[simon]

You are right – I suddenly get grub too, and it works to dual boot. Does that mean we can use a normal iso at least with the ubuntu variants? Will find out eventually – this could be a big improvement.

[simon]

Success – Am tryiing to work out what I was doing wrong. I think it was because somehow I ended up with the portable version of the Rufus software, and that doesnt have the function of writing iso’s in DD mode. But I need to confirm. So far I have downloaded one of Linuxium’s google drive iso file, burned it as a ‘dd’ image in rufus in windows, succesfully got into a live session, and installed as a dual boot in a perilously small partition on the 64gig internal drive. It does for now. I tried linuxium’s scripts to respin a normal ubuntu image but never got that to work. The iso image has to be one created for the Apollo chipset, with Refind incorporated into it.  http://linuxiumcomau.blogspot.com.au/2017/09/ubuntu-1710-beta-2-releases-for-intel.html
[edit] after I installed updates, grub came back and I had to re-install refind from windows.

[simon]

Hi there, I installed Refind from windows and now can get a bit further with the boot, before; booting any linux usb would go straight to a black screen with an unblinking cursor in the top left (no grub, no nothing at all). Now, I get some text scrolling down for a bit, and (so far) an error message. Also I long ago went through every thing I could see in bios and it just looks to me as if everything about secure boot is turned off, actually by default from the company. As discussed above I switched the ‘target OS’ to linux, but have now turned it back to ‘windows’. There is some stuff about secure boot keys which I dont understand yet but that might be the key. ACPI came up as a BIOS issue but I havent seen a thing to turn off ACPI (I think I got those letters right)

So this is my experience so far: with Rufus, I tried Manjaro XFCE 17.05 stable iso with the setting to GPT partition for UEFI computer and with MBR partition scheme for UEFI computer. I booted to Refind boot manager, selected the penguin icon, and it did a few things and failed. Then I tried Manjaro in Unetbootin with the same result [apologies for not recording what came up on the screen]. Then I tried the lubuntu 17.04; it got text about the device not showing up after 30 seconds.

Am presently waiting for a 17.10 [kernel 4.13] download to finish so I can try that – fingers crossed.

Well, without Refind there was no grub coming up, nothing at all apart from the unblinking cursor. Now I have some text after trying to mount the iso. Whether this is progress or not, I’m not too sure. As you can see, I’m not yet at anything like a stage where I can select a drive to install to! Still, I still think I might be able to get around the whole thing by getting an M2 drive, installing on a totally different computer, and then booting into that.

[edit] It didnt work with the 17.10 either. Am now looking at respinning the ISO (http://www.linuxium.com.au/how-tos) unfortunately this means a linux computer so it might take some time. Also apparently the respun iso needs to be burned with DD, which always stuffs up my usb drive, so I need some cheap sticks. The message I get with the latest kernel on ubuntu 17.10 with unetbootin is starting grub64.efi Using load options ‘ ‘ – so that ties in with the page linuxium which talks about having to use the 32 bit loader for grub instead of the 64 bit loader; apparently this is what the respin does.

[simon]

Hi Brad thanks for that info, I was thinking that 17.04 would be a safer bet than 17.10 – wrong. I’ve changed to Manjaro XFCE as that seems to be the easiest and why make more problems? Still, at the moment I am in the same place; I burn my usb with the Manjaro iso in windows with unetbootin; boot to the disk, and get just an unblinking cursor on a black screen. Will try Rufus as well. From the link you sent me there are some parameters to change to do with ACPI and ‘nomodeset’, but I think that in order to alter the usb key, I may need to burn it in linux on a different computer. Unfortunately I cant select from any menu that comes after the boot of the usb disk, as I am unable to boot it.

From reading, and given I have in the past used it on a Mac to boot linux; my next step might be to use Refind – but will it get me into the live session? That is the first step for me. But I think I might have to install in the long run, it to get a dual boot going on. I am also planning to get an M2 drive and might ultimately not dual boot but rather, change the boot order in bios for if I ever want windows. I wonder if having an M2 drive would give me other options: install linux on it on another computer; put it into the slot on this computer; and then update drivers? Maybe.

[simon]

Hi Brad, I was trying Lubuntu 17.04, with two different USBs. The kernel is a pretty late version on that, though I’m not sure exactly what. ust getting around the black screen is my first objective, so thanks for the link – having a look now.

[simon]

Not sure if to start a new thread, this is what has happened to me so far as i tried to get linux onto my Xiaoma 21. Presumbly totally similar o the 41…

I have so far not really even gotten to the first step, but i have read that Refind is the key as Grub fails with the secure boot sometimes – i havent got that far as i am unable even to get live boot working.

just observations, excuse me for cutting / pasting from my comments to one of the videos here.

I lost my bios! It is a black screen until windows starts. Turned out that the screen and the keyboard were being turned off during the boot up. I think I know why – it was outputting screen to hdmi, BUT only hdmi, after i selected linux intell, as the target OS – this was a setting under ‘cpu – southbridge’ [WHY!? And why would it do this?]. I have just reversed the setting by attaching a monitor and usb (wireless) keyboard, and turning on. Now, once again, I can see the boot screens and I can get into BIOS

At some stage I got reversed settings for screen brightness – related to my alteratons to BIOS? I dont know. I noticed on battery that when i slide the bar for screen brightness, the closer i go to the left side, the brighter the screen. And then I noticed that when Im on power from the cable that the screen is black. Aha, I thought, the screen brightness settings – when on the power cable it is set for max brightness, which is minimum brightness, because the settings are reversed! But of course the onda 21 has no keys for that – you have to use the slider. I got around the screen dimming by holding the mouse curser over the dimming option, plugging in power, and blindly tapping the screen.

Still a million miles from booting linux, secure boot/ EUFI is spawn of satan. I actually changed to a normal pc from a chromebook because [and only because] i thought it would be easier to add linux. Still, i still love this little machine with its 1080p screen and utter lightness.

[edit] after I got the bios back to ‘target os = windows’, the slider bar for screen brightness was back to normal, and the actual screen brightness in windows was reversed: went from 75% bright, to 75% dark. So definitely BIOS settings related.

 

[Author]

Posts