~ one ~



Bios setup key boots to black screen

linux Ok, this was so obscure it's worth blogging about :)

Project: Wipe a Dell XPS with Windows 10 Home and install MX Linux on it.

Problem #1:

As usual, Windows took over the system and wouldn't let us play :}

No problem, just use the F keys to get into Boot Options and BIOS setup, right?

It only worked once. After that, every time I tried to use the F keys, it went straight to black screen and hung there.

If I didn't use the F keys, there would be a black screen on boot for a short period and then it would load the Windows start screen.

Solution:

I finally realized that it was due to the video output cable, believe it or not! Who woulda thunk it?!

HDMI would show a black screen on boot and would only start displaying when Windows started up. It would not display anything BIOS related or anything that usually shows on the screen before Windows loads.

Switched to DVI output and lo and behold, there was the old Dell Logo and the two little lines with F2 and F12 in the corner, just where they should be!

Problem #2:

MX Linux 17 live usb failed repeatedly to detect the SSD drive, so it couldn't wipe Microcrap from the drive.

Solution:

Still in the middle of working on it! At the moment, I'm just trying to use live usbs from other linux OSes to see if any of them work.

Update: Nope, they didn't. The fix was much simpler - I only needed to go into the BIOS and change SATA from RAID to AHCI. That was it! Once that was done the SSD drive showed up just fine and I was able to proceed with the installation.

In the end, including all the troubleshooting time and dealing with getting around Microcrap's control freak issues, from receipt of PC to erasure of Windows and successful complete installation of MX Linux 17.1, it took less than 6 hours.

That's pretty damn amazing compared to some other OSes!

If you exclude the time spent on troubleshooting and dealing with Microcrap, it actually would have taken less than an hour from start to end.

And look, no endless "privacy" options to set! (I don't know why they call it privacy when it's all spying. 1984 adspeak FTW!) No more insane BIOS / boot overrides! Seconds to start up instead of staring at a circle for ages while it tells you to not shut down your PC while it's getting ready for you! No more advertising spam popups on your desktop from an OS you paid for!

Man I love Linux. And MX Linux is three billion times faster than Microcrap. Looks prettier, too. How times have changed :)



tags: , , ,

Category: linux , tips , troubleshooting
Posted by: heian
on 09.14.2018 at 15:20:05
462 words
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