Hot Take Escaping Windows: The Ultimate Guide to Migrate to Linux

[Victor M]

but for some reason every single on i have tried has completely crapped out on the installation

I suspect you were trying obscure distros or niche distros. Every distro wants to make it's own installer (sigh). Go with the major ones: Debia, Rocky, Fedora, Ubuntu, SUSE. They would have more polished installers.

 

[Antimalware18]

I suspect you were trying obscure distros or niche distros. Every distro wants to make it's own installer (sigh). Go with the major ones: Debia, Rocky, Fedora, Ubuntu, SUSE. They would have more polished installers.

I tried Kubuntu and it failed to install as well, the more research im doing it seems some newer laptops basically have a firmware lock to where you cant install another OS including any linux distro, I got this laptop for free, but if its in that catagory, i might be inclined to give it back if im only locked to windows lol

but all in all i really dont know what im talking about in the installation area (manual partioning, file systems ect.) thats all outside my realm of knowledge.

EDIT: i forgot to mention, trying to install linux completely borked the laptop, when elementary OS failed, it wiped the drive. when i tried to go back and reinstall windows, it failed as well, it couldnt read the partition, the only thing it could locate was the USB i was using. when i booted back up into a linux environment Gparted showed the partitions as being locked.

 

[Victor M]

seems some newer laptops basically have a firmware lock to where you cant install another OS

Never heard of that kind of firmware lock.

A partition is a slice of the HDD dividing your drive into separate ones. So in Windows, that's drive C:, D: , E: with each drive letter is a partition.

A file system is like the difference between FAT and NTFS. Each using different ways to manage files, folders etc. And each uses the HDD differently

With Ubuntu install go with the default file system as chosen for you (not anything saying 'experimental').

 

[Antimalware18]

Never heard of that kind of firmware lock.

A partition is a slice of the HDD dividing your drive into separate ones. So in Windows, that's drive C:, D: , E: with each drive letter is a partition.

A file system is like the difference between FAT and NTFS. Each using different ways to manage files, folders etc. And each uses the HDD differently

With Ubuntu install go with the default file system as chosen for you (not anything saying 'experimental').

the part you just explained i understand, but past that its a bit choppy for me. but i tried both elementary OS and Kubuntu, both failed on the default install and manually partitioned, trying the default first on both, both failed on both installation types

as for where i got the information about linux not working on some laptops, heres the article

No, Linux won’t run on every laptop — check these before you buy

EDIT: see for the laptop im referencing and in that article, in the BIOS on it there is no AHCI setting that he referenced, its completely removed.

 

[ForgottenSeer 116559]

No, Linux won’t run on every laptop — check these before you buy

I resent that article's representation of the NVIDIA situation on Linux. It was a bumpy transition to Wayland for them, but it's a new day. I run a hybrid Intel/NVIDIA system myself.

Even the default, modern Nouveau drivers will set you up for everything besides gaming and CUDA. That's perfect Wayland support out of the box to avoid screen tearing, poor battery life, and suspend/wake issues.

NVIDIA proprietary drivers were the time-tested way to optimize performance and set up for gaming/CUDA, but NVIDIA has moved to a new nvidia-open driver architecture that works amazingly well. It's considered very stable now. Every imaginable feature works perfect on my fairly recent Ampere architecture chip.

 

[Antimalware18]

I resent that article's representation of the NVIDIA situation on Linux. It was a bumpy transition to Wayland for them, but it's a new day. I run a hybrid Intel/NVIDIA system myself.

Even the default, modern Nouveau drivers will set you up for everything besides gaming and CUDA. That's perfect Wayland support out of the box to avoid screen tearing, poor battery life, and suspend/wake issues.

