How to install LXLE on a UEFI mini-PC preloaded with Win 10
  • WestportWestport
    PMPosts: 37
    I guess I was asleep too long, 'cause when I woke up, I discovered that BIOS had been replaced by UEFI, and installing Linux is now no longer easy.  I recently purchased a mini-PC which came preloaded with Windows 10, and unbeknownst to me, UEFI.  My intention was to delete Windows and install LXLE, but now I'm stuck and don't know what to do.  I'd like to install LXLE 16.04.4 off of a DVD I burned some while back, but I could also create a USB stick if I had to.  Is there a simple [a, b, c, - 1, 2, 3] process that I can follow, to install LXLE on this new UEFI computer?
  • lxlelxle
    PMPosts: 2,656
    Did you give lxle 18.04.3 a try?
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  • WestportWestport
    PMPosts: 37
    I will certainly try lxle 18.04.3.  Is it better installed from a USB stick?  My problem is more basic, however.  I assume that I will have to change the Boot Option Priority, to boot from a USB stick, or a dvd, but which option do I choose?  The choices are #1) "Windows Boot Manager", #2) "UEFI Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller", #3) "UEFI: IP4 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller", #4) [exactly the same as #2], and #5)  "UEFI: IP6 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller".  None of these boot choices seem obvious.  Also, is changing the boot option the only issue to deal with?  I know that this is, strictly speaking, not an LXLE problem, but I'm sure someone else on the forum, (who's smarter than me), has had to deal with this before.  Thank you in advance.
  • lxlelxle
    PMPosts: 2,656
    how are you making your usb boot drive?  you can't simply just copy the iso to the usb and boot from it...
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  • WestportWestport
    PMPosts: 37
    I have been using xfburn or something like that to make a bootable dvd disk.  With BIOS I always had to change the CMOS settings so that it would then boot from the optical disk drive first before going to the hard drive.  Now all that seems to have changed.  With UEFI, I don't recognize any of the boot options, and they certainly aren't intuitive.
  • lxlelxle
    PMPosts: 2,656
    what machine do you have access to now in order to make a usb boot drive?
    Thanked by 1Westport
  • WestportWestport
    PMPosts: 37
    Problem solved!  Booting from an external drive on a PC with UEFI is not straight forward.  I did a lot of reading on line, and while am certainly not now an expert, I learned enough to solve my problem.

    First with UEFI, Boot Option Choices will not show external drives in the list until there is media present which contains the necessary UEFI boot files.  Upon startup, UEFI looks for a boot file it recognizes, and then, if it finds such a file, it will list the external drive which presents that file,  (i.e. DVD or USB).  All you do then is select the drive that you want, and you are off to the races.  

    Luckily, UEFI has been out for a while, and most newer distros will probably have the magic UEFI boot files, (LXLE 16.04.4, and 18.04.3 both have it, thank you).

    I'll stop there, because that is all I know.  There are other possible issues that you may run into with UEFI, (Secure Boot, Legacy systems, etc.), but thankfully, I did not encounter any of those problems.  Once I got the basic facts, it all went smoothly, and now my system is BLAZING FAST!!!  FYI, my new computer is a tiny, VESA mount, Mini-PC with 4GB of RAM, a solid state hard drive, and a 4 core 1.1 Ghz processor.  Pretty modest (and cheap) in the scheme of things, but with an LXLE OS, I am very, very satisfied.

    OK, enough.  Problem solved!
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