How to make Debian8 running on a Thinkpad T560 (full SSD install done)
 

Hello,
I installed Debian8 on the SSD of a Thinkpad T560 via an USB stick.
Now, it shows weird data on the screen and it dont boot: see the attachment.
Any advice is welcome how it could boot.

It looks like you did not install the boot loader correctly. The first two are UEFI trying to boot from a network, and the third is the boot selection screen.

Are you sure you installed Debian to the SSD? What did you select when it asked where to install GRUB? It asks if you want to install to removable media, I am thinking you selected Yes, so GRUB was never installed to the SSD.

Boot the USB stick you used to install. When the menu comes up, select Advanced options, then Rescue mode.

It will ask what partition to use as the root for the rescue mode, choose the partition you installed to.

You will be dropped to a prompt, and from there type

Follow the prompts. Do NOT install to removable media.

When done, type exit to leave the rescue mode. Reboot.

dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-amd64
says "grub-efi-amd64 not installed"

apt-get install grub-efi-amd64
says "Put a CD".

Any advice is welcome.

PXE is the pixie boot. It boots an OS over a network. So there is no bootloader, or the bootloader isn't configured, or configured for PXE boot only. Is the storage device bootable? Some aren't, but you can put a bootloader on another device and boot them in most cases. The SDHC card reader on my laptop wont boot from the card. But any old usb reader with the same card boots in my case. Lots of possibilities, but you're not getting to the linux part of your install. #captainobvious

Thanks for the idea.
Again..
I can boot a Debian8 via usb stick (install iso or live iso gnome).
I installed Debian8 a second time onto the SSD from the usb install iso.
I changed few things in the BIOS setup from UEFI boot to Legacy boot. Now, it stay stuck in a boot menue; see photography.
I will have a look again into the BIOS setup; and perhaps install a third time from the usb iso live gnome (in case the other usb install iso was corrupt).

Its perhaps a bit more difficult than planned.. https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/co...buntu_support/ .. Biggest problem with latest-version linuxes is likely to be if you opt for the NVMe SSD (as I did). A lot of installers won't consider an NVMe drive to be a valid installation target (the kernels for the installer will have the nvme driver, it's just the installer UI that won't have a clue). I ended up installing Mageia Cauldron to a flash stick and after rebooting copying the contents of the flash stick to the SSD and configuring the bootloader manually. Took a couple of nights of work, including configuring things the way I want (I use a window manager that doesn't ship with Mageia, so I build those RPMs myself).

Most likely, you can fix 2 ways:

1. Reinstall in legacy mode, this will install a non-uefi bootloader and it should just work. I personally dislike legacy mode, but some prefer it.

2. Revert to uefi, and see if you have an option in your bios for "legacy support" or something similar. If so, turn it off. This might still make reinstalling be the simpler method of getting your bootloader working. What may have happened is you had uefi w/ support for legacy roms, which means although Debian booted as a uefi, it might have installed the legacy bootloader. I've seen it happen a ton.

Also, download an installation image. The live images don't support uefi properly. Unless you decide to go the legacy mode, in which case they work fine.

ok. I will have a look later. in any case here is the machine from the live iso usb

inxi -F

THANKS.
how.. there was no option for it when I used the install iso I putted on usb from the Debian8 stable download site.

floppy_stuttgart,

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/11...age=101#manual

According to the T560 manual, once you have disabled Secure Boot, you have the following options:

Select system boot capability.

• Both: Select priority of boot options
between UEFI and Legacy.
• UEFI Only: The system will boot from
the UEFI enabled operating system.
• Legacy Only: The system will boot
from any operating system other than
the UEFI enabled one.

Note: If you select UEFI Only, the
system cannot boot from the bootable
devices that do not have the UEFI
enabled operating system.

Compatibility Support Module (CSM) is
required for booting the legacy operating
system. If you select UEFI Only, CSM
Support is selectable. For Both or
Legacy Only mode, CSM Support is not selectable.

I have a ThinkPad 460 and a Flex 3, and they will not even boot a USB stick with Secure Boot enabled as the stub isn't signed. In fact UEFI is so braindead in this respect it doesn't even give an error just keeps rebooting.

Unfortunately I recall now I had problems installing Debian 9 on the T460, and it was a pain in the rear to get GRUB installed in UEFI mode (I never tried CSM).

It turned out for some reason the installer was refusing to install the grub-efi package, with no reason why. On the ThinkPad it would sit at "Running update-grub" for a long time, then proceed quietly. After four reinstall attempts, I went to a VT and found the installer was never installing GRUB.

Did you set up a network connection? If you booted to rescue mode and set up a network connection, I could perhaps walk you through adding the repository and getting GRUB installed.

I changed the sources.list of the root system in the SSD (with a live system) in order to take away the CD Rom and put a link to a Debian mirror: this was done in order to load the grub-efi-amd64 package

I started again the notebook in rescue mode in the install Debian8 usb (not live usb)
I choose the sda1 where I placed the root on the SSD
grub-update (see picture; it went probably well)

then started again: no boot. It stay at the standard blue screen with "ATA.. " and "Windows.."

I started again the notebook in rescue mode in the install Debian8 usb (not live usb)
I choose the sda1 where I placed the root on the SSD
apt-get install grub-efi-amd64
dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-amd64
-> it asked a first command line which I made return because it was empty
-> it asked a second line with the proposal "quiet" (and I made return for accepting this proposal)
-> it asked if I wanted to installl EFI on another place and I said "no"
I choose reboot.. and it stay in the menue "ATA.. Winows..". So, still no boot.
Any idea is welcome.

The BIOS setup is in the attachment.

Under the Security section in UEFI, have you disabled Secure Boot?

Also having both CSM and Legacy enabled in addition to UEFI boot... I wonder if that is confusing GRUB. I have mine set to UEFI only on my ThinkPad works fine.

how look your partitioning of your disk? I just created a GPT partition table with GPARTED and will reinstall. Let see if I will be successfull.

Well, it's not so simple as I have both an SSD and M2 in my Thinkpad, but it's pretty much

Internal SSD -
100MB: EFI System Partition (EF00)
100MB: /boot, ext4 (8300)
Rest: LVM (8E00)

M2 -
All of it LVM (8E00)

The rest of the SSD and M2 are

Last finding: since I deleted all partitions and I made a new automatic install, I discovered my manual partition definition in the first beginning was wrong. So, now it seems to be correct with the automatic install on the whole SSD (500MB UEFI partition installed; 10GB root partition ext4; 8GB SWAP; rest /home ext4).
Few people recommend Debian Testing (NOT stable) or the last Ubuntu LONG-TERM for that notebook https://www.reddit.com/search?q=debian+t560+thinkpad
Now, I will try to move to Debian9 and install everything again (the Debian8 live USB dont boot anymore; the Debian8 install USB still boot = that BIOS setting in the Laptop is weird and not fully understood from my side).

Is anybody having any advice? Everything is welcome

(I must install that thing before my wife kills me.. she has major doubts about my skills since she see me spending hours scratching my head.. and I fear she could come to the idea I am useless in her life and she should find a better one.. haha).