Dual boot a Lenovo G50-80 15.6" Touchscreen IdeaPad without changing hardware?
 

I am considering buying a Lenovo G50-80 15.6" Touchscreen IdeaPad, but don't know if it will dual boot with Linux, (I want to load Mint 17.3, but I think almost all distros use grub2 and that might be the problem) but don't know if you can just change the partitions, turn off secure boot and go for it. Changing it to an SSD and adding memory looks very easy. Will the current WIFI board with with Linux? And, there could be other hardware issues no one had mentioned on Amazon.

Based on what I understand about this device, the only issue as far as hardware goes is with the availabitlity of a driver for the wifi chipset, and per this conversation https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1436940 that problem has been solved. Check which kernel the version of Mint you're planning on installing uses, and if its new enough, fire away!!

ArtKautz,

A quick search shows that many Linux users are having wifi problems with this model.

Perhaps some LQ members who own a Lenovo G50-80 can advise you in more detail.

My .iso file is from about two days after it became available. I will get the current one. Thanks!

Good luck!! Report back with success/failure and we'll see what we can do to take it from there!!

Slackware seemed to be involved with most of those problems, with either an old out of date file being installed or config/setup problems. The Ubuntu one seems to have basically worked okay. There was one user on Amazon who said she had it running with a simple dual boot install. The jury is still out - I haven't hit the "buy now" button yet. I would indeed like to hear from other users of the Lenovo G50-80.

ArtKautz,

The Lenovo G50-80 comes with the problematic Realtek RTL8723BE wireless card.

Various fixes have been suggested including:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/u...y-realtek.html

and

http://askubuntu.com/questions/63562...e-wifi-problem

This G50-80 insists on starting in EFI Mode. The BIOS has secure boot disabled and in Boot, it is set to Legacy. So, it always starts Windows 10, and not Linux Mint, and for that matter, Grub2 is never seen. EasyBCD indicates this computer is in EFI mode so it can't change grub. Any idea how to get this into legacy mode?

ArtKautz,

Here are two links for dual-booting W10 and Linux:


http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/201...alongside.html


http://askubuntu.com/questions/66663...fi-hp-notebook

Well, the hardware won't get ya, but Windows 10 will. It changes the disk drive to EFI and GRUB2 can't work with that. There is supposed to be a way to change that, but the one solution I found was EasyRE and after paying for it, all I could download time after time was corrupted files. So, I installed Linux Mint on the backup SSD and installed that instead. All I need Windows 10 for is my I phone and I have TransCopy and iTunes on two other PCs, so what the heck. I have Windows 10 if I develop a mental condition some day, all I have to do is swap the drives.

hey!
had this issue too.
sorry for the years of up-posting, but it might probably solve some nerds problems in the future :

hey !

sorry for the "long time of reposting that answer", on my own I consider
it could be helpful, even few years after ;)

had that problem too :
win8 installed by default, EFI mode, with GPT. Dont want to wipe all out.
Had several new partitions for nux/bsd. So I booted on my beloved LMDE5 liveusb.

I did about ten installs without understanding, why would that not work?
each time when installation started very well, it finishes on a grub-installation
failure, everytime.

Even by trying changing different settings.

Even using the grub-repair utility -whom, like gparted, is only on lmde5live, not lmde5 default install!-


so I finally went up to boot back on my beloved LMDE5 liveusb, and took a precaution regarding it :

1. before starting again and again the installation process, I just launched gparted
2. created a new EFI fat32-somthing type of partition (could be seen in fdisk /dev/sda)
in addition of the EFI-partitions made by default windows installation.
3. Means after getting at the end of the disk my several partitions (50GB /, home, +efi)
4. I attempted to install back LMDE5 with standard installer ; saying "no, dont use /dev/sda1
nor /dev/sda2 windows partitions to put your grub files/efi system, but only on /dev/sda8 new fat32 efi partition!"

[I already have exactly flex20405 laptop, whom grub is well on the "windows efi standard partition", like
all my others win8-10/lmde5/obsd laptops, working well since the beginning]

5. so after I did a such experience, told LMDE5 installer to use not only /, /home and swap partitions to use,
but also a efi-specific partition added only for it -about 500MB-, it worked immediately.
Dont know why the G50 laptop have this thing, but now, hope it would help some linuxians hearts :)

Conclusion : on my own, I have triboot of win/LMDE5/obsd, like on my previous laptop.
Yes, it really worth a post after those years (means hours/days of working on that problem/solution). Definitely :)