Just bought a beautiful HP EliteBook 860 16 inch G9 Notebook PC (6T1B3EA) as my overworked faithful 2009 HP G60 running Antix-LXDE is perhaps nearing end of life - or could go on forever?
My 2013 Dell Latitude E6420 i7 currently running Debian based Loc-OS is mainly used for experimenting with many distros.
No – hang on a minute – No, I haven't ditched my green credentials and bought a new laptop!
This business class used laptop was bought from a long established (1933) store here in Derby UK who specialise in computer electrical and electronic components and equipment.
Three generations on, they are still a family business!
They were most sceptical about my intention to wipe windoze 11 and install a linux distro.
Fair Play
I thought this would be a simple task to wipe Win11 and install any Debian based distro such as Antix-LXDE or Loc-OS which are ‘systemd free’ – simple as installing on HP G60 or 2013 Dell Latitude E6420?
First off I inserted my Debian based Tails+Tor USB into a port and booted up – no problemo
Everything just worked as normal with no error messages – perfect
This was good – Oh Dear! Try as I might no other live distro or install USB would work.
Kept getting BIOS message that Secure Boot that ‘selected boot image did not authenticate’
See images uploaded to imgur. https://imgur.com/a/0hEbipq
A little web research revealed that you have to enter BIOS (escape) to disable ‘Safe Boot’ and move USB drive to the top of the boot order. Having done this I still had no success to report.
I had searched HP guides and documents as well as the web to no avail.
Arch lists many EliteBook models for its various distro builds as successful.
I have made many fresh bootable USB live distros using Antix’s special ‘Live USB Maker’ and again by using same via Loc-OS facility and lastly by using Rufus exe on my EliteBook.
Suppose next step would be to contact HP Support directly?
Perhaps their repair centre can install an earlier BIOS that will allow other Linux distros?
According to HP they offer Linux pre-installed but their distro choices would not be on my list – Ubuntu – PopOS – Fedora - etc
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/06/hp- ... pecs-price
https://www.xda-developers.com/can-the- ... run-linux/
https://github.com/eriksjolund/install- ... ook-850-g5
https://ubuntu.com/certified/laptops?ve ... &offset=60
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/HP/EliteBook 830 G6/Bookworm
To get to Debian based distros I found this snippet of information…
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... ecure-boot
3.6.4. Secure boot
Another UEFI-related topic is the so-called “secure boot” mechanism. Secure boot means a function of UEFI implementations that allows the firmware to only load and execute code that is cryptographically signed with certain keys and thereby blocking any (potentially malicious) boot code that is unsigned or signed with unknown keys. In practice the only key accepted by default on most UEFI systems with secure boot is a key from Microsoft used for signing the Windows bootloader. Debian includes a “shim” bootloader signed by Microsoft, so should work correctly on systems with secure boot enabled.
3.6.5. Disabling the Windows “fast boot”/“fast startup” feature
Windows offers a feature (called “fast boot” in Windows 8, “fast startup” in Windows 10) to cut down system startup time. Technically, when this feature is enabled, Windows does not do a real shutdown and a real cold boot afterwards when ordered to shut down, but instead does something resembling a partial suspend to disk to reduce the “boot” time. As long as Windows is the only operating system on the machine, this is unproblematic, but it can result in problems and data loss, when you have a dual boot setup, in which another operating system accesses the same filesystems as Windows does. In that case the real state of the filesystem can be different from what Windows believes it to be after the “boot” and this could cause filesystem corruption upon further write accesses to the filesystem. Therefore in a dual boot setup, to avoid filesystem corruption the “fast boot”/“fast startup” feature has to be disabled within Windows.
Furthermore, the Windows Update mechanism has (sometimes) been known to automatically re-enable this feature, after it has been previously disabled by the user. It is suggested to re-check this setting periodically.
It may also be necessary to disable “fast boot” to even allow access to UEFI setup to choose to boot another operating system or debian-installer. On some UEFI systems, the firmware will reduce “boot” time by not initialising the keyboard controller or USB hardware; in these cases, it is necessary to boot into Windows and disable this feature to allow for a change of boot order.
After many attempts I have managed to boot multiple live linux distos from USB drive.
Think I made a few mistakes like using the number pad without checking ‘numlock key’ status.
You are asked to confirm changes on next boot by entering four given numbers.
The old fool at 74 probably didn’t check ‘numlock’ and just hit return.
I also know from motor sport that you should not alter more than one thing at time yet still in BIOS I also updated the firmware – six updates.
Then expecting failure for the umpteenth time; I rebooted……
Up popped MX AHS Live linux setup GUI – fantastic!
Everything works 100% - Graphics, superb sound, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc. with an instant improvement in efficiency over Win-11.
Next up antiX-23 base which worked but did not detect Wi-Fi.
I don’t know if there currently is an AHS – Advanced Hardware Support version to download?
I checked again to see if Tails+Tor still was still booting okay – Yes, stable as ever.
Next up the obscure Mageia 9 OS from France – though Global in reality – it started in September 2010 as a fork of Mandriva Linux. Though not exactly sure what it is it seems to be a totally independent distro which I find to be quite attractive as it has LXDE install option.
So Guys, I do not have the experience to dual boot and would therefore need to go against all HP support advice and wipe Win11 – something I do enjoy! and go for broke and install Loc-OS: LXDE: AHS.
However many years with linux tells me that once you are rid of Windoze then any linux distro is possible to install but I must take account that this HP EliteBook is a modern 2022 build with new components; hardware, configurations and dependencies.
Imgur Mageia screenshots - https://imgur.com/a/TZw2Mbo
Imgur MX-AHS screenshots - https://imgur.com/a/PTbF0RW
Imgur Tails+Tor screenshots - https://imgur.com/a/Dajhnjp
https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocume ... =c08049273
https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-EliteB ... 621.0.html
If I can’t understand the pre partitioning required for dual boot I will simply wipe Windoze and install Loc-OS LXDE AHS which works great live and trust HP Wolf Security; a hardware-enforced, resilient defence does not get in the way?
Will let you know – fingers crossed
Hope my post is of use to someone?
