's worth" but still, ugh.

Scott

jdixon ·
> Well..There's not much you can do when it will not turn on any longer. :-(

I assume it's dead on both the power supply and battery and that you've tried another power supply, Scott?
ckrzen ·
@Scott: I consistently have great results on ``ThinkPad`` laptops with Linux. Gently used ones from a couple of years back are truly an unbeatable value! May I suggest that you take a look at a ``grade B`` or ``grade C`` ThinkPad T450:

1. newegg.com/p/pl?N=100006740%204018&d=thinkpad%20t450&Order=PRICE

or

2. amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-i5-5300U-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B07GCRBLQS
Scott_Ruecker Story submitter ·
>I assume it's dead on both the power supply and battery and that you've tried another power supply, Scott?

I tried several different power supplies.

Thank you for the links to other laptops. :-)
gus3 ·
Also, I hope you have backups of any critical data on the dead laptop. If not, do you have a recovery procedure in place?
WB7ODYFred ·
Look at using a Live Linux Booting from a USB flash drive with persistence, like https://puppylinux.com or Fatdog64 http://puppylinux-or-pcbsd.blogspot.com/2019/04/fatdog64-800...

A second thought is to install either Windows 10 or Linux distro (of your choice) to a 120 or 240 GB Sata 2.5" SSD placed in a SATA to USB 3.1 external case. I like HornetTek Leopard modelHT-223APC. UPC 7 99599 16498 8 Metal case.

You hit F12 , F10, or ESC key and select external USB for boot drive or set BIOS boot drive order USB before internal hard drive. Now carry one computer and one external USB sdd drive.

You might even look at external 128gb USB flash drive for $30.

Scott_Ruecker Story submitter ·
"You might even look at external 128gb USB flash drive for $30."

That is my intention exactly. Once I get another USB Drive I am going to install a Linux distro onto it and make it bootable.
cr ·
Scott:

One ancient laptop here (battery long since faded away, so operation is AC-only) stopped booting with the battery inserted. It booted just fine, last I looked, with an empty battery bay. I suggest trying that, if you haven't already, before dismissing the machine as dead.
mbaehrlxer ·
sorry to revive an old thread.

i still haven't bought a new laptop yet, but in the meantime, someone helpfully pointed out that all the games i like to play have gold status in proton, so i won't be needing windows for any games. only for the bank.

greetings, eMBee.
Scott_Ruecker Story submitter ·
Gold status in Proton? I've never heard of that please tell me more. In the not needing Windows dept. with my new laptop I am just forcing myself to keep Windows around until I pay off the laptop. Running Linux from USB or as I am going to experiment with soon WSL2, we'll see how it goes.
mbaehrlxer ·
proton for steam from valve is using wine to make many windows games run on linux.

https://www.protondb.com/ tracks the status of games. gold means they run just fine.

there is a discussion about it on hackernews: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25333219

greetings, eMBee.

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