NVIDIA proprietary drivers were the time-tested way to optimize performance and set up for gaming/CUDA, but NVIDIA has moved to a new nvidia-open driver architecture that work amazingly well. It's considered very stable now. Every imaginable feature works perfect on my fairly recent Ampere architecture chip.

see thats still over my head a bit i used Kubuntu for a year straight before going back to windows so i could game easily. but i didnt dig that deep into linux to learn what wayland/xll (i think its called) is. i know about DE's and that and some light terminal using. but by no means am i a linux "power user"

all i know is if i cant get linux installed on that laptop, im mad as a hatter, thats a great laptop (40gb RAM 1tb SSD) ive had pc issues over the years that have frustrated me but this one actually makes me mad because linux was one of those things where it just worked, no matter the machine i tried to put it on in the past, for it to just not work on a machine of that power? (my gaming desktop only has 16gb of ram) is pretty much unacceptable to me.

 

[lokamoka820]

EDIT: i forgot to mention, trying to install linux completely borked the laptop, when elementary OS failed, it wiped the drive. when i tried to go back and reinstall windows, it failed as well, it couldnt read the partition, the only thing it could locate was the USB i was using. when i booted back up into a linux environment Gparted showed the partitions as being locked.

This occurs because your laptop's disk format was changed to Ext4 by the elementary OS, even if the installation process didn't succeed. Windows is unable to read Ext4 format, but Linux is able to read NTFS format. While in use, GParted will display the partition as locked; however, don't worry, everything can be resolved step-by-step.

 

[Antimalware18]

This occurs because your laptop's disk format was changed to Ext4 by the elementary OS, even if the installation process didn't succeed. Windows is unable to read Ext4 format, but Linux is able to read NTFS format. While in use, GParted will display the partition as locked; however, don't worry, everything can be resolved step-by-step.

I was thinking it had to do with it being ext4 but i wasnt sure, but it still wouldnt let me format it into a different file system. but the laptops in a shop now (85$ just to have a reload of windows) which doesnt help me at the end. it gets it working again, but i still want to put linux on it lol

 

[lokamoka820]

I was thinking it had to do with it being ext4 but i wasnt sure, but it still wouldnt let me format it into a different file system. but the laptops in a shop now (85$ just to have a reload of windows) which doesnt help me at the end. it gets it working again, but i still want to put linux on it lol

Does the laptop have MBR or UEFI BIOS mode?

 

[Antimalware18]

Does the laptop have MBR or UEFI BIOS mode?

When i was doing a dig around the bios looking for that setting that was in the article i didnt see anything about UEFI or MBR in the BIOS no. all those options seemed to be gone.

 

[lokamoka820]

When i was doing a dig around the bios looking for that setting that was in the article i didnt see anything about UEFI or MBR in the BIOS no. all those options seemed to be gone.

It might need to use GParted to recreate a partition table, but we must first determine whether the laptop is new and whether it supports GPT. When it was released?

 

[Antimalware18]

It might need to use GParted to recreate a partition table, but we must first determine whether the laptop is new and whether it supports GPT. When it was released?

is there any way i could send you a PM when i get the laptop back? its currently in that shop so i wont have it back til probably sometime this week.

 

[lokamoka820]

is there any way i could send you a PM when i get the laptop back? its currently in that shop so i wont have it back til probably sometime this week.

Sure, you're welcome.

 

[lokamoka820]

 

[Sorrento]

My laptop is awaiting Linux, not sure which distro to go for as I wont have time to go hopping around to much, got Windows 11 on it at moment, used Ubunto before so might go with it

 

[lokamoka820]

I'm also planning to install Linux, but I'm not sure which distribution to use. I stopped distro hopping a while back, so I'm considering something I've used before, but I'm currently posting questions on a lot of Linux support forums to find out if it's compatible with secure boot, the NVIDIA driver MOK, etc. I don't want to switch my distribution every few weeks, so I want to be sure before I jump in.

 

[Victor M]

compatible with secure boot

Don't know about your other question about Nvidia, but secure boot wise both Ubuntu and Fedora work with it.

 

[lokamoka820]

Don't know about your other question about Nvidia, but secure boot wise both Ubuntu and Fedora work with it.

Thank you. When installing the NVIDIA driver, the signed kernel module will be modified, so it may not work with Secure Boot enabled after installation. Some Linux distributions provide a Machine Owner Key (MOK) during the installation process, allowing you to manually enroll the MOK to ensure the driver works correctly with Secure Boot enabled, while other distributions (such as Ubuntu) handle the entire process for the user.