How to put a Linux distro on an ASUS 8.1 laptop?

[The_Eric]

Hi- My wife has a renewed interest in having a distro of Linux added to her newer ASUS laptop. Sometime ago I tried to add one in a dual boot configuration, but was unable. If I recall, there was something like "safe boot" blocking my attempts. I don't think that this was an active attempt, but something that was configured in a manner that I couldn't readily add a Linux disro. I will add that when I tried, I was using a DVD image instead of a USB stick. Just today, I made one up.

I surfed the web but didn't a clear and simple answer. I was hoping that one of the knowledgeable members here could help walk me through it.

Thanks in advance!

-Eric-

 

[ClutchDisc]

Are you wiping the hard drive or trying to dual boot?

 

[The_Eric]

Not sure. As an educated guess, I'd say dual boot, but I haven't discussed this with her yet.

edit: Does this affect the way I would go about the install?

 

[Rand]

you could just run it off the usb stick and not install it on the hdd.

if you do plan on dualbooting make sure you make the factory restore usb drive.

This will let you restore the laptop to how it came out of the box

 

[The_Eric]

Just spoke with her- sounds like she is wanting to go with a clean install of a Linux distro.

 

[yonyon]

A clean install without any dual boot should be very simple and straightforward. You don't have to put much thought into partitioning or any of that. If you're planning to keep the machine for many years it may still be worthwhile to have a separate partition for /home but even that isn't necessary.

It is still advisable to boot to a Live environment and confirm that all hardware works without jumping through hoops before installing, especially if it's a newer machine.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: yonyon

If you're planning to keep the machine for many years it may still be worthwhile to have a separate partition for /home but even that isn't necessary.

It is still advisable to boot to a Live environment and confirm that all hardware works without jumping through hoops before installing, especially if it's a newer machine.



On the first part, what is the benefit to doing that? Are you saying to keep a partition with Windows on it?

The second part- I agree completely. In addition to what you menioned, I want to try it out and make sure it's really for her... Going to start with Ubuntu 14.04- she likes the clean look of the sidebar.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: yonyon
A clean install without any dual boot should be very simple and straightforward. You don't have to put much thought into partitioning or any of that.



I think you're right. I just changed the bios to run from USB first and Ubuntu is up and running live right now. The issues I was running into must have been from attempting a dual boot?

 

[ClutchDisc]

Clean install is going to be easy, just let the installer do it's thing. I have been running Ubuntu 14.04 for a while now on my Gateway laptop that had Win 8 from the factory. It's been running great. All I did was disable the awful UEFI/secure boot.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Clean install is going to be easy, just let the installer do it's thing. I have been running Ubuntu 14.04 for a while now on my Gateway laptop that had Win 8 from the factory. It's been running great. All I did was disable the awful UEFI/secure boot.


How do you do that?

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: yonyon

If you're planning to keep the machine for many years it may still be worthwhile to have a separate partition for /home but even that isn't necessary.

It is still advisable to boot to a Live environment and confirm that all hardware works without jumping through hoops before installing, especially if it's a newer machine.



On the first part, what is the benefit to doing that? Are you saying to keep a partition with Windows on it?


No, the idea is to have a separate partition with /home on it. If you decide at a later date to do a clean install again it can be convenient. With everything on a single partition you have to make a current backup of /home before reinstalling to keep your documents and personal settings. If /home is on a separate partition you get to skip that step.

 

[ClutchDisc]

It's different for every computer, you would have to go into the BIOS/setup menu and look at the boot tab. I'm running mine on Legacy BIOS. Here is an article that might help you: Link

 

[285south]

In your city their are Linux Volunteers that can walk you through it. Google your town and Linux User Group "LUGS". LUGS have monthly install-fest where they will install it for you for free and talk to you more about it.

Former Lug Volunteer

 

[The_Eric]

Thanks again guys! The help is always appreciated. I'm turning her loose with Ubuntu 14.04 from USB so she can see what she thinks.

She has it in her head that she wants to try Fedora too. How user friendly is it?

Originally Posted By: 285south
In your city their are Linux Volunteers that can walk you through it. Google your town and Linux User Group "LUGS". LUGS have monthly install-fest where they will install it for you for free and talk to you more about it.

Former Lug Volunteer


You bring a good point about the LUGs out there. At one time I was interested in hanging around them to see if I could pick something up, but the one in our area seems pretty much dead. Not sure- no activity on their message board for some time, so I figured that they just got together on their schedule. No biggie.

 

[ClutchDisc]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Thanks again guys! The help is always appreciated. I'm turning her loose with Ubuntu 14.04 from USB so she can see what she thinks.

She has it in her head that she wants to try Fedora too. How user friendly is it?

No problem! I would stick with Ubuntu for now. I tried Fedora (off of a live DVD) for a little bit and wasn't too impressed. Not nearly as user friendly as Ubuntu. Another great one that is based off of Ubuntu is Linux Mint, if you haven't tried that yet I would recommend that before Fedora. If she really wants to try it give it a shot though!

 

[The_Eric]

Mint is what I've been running since I got into Linux distros. She just wants to try Fedora because of the name- she really likes Fedora style hats.

I just acquired newer, more modern machine with a lot more horsepower under the hood. Two of the ones I want to try are the 64 bit Ubuntu and 64 bit Mint Cinnamon. Not sure if I'll warm up to Ubuntu though. It's on our shop computer, so I should be used to it...

 

[ClutchDisc]

I wouldn't use it just for the name! I love Ubuntu's Unity interface. You'll warm up to it if you use it some more.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
I just acquired newer, more modern machine with a lot more horsepower under the hood. Two of the ones I want to try are the 64 bit Ubuntu and 64 bit Mint Cinnamon. Not sure if I'll warm up to Ubuntu though. It's on our shop computer, so I should be used to it...


Check out Xubuntu. I don't care for Ubuntu's Unity interface myself; I find it very limiting. I have Xubuntu 14.04 on three different machines at home. The amount of customization on Xubuntu's interface is nearly endless.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
She has it in her head that she wants to try Fedora too. How user friendly is it?


Fedora is a very popular, well-done distro; but has the following disadvantages relative to Ubuntu/ Mint:

1) No LTS releases. Unlike Ubuntu & Mint, which have Long Term Support releases every 2 years (in addition to their interim releases every 6 months) that are supported for 5 years, Fedora releases are every 6 - 9 months (following the Gnome releases schedule, usually) and are only supported for around 9 months. If you use Fedora, you must re-install or do a potentially problematic upgrade a couple of times a year. Other distros that re-compile Red Hat (see point #2) source code (eg. The FermiLab/ CERN collaboration called "Scientific Linux" and a more popular one called CentOS) might be thought of as LTS releases that are close, close cousins of Fedora; but they are way out of date in terms of their software selections, and do not play nicely at all with new consumer hardware like the latest iThing, etc.

2) Bleeding-edge software. Fedora is a test bed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and is used to test out new technologies and brand spankin' new releases of existing technologies. To this end, some of their releases are better than others in terms of stability and robustness.

3) More freedom-oriented than Ubuntu/ Mint. Fedora tries a little harder to stick to using free ("free" as in "freedom" as opposed simply to "no cost) software; and sometimes getting things like Flash, Java, non-free codecs like .mp3, .aac, .wmv and so on can be a pain. Ubuntu is easy to set up with non-free items; Mint comes pre-installed with everything you'll need.