this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
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[Rant] A few days ago, I asked if Mint would run okay on a Lenovo T460 (I appreciate all the advice). I got it working, but the installation was a big pain and I totally blame Lenovo. (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I got the T460 refurbished and I really didn't want to run Windows 10 on it. I last used Linux for any real length of time a good 20 years ago, so I'm pretty inexperienced with it at this point and I had to figure out how to install it myself.

They made it unreasonably difficult to first install an OS from a USB stick. I had to go into the BIOS, turn UEFI to legacy, turn off secure boot, reboot to boot from the USB stick, install Mint, then turn legacy back to UEFI to get it to boot from the hard drive. This took about 2 hours of trying to figure it out by doing a lot of forums reading.

I do not blame the Mint community or the Linux community as a whole. There is absolutely no reason that it should have been that hard to install Mint on that notebook.

I don't even think getting into the BIOS once time should be necessary, but changing a BIOS setting so you can install the OS and changing it back so you can run the OS off the internal drive is just ridiculous and I find it hard to believe Lenovo couldn't have just made it easier. I'm fairly convinced this was intentional on their part.

I'm not an IT professional or anything, but I know enough to figure this stuff out with effort, but it shouldn't have taken that effort. It should have been almost plug-and-play. This is 2024. The notebook isn't even 10 years old.

Is there actually a good reason for this or are they just kissing Microsoft's ass?

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[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Being unable to boot from a USB drive in UEFI mode sounds like a Mint problem. I just booted from an Ubuntu LTS USB on a similar machine, installed with all default BIOS. Haven't touched Secure Boot either. No trouble.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Hm. Maybe I should have tried a different flavor of Linux in terms of ease of install. But Mint seemed like the best choice for me and now that it's actually up and running, it's fine.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

By all means, if it works already, don't fuck with it.

This community hates on Ubuntu but these are the kinds of corner cases that can make or break a new user's journey. Experienced users can resolve those with no emotion and we often discount the difficulty and importance of such issues to less experienced users. There's been a lot of work put in Ubuntu to tackle these kinds of issues - paper cuts. Recall the One Hundred Paper Cuts project. This is why I won't stop recommending Ubuntu LTS for new users.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

It's good to know for the future if nothing else, so I appreciate it.