Amazing how Lenovo managed to turn "Thinkpad", a respected and loved brand name, into shit within just a few years.
Most of the problems are with the non-Thinkpad line, no?
Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
101–110 of 494 posts
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#102> Lenovo for example confirmed that they singed an agreement with Microsoft for this. If true, it's illegal product tying, and those who signed such "agreement" are violating antitrust law. Someone should sue them until they stop doing this. Lenovo are infamous for refusing to refund Windows tax until brought to court, but this is a new low for them.
And they will lose.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/09/sony-wins-pre-ins...
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#103Do not attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. I see no conspiracy here, just an OEM that doesn't get it.
You're quoting Hanlon's Razor.. But this could also be Hanlon's Dodge(https://cluelesscreationcorporation.quora.com/When-the-burea...)... I'm not saying it is, but it could be.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait a second. Are you running Fedora24 on metal or on Virtualbox? If on metal, then how do the (unsigned) virtual box kernel modules matter? And if on virtualbox - you don't actually know if it would run on metal. VirtualBox hides quite a lot from you. (I expect that it will run on metal - I just don't think you have evidence one way or another if you are running it on vbox)
I said I was running Fedora 24 on an X260, implied that it's on metal. However, I also want to run VirtualBox inside Fedora, because my job requires me to have a Windows VM. And VirtualBox has its own kernel modules, with SecureBoot they need to be signed. Unfortunately the poor UEFI implementation Lenovo has provided won't let me enter my own MOKs into the UEFI because coincidentally that little write call is missin…
Why don't you use KVM/libvirt instead of Vbox?
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dunno, this looks like a smoking gun: http://i1.wp.com/fossboss.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/B7g...
I doubt that. It's more likely that Best Buy's "Lenovo Product Expert" misunderstood the review and referred to the agreement to not install any software on Signature Edition devices. I have no serious position on whether Microsoft is currently enforcing secret deals to sabotage Linux, but I'm sure the employee assigned to respond to product reviews would not be given such inside information.
The one point where he might got confused is to what is locked and why. I had to recherche that for a Laptop I wanted to fix, and found out that Lenovo is known to lock down the Bios to an absurd degree. My model had an accessible Bios, but you could only change the most basic parameters, like the time. There was some talk about needing to flash another Bios, sadly I found nothing for the specific model I worked with.
But there Linux should've booted, I was trying to change some energy saving settings.
So it might be that this is not a "by contract with Microsoft we locked down the Laptop to only boot Windows", but a "by contract with Microsoft we locked the Bios, which has the side effect of preventing booting Linux because the Kernel does not support yet a specific setting, which will change". Who knows.
It's still a bad policy, and even if it were an accident they have to fix it. They can not be allowed to prevent Linux from booting.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#106This was so predictable. And of course, the FSF called it: https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot
> This was so predictable. That Linux lacks drivers for something and Microsoft somehow got the blame for it as part of some grand conspiracy? Certainly predictable for /r/linux. I thought HN was better than that.
Read this subthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12546250
With a tweaked BIOS (one that permits the AHCI setting), Linux can be installed.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
C'mon, have some class. You're really going to co-opt a quote decrying war crimes and genocide to complain about not being able to install an alternative OS on your hardware?
With closed source software, such as the firmwares and MacOSes of the world, it is impossible to have 'checks and balances'. Yet without computers to run and develop open software on, it is that much harder to create alternatives to those closed systems. I think this is very much a sliding scale. And that therefor the quote very much applies.
I'm still a bit flabbergasted: you really truly believe that disallowing installing Linux on a particular brand/model of laptop is directly comparable to the forced labor and extermination of millions of Jewish people during WW2?
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#108First they came for the crapware license deals, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Windows User. Then they came for spammer license deals, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Windows User. Then they came to install back doors, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Windows User. Then they came for my ability to install Linux—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Let your wallet do the speaking. It's an open market and you have the choice of just buying from Lenovo's competitors - 'they' will then realise there's value in not doing this.
No they won't. Lenovo doesn't care about losing you guys as customers, they care about the companies who buy thousands of the damn things so their employees can run Excel on Windows.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think being able to change the drive to AHCI mode would fix the problem. The BIOS (actually UEFI) "locking" and storage driver are two separate issues. I mean, hell, if someone wants to send me one of these laptops I'll test it and do a full writeup. Of course Reddit has gone off without anyone actually confirming what the issue is. Microsoft would be smart to come out with a statement on this if it picks up…
/r/linux is the most ridiculously paranoid forum I've seen. You have to go there to see it for yourself. Imagine the way that HN is paranoid of the US government, but then double that and apply it to Microsoft, which makes even less sense. To them, MS is the boogeyman that will stop at nothing to prevent them from being the glorious 1% that doesn't use Windows. It's still the 90's on /r/linux, in many many ways.
Yea but sometimes you need a group of extreme people to offset the other extreme you get with locked bootloaders etc. Not saying they are always right, but I am happy we still have people around with 0 trust in MS.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#110Do not attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. I see no conspiracy here, just an OEM that doesn't get it.
That was Hanlon's razor there, for those who halfway remember it like me.