[Discuss] Need help to get a Dell Inspiron to boot

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2018-07-08 23:57-0400 Yuuri wrote:

> Hi!
>
> New to this list (signed up to ask for advice).
> Some time ago I bought a notebok called Dell Inspiron, because it had been 
> advertisied to be Linux ready. I don't understand why this model with Linux 
> pre-installed was not available in Canada or the US, but I recall that it was 
> on the market in Europe at that time, and so I thought I'll just delete 
> Windows and put Linux on it myself.
>
> The OS (Mint Linux) installed OK, but the laptop doesn't boot from its own 
> internal whatever-you-call-that (it's not a disk, apparently, but something 
> that works exactly like a disk): there is an error message to the effect that 
> a bootable device cannot be found. However, I can boot the laptop from a USB 
> with Linux installed, except that I don't want to use it that way.
>
> Since I have been living in the Yukon until recently I couldn't get support, 
> and two years have passed already (oh no)... now I hope that somebody in 
> Victoria might be able to show me what needs to be done to finally get the 
> Inspiron to work as it should...
>
> By the way (maybe this is necessary information), I don't have a computer 
> running Windows right now, so I can't run a Windows based Linux installer, 
> etc. (I have an old and heavy Toshiba laptop and a small Acer notebook that 
> both have Puppy Linux installed and boot off their built in drives.)
>
> Thanks in advance for hints, etc.!

Hi Yuuri:

Welcome to a group of Linux enthusiasts in Victoria!

Does your laptop have an old-fashioned BIOS or UEFI?  If the latter, there are
some tricks to installing Linux which I discovered recently for myself when
installing Debian (Buster) on my new PC.  After I got the installer to
partition the drive, it complained that I had no UEFI partition, and that
turned out to be essential in order for grub to work.

Anyhow, it sounds like it has been a while since you attempted to
install so I suggest you try installing again with the latest version
of Mint (or Debian Buster, see below) and pay close attention to any
warnings produced by the installer with regard to partitioning or
grub.

For what it is worth, I attach some notes I took for a recent Debian
install I did which although quite terse were complete enough that
when Mother Computers built my new PC, they could follow those
notes (despite their unfamiliarity with Linux) to test that Debian was
basically working OK on that new computer after they built it.  There
are some things in there that are specific to my computer (e.g., the
brand of ethernet chipset and the fact that computer has both an HDD
and SSD), but if you are interested in trying to install Debian Buster
yourself, you should start with a recent weekly snapshot of the
installer that you can find at <https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/>
--> "Weekly builds of installer images ", choose an iso appropriate to
your computer, copy that to a USB stick, verify the iso on that stick,
then follow my notes.

I hasten to add that although I have had luck with Debian installs over the
years I am no expert since I do such installs rarely (once every couple of
years).  But I have had recent good experience again so I thought I
should say something about that.

Anyhow, good luck with whatever distribution you decide to
install fresh, and let us know how it goes.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________
-------------- next part --------------
# Cookbook for minimal install of Debian Stretch.

Attach "GVPL" USB stick to USB2 port

The box should be connected to a dhcp server so that
it can access Debian servers via the net.  You have a choice here of
making that connection through the integrated RealTek ethernet port or
the expansion card Intel ethernet port.  Both should work, but just to
be definite choose the former.

Get into BIOS to change boot sequence to boot
from that USB stick  (likely identified as Generic)

Boot which gives you a graphical Debian installer screen.

Advanced options --> expert install

Note "expert install" uses the command line rather than a GUI
but is likely more reliable than the GUI.  The result
should be a white menu on a blue background with ~10 choices.

Here are the choices you should take in the order given.

* Choose Language
English
Canada
Additional locales none and continue

* Configure the keyboard
American English

* Detect and mount cdrom
cdrom is a misnomer here that in this case refers to the USB stick.
This step should automatically find
the core of Debian Stretch 9.4 that is located on that USB stick

* Load installer components from CD (actually USB)
ignore all the optional add-ons by simply hitting continue
which loads in the core of Debian Stretch packages before
returning to the main choice menu, but this time instead
of ~10 choices there are now a lot more.

* Detect network hardware
If you are given a choice here, those choices are the Realtek networking integrated
chipset or the Intel networking card.  Choose the RealTek alternative to
be consistent with the choice you made above.

* Configure the network
Choose the automatic method here which should be equivalent to dhcp
Choose a hostname of merlin
Choose a domain name of mylan.home

* Set up users and passwords
Yes to shadow passwords and root account.
For that root account, password = root1234 (just a temporary measure)
No to user account.

* Configure the clock
Yes to ntp
use Pacific time zone

* Detect disks

* Partition disks
Use manual method
Select whole SDD to partition
Create empty partition table with partition table type of gpt
Create a 60GB partition with defaults (mount point of "/" and a file
system of ext4)
Partitioning destroys all data on the partition so
do not partition anything else (such as the USB stick or the HDD)!
The partitioner will warn yoy because you didn't create a swap
partition, but going without for now is fine (i.e., ignore that
warning) and I plan to
partition the HDD myself later (including creating a swap partition).

* Install the base system
This is quite slow (probably because of the slow speed of the USB stick)
Gave me the choice of two kernels, and I chose linux-image-amd64.
Gave me the choice of generic or targeted drivers, and I chose targeted
(since that is much smaller and therefore leads to quicker boots).

* Configure the package manager
Chose http
Chose debian mirror -> Canada --> ftp.ca.debian.org
I didn't need an http proxy, but if you need one, you can specify it
Chose access to non-free
Chose to add apt source repositories for
security and release updates, but not backports

* Select and install software
The first part of this appears to be an update of all Linux software from
the Debian mirror chosen above
Chose no on popularity contest
Chose to add *no* additional software (I can do that later at any time)
Three components of additional software were chosen by default so
I had to reverse those choices to achieve the above.

* Install the grub boot loader on the hard disk
Chose to install the Grub boot loader to the master boot record (of the SSD
that was partitioned above)
Chose NOT to force grub installation to the EFI removable media path

* Finish the installation
Chose to set hardware (bios) clock to UTC
When prompted removed the install medium (the Blue GVPL USB stick)

Post install:

Boot the system which should get you to grub
menu, and choose the default boot there.  Which
should lead to login prompt

Specify username of root
and the same password as above.  If that login
is a success (i.e., you have access to the command line)
this minimalist install was a complete success!