Preparing HP 440G1 Laptop to Load Ubuntu 13.10
Note:- This will completely remove Windows 8.1 from the system. Strongly Recommended to make recovery Flash Drive (yes, flash drive, starting from Win 8.1, Recovery CD/DVD can't be made. Also, the flash drive size would have to be about 32 GB as Recovery files can occupy > 16 GB)
When the Laptop boots, Press ESC to enter into the UEFI Menu. Press F10 for setup. Navigate to the 'Advanced' Tab:-
Section Device Configurations:-
1. place a check mark on Virtualization Technology (VTx), this will be required if you plan to run VMWARE player in linux to create virtual machines.
2. Unchecking Hybrid Graphics disables the Discrete AMD HD 8750M graphics with only Haswell integrated graphics. Since I planned to use 'switchable Graphics', this remained checked.
Section Boot Options:-
1. Disable Fast Boot
2. Check on CD-ROM boot, SDCard boot, USB device boot.
3. Define Customized boot option, select button Add. Type custom boot path as \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi ( the same path which you will be using to boot from the USB drive in the next step.)
4. Boot Mode :- UEFI Hybrid (with CSM)
save and close setup
Procedure to install linux.
I had downloaded the Ubuntu 13.10 ISO. Using an ISO extractor or winrar had copied the entire file structure onto a USB drive.
Plugged the USB drive into the laptop, powered on, presssed Esc and then F9 for boot options:-
1. Select boot from EFI file
2. select the USB device, the complete folder tree would be displayed
3. browse to folder EFI/Boot/grubx64.efi
Installation starts and follow the steps to complete the Ubuntu installation!
Notes:-
1. UEFI Firmware only supports 64bit OS.
2. Windows 8 boots only from UEFI supported firmware
3. The Windows Product keys are stored in ACPI of BIOS. The ACPI can be accessed from acpidump utility to read the product keys, for an excellent article visit www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-retrieve-windows-8-oem-product-key-from-bios
4. Booting from Disk size > 1TB needs GPT (GUID Partition Table)
5. 3D hardware can't be virtualized (as of now)
6. UEFI does not support MBR only GPT.
Installing Linux Drivers for AMD HD8750M Discrete GPU.
1.Download the Beta driver from the AMD download page.
2. Prepare the system as per this excellent post :-
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1930450&page=82&p=12755069#post12755069
3. after reboot, wait :) wait..it takes 3 odd minutes to load the modules and give a silky display. you will see only black screen with cursor till such time.
3. you can switch between Integrated (power saving) and Discrete (more performance) from the Catalyst Control Centre. This can be accessed from the terminal by typing gksudo amdcccle
Applications :-
1. VLC player can be installed from ubuntu software centre.
2. Download and install vmware player from the VMware site. complete graphical install. launch the file with gksudo and complete the steps.
3. Flash player is supported for youtube etc.
4. Skype can be installed from the ubuntu software centre. allow multiverse repositories to download skype. A bug does not allow to connect, workaround is to run sudo gksu and then open skpe from there as root.
Note:- This will completely remove Windows 8.1 from the system. Strongly Recommended to make recovery Flash Drive (yes, flash drive, starting from Win 8.1, Recovery CD/DVD can't be made. Also, the flash drive size would have to be about 32 GB as Recovery files can occupy > 16 GB)
When the Laptop boots, Press ESC to enter into the UEFI Menu. Press F10 for setup. Navigate to the 'Advanced' Tab:-
Section Device Configurations:-
1. place a check mark on Virtualization Technology (VTx), this will be required if you plan to run VMWARE player in linux to create virtual machines.
2. Unchecking Hybrid Graphics disables the Discrete AMD HD 8750M graphics with only Haswell integrated graphics. Since I planned to use 'switchable Graphics', this remained checked.
Section Boot Options:-
1. Disable Fast Boot
2. Check on CD-ROM boot, SDCard boot, USB device boot.
3. Define Customized boot option, select button Add. Type custom boot path as \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi ( the same path which you will be using to boot from the USB drive in the next step.)
4. Boot Mode :- UEFI Hybrid (with CSM)
save and close setup
Procedure to install linux.
I had downloaded the Ubuntu 13.10 ISO. Using an ISO extractor or winrar had copied the entire file structure onto a USB drive.
Plugged the USB drive into the laptop, powered on, presssed Esc and then F9 for boot options:-
1. Select boot from EFI file
2. select the USB device, the complete folder tree would be displayed
3. browse to folder EFI/Boot/grubx64.efi
Installation starts and follow the steps to complete the Ubuntu installation!
Notes:-
1. UEFI Firmware only supports 64bit OS.
2. Windows 8 boots only from UEFI supported firmware
3. The Windows Product keys are stored in ACPI of BIOS. The ACPI can be accessed from acpidump utility to read the product keys, for an excellent article visit www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-retrieve-windows-8-oem-product-key-from-bios
4. Booting from Disk size > 1TB needs GPT (GUID Partition Table)
5. 3D hardware can't be virtualized (as of now)
6. UEFI does not support MBR only GPT.
Installing Linux Drivers for AMD HD8750M Discrete GPU.
1.Download the Beta driver from the AMD download page.
2. Prepare the system as per this excellent post :-
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1930450&page=82&p=12755069#post12755069
3. after reboot, wait :) wait..it takes 3 odd minutes to load the modules and give a silky display. you will see only black screen with cursor till such time.
3. you can switch between Integrated (power saving) and Discrete (more performance) from the Catalyst Control Centre. This can be accessed from the terminal by typing gksudo amdcccle
Applications :-
1. VLC player can be installed from ubuntu software centre.
2. Download and install vmware player from the VMware site. complete graphical install. launch the file with gksudo and complete the steps.
3. Flash player is supported for youtube etc.
4. Skype can be installed from the ubuntu software centre. allow multiverse repositories to download skype. A bug does not allow to connect, workaround is to run sudo gksu and then open skpe from there as root.
