XPS13
Contents
Resizing Windows
Because of the pagination it is not easy to resize a partition to something useful. So lets disable pagination:
- Start -> Double click on File Explorer-> Propierties
- Avanced configuration -> Avanced options -> Performance -> Configuration
- Avanced options -> Virtual Memory -> Change
- Take notice of Minimum, recomenden and asigned values for future
- Disable admin automatically .... .
- Accept, Accept, Accept, Accept
Restart
In order to make it more efficient:
- Clear all temportal files, trash, ....
- Remove content of c:\windows\Softwaredistribution\downloads
Defrag (a good tool is ultradefrag)
Resize (use windows tool without problem).
Restart
Re-Enable virtual memory according to the previous settngs
Installing Debian
Working on BIOS
The BIOS is our maain tool to allow linux to be installed in the laptop.
Because of the UEFI, the SecureBoot, the SATA operation and so on, there are many difficulties to install linux on the laptop. UEFI is quite OK with new debian (Debian 8), but there are still some stuff to tune.
After some trial/errors I managed to get something working, although may be some more efficient configurations:
When booting the laptop press F2.
The main settings you must modify in BIOS are:
- System Configuration -> SATA Operation . The laptop comes with a RAID On and it must be changed to AHCI . Notice that this will prevent the system to load in Windows, so if you want dual-boot you need to be on RAID on for Windows and AHCI for Linux.
- Secure Boot -> Secure Boot Enable . Move it to Disabled, if not the installation program will not even start.
- System Configuration -> USB/Thunderbolt Configuration . It happened to me that while installing linux the USB-C to Ethernet adapter was working, but once linux on I could not get it to work. By selecting Security level - No Security it worked.
- System Configuration -> USB PowerShare . To allow the charging of devices.
Installation
When booting press F12.
Select: UEFI: USB Flash Disk and go for install.
From now on, there are some importants issues to get into account. Once again, it is trial/error, so there are may be some more optimal solution. All the requirements are because GRUB will have some problems to install, so we will need to rework some stuff.
Until partitioning, everything goes as always.
In partitioning, select manual. As far as I understood, we need 2 partitions minimum. We need a ext2 for /boot in order to work on uefi later on. So create a /boot of 500MB and the rest, as you like ;).
You will get an error while installing grub. Do not worry, we will solve it later. At the moment, continue the installation and the installation program will tell you there are some problems and that you will need to load grub manually on a specific partition (in my case nvme0n1p7). Annotate this partition that you will need it later.
Launching linux manually
(Extra info: https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/776643-how-to-rescue-a-non-booting-grub-2-on-linux/)
You need to unplug and replug the USB stick, because it has been previously unmounted by the installation program.
When booting press F12.
Select: UEFI: USB Flash Disk. On the installation menu, press C, which will allow you to enter on command line grub.
Check your disks with:
ls
In my case, I have /boot on (hd1,gpt6) and / on (hd1,gpt7).
You can check your / directory with:
ls (hd1,gpt7)/
Now boot manually.
Notice that vmlinuz-<XXX> and initrd.img-<XXX> can change, but <TAB> is working ;)
Moreover, /dev/nvme0n1p7 is the /dev that the installation told us in the previous step.
grub> set root=(hd1,gpt6) grub> linux /vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 root=/dev/nvme0n1p7 grub> initrd /initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 grub> boot
So if everyhting is ok, you have a usable prompt window to insert your password
Re-Installing Grub
(Extra info: https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall)
