Lenovo G50-45 / ath9k and uefi installation advice
 

I have just purchased a Lenovo G50-45 (AMD A8-6410, 1Tb Sata Drive, 8Gb DDR3). It currently has Windows 8.1 installed which lets face it is horrible, I have currently changed the UEFI system to legacy mode and ran both Debian Live cd and Ubuntu 14.04 live cd just as a quick test to see how the system will be out of the box.

I have no wireless modules found under debian (iwconfig) but running lspci recognised the card. Ubuntu had configured my wireless otb and I was able to connect to my wifi seamlessly.

The card in question according to Windows 8.1 Device manager is a Quallcomm Atheros 956x Network adapter. I believe that the ath9k 'driver/module' is required for these cards, the first main difference between the live cds I can notice is that Ubuntu is using 3.13.0-32 whereas Debian is using 3.2.0-4.

I am not a fan at all of Ubuntu systems, what I would like to have running on this laptop would be debian or archlinux. From the research I have done so far this is rather hit or miss, arch has a number of issues regarding ath9k dropping connections and with debian I will be required to install backports kernel and initramfs. Now im a relative intermediate Linux user, but I am still a little unsure of backports. What I really want/need is a secure stable system with encrypted LVM and of course WiFi.

During many Google searches and a search or two on LQ I cannot find anything relating to the Quallcomm card nor a Lenovo G50-45. The laptop is not listed on Linux-on-laptops nor is it listed on the Lenovo HCL in the Arch wiki.

This is also my first UEFI system so im a little unsure about what this entails. I have set The BIOS to Legacy mode, is that all I need to do to ensure the system works correctly like the old school BIOS systems? Or is there more to it than that, or can I simply create a UEFI installation of the distro of my choice.

Any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated. :)

You may as well get debian testing(Jessie) so you don't have to upgrade in the next few weeks, or when it becomes stable. Also Debian can be booted in Uefi mode & will install EFI partition. Jessie doesn't come as a live distro, it only will install.
For the advanced options to be accessible it would be better to use the dd command to put on usb than to use unetbootin.
Jessie should also have support for your wireless.

Ah I wasn't too sure about Debian being ok with uefi, I don't like this new age computing nonsense. I like my nice and simple non-touch system that do what I want first time round :P

As for Debian Jessie, im presuming that Jessie although 'testing' is still relatively stable compared to 'Sid' and Arch :)

I might just take the plunge and hope in that case, while trying to keep the recovery partitions untouched just incase I need to restore the laptop for any reason.

Is there anything extra I need to know when looking at Jessie, or is the installation procedure just as stable. Also are there any steps required by me for uefi installation or will the installer recognise the uefi system and install accordingly?

Thanks again.

The installer will recognize it. Have you freed up any space for the new install?

You will need to make sure your system is booting up in EFI-mode for the installer to work in that mode (ie, disable "CSM" or "Legacy" mode) and also disable "Secure Boot" and switch off "Fast Startup" in Windows.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...ndows-8-a.html

I have a jessie system and it is running very well indeed; it seems very reliable even at this early stage of development.

@EDDY1 -- it turns out the wheezy installer only works in EFI-mode for 64-bit systems and will only install in non-EFI mode in 32-bit systems.

You are correct most efi machines sold today are 64-bit, so with OP stating new machine I would assume 64.

yeah, the AMD A8 is 64-bit. Well i used Windows computer management disk manager to shrink the windows partition at the moment. Mainly keeping the dows install as a fail safe and I have installed Fedora 21 for the moment. My Atheros card is recognised and configured from the get go straight out the box and it has completed the install with UEFI mode enabled.

I am now writting this from Fedora first boot and it all seems to run fine. I will keep the dual boot option for the moment just to keep all my lenovo restore information. I will give it a few weeks and if I dont see any problems I will wipe the windows install completely keeping only the restore partitions, simply for resale value.

I wasnt brave enough to try "Jessie" just yet (or Arch) :D but with time im sure i will progress to my usual systems. Thank you for your time and reassurance!

I have tried Fedora 21 (briefly) and jessie is much more reliable IMO.

Actually come to think of it, so is Arch...

If you have another computer you can always save an image of it for future purposes. Also if you leave Recovery partition intact you can do a Factory Restore.