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Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

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Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#241
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read the original reddit thread, you would understand that this is not just a drivers issue. Lenovo intentionally programmed their BIOS so that it reverts any changes to RAID mode making it impossible to install Linux.

Is it meant as contra Linux though? Or just pro RAID?

[deleted]

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#242
As much as I'd love to (hate to) see vintage 1990's Microsoft back in evil empire mode, this doesn't make sense.

What is their motive here? The Windows vs. Linux battle is long settled, and Windows is not under thread from Linux. Why would they intentionally block Linux on one vendors laptops, gaining basically no profit/market share, and risking lawsuits and online outrage?

Hanlon's razor applies; I assume this is a case of incompetence.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#243
post #47

The other HN thread suggests this not actually a dark conspiracy by Microsoft but simply a case of missing linux drivers for the storage devices. This sounds believable to me. But I'll put my tinfoil hat on just for fun and pretend it was an intentional move. Could this make sense as a new twist on the old strategy, making it "Embrace, Extinguish, Extend"? With the WSL, they made it theoretically possible to run Linu…

More likely, it's a conspiracy against Win7/Win8 users, which hurts Linux users as collateral damage. What likely happened was the ms/lenovo deal was "And Lenovo will make sure win7 and win8 are not supported on laptop", which lenovo solved by switching the hard drive to a mode not even win10 supports, locking it that way (that's the evil part), and putting drivers for it on the lenovo install media, which are win10 only.

Thus, this laptop can only ever be installed from the Lenovo win10 media. No win7, no win8, no retail win10 (for now), and .... probably as a (not unwelcome) side effect, no linux.

Still, just as evil and despicable.

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#244

As much as I'd love to (hate to) see vintage 1990's Microsoft back in evil empire mode, this doesn't make sense. What is their motive here? The Windows vs. Linux battle is long settled, and Windows is not under thread from Linux. Why would they intentionally block Linux on one vendors laptops, gaining basically no profit/market share, and risking lawsuits and online outrage? Hanlon's razor applies; I assume this is a…

In my opinion, motive is locking win7/win8 out. Locking linux out would be a happy (for MS) coincidence in this case.

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#245

Do 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.

>Do not attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Except where malice has previously been proven, in which case go wild.

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#246

Get a Developer Edition XPS 13 from Dell instead, comes with Linux pre-installed. I have one and they are awesome, if manufacturers support Linux they get my $.

I had nothing but trouble with my XPS 13 developer edition laptop. Ended up sending it back on the same day I got it. The issues I experienced were seemingly widespread too, with a lot of consumers complaining about the same problems on the forums.

There were incredibly irritating keyboard debounce issues (and yes, I was running the latest BIOS version available at the time) and there were also issues with the touchpad glitching out (messing with the mouse cursor position) with X restarting every now and then due to the broken touchpad driver. Really disappointing for a laptop with Linux preinstalled, and I've avoided Dell ever since.

To top it all off, it became painfully obvious that the Linux DEs weren't able to do a seamless job of supporting a high-DPI screen (I got the 4K edition) or multitouch touchscreen and interfaces like the login screen were unreadably tiny. I know this got fixed in a more recent version of Ubuntu, but I don't understand why Dell ever shipped the laptop they did.

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#247

The worst part is the reaction from Lenovo in my opinion. They just locked the thread reporting the issue on their forum, not saying anything about the problem itself but instead threatened the community to turn the pre-approval option on. This really makes me angry and makes me want to boycott their products. I really hope this issue will spread so that Lenovo learn that they made a bad move on this one. It also mad…

> not saying anything about the problem

That's incorrect. Someone from Lenovo had already posted in the thread saying that it had been escalated.

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#248
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Seamless mode in vbox is great.

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#249
post #207
post #47

The other HN thread suggests this not actually a dark conspiracy by Microsoft but simply a case of missing linux drivers for the storage devices. This sounds believable to me. But I'll put my tinfoil hat on just for fun and pretend it was an intentional move. Could this make sense as a new twist on the old strategy, making it "Embrace, Extinguish, Extend"? With the WSL, they made it theoretically possible to run Linu…

I think it was confirmed that the computer is locked to windows due to ms/lenovo contract http://imgur.com/a/niewu

Yes, because a low level customer support agent is going to be privy to a secret agreement.

In reality the agent probably misunderstood what's bring asked.

Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop

#250
post #47

The other HN thread suggests this not actually a dark conspiracy by Microsoft but simply a case of missing linux drivers for the storage devices. This sounds believable to me. But I'll put my tinfoil hat on just for fun and pretend it was an intentional move. Could this make sense as a new twist on the old strategy, making it "Embrace, Extinguish, Extend"? With the WSL, they made it theoretically possible to run Linu…

If you read the original reddit thread, you would understand that this is not just a drivers issue. Lenovo intentionally programmed their BIOS so that it reverts any changes to RAID mode making it impossible to install Linux.

True - but as the other HN thread (that I can't seem to find anymore >will write one.

On the other hand, Microsoft could have easily gotten a much more "robust" lockdown - by simply demanding mandatory, unchangeable Secure Boot like on the ARM tablets. But they didn't do that.

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