I've been told people on this website enjoy me trying to think through computer problems out loud while in incredible pain, so good news: I'm taking my new Thinkpad T14 (https://mastodon.social/@mcc/111218408629532857) out of the box and I'm going to install Linux on it first thing. So expect a LOT of complaining.
Right off the bat, taking it out of the box and turning it on, it won't boot. Just a black screen. It was supposed to come with Windows 10. Thinking of all the people who told me my awful experience with a Yoga around 2015 was anamolpus and Lenovo now makes very reliable hardware now.
I know the screen must be okay because if I repeatedly reboot it it sometimes shows a Lenovo logo and says "to interrupt normal startup press enter". Then back to black screen.
After a number of reboots checking out the "other than normal" boot process and right before I was about to run Windows Recovery, Windows 10 finally booted. Thoughtfully, Lenovo preinstalled Win10 and included a Win11 license in the box, as if they realized I am avoiding Win11 at all costs. I claimed not to have Internet to avoid linking to an MS account, which still works, for now, although weirdly it will NOT let you hoot unless you pick 3 security questions, ONLY from this list.
HOW DID YOU DO?
Andi's mystery USB sticks census:
UB: Windows could not read; presumably Ubuntu
CZ: Clonezilla
G: gparted (gimmie)
ISO: This one was memtest86. I'm not sure how I expected to guess that. I'm assuming it contained something different until I needed to install memtest86 in a hurry.
If at any point in this thread you find yourself wondering why I'm installing Linux when I seem to hate it so much, here's my answer https://social.treehouse.systems/@megmac/111252230465871613
(And if at any point you wonder "why not use a Mac"?: This, incidents like this, over and over, literal dozens of times, over a period of 15 years https://xoxo.zone/@mathowie/111229500871588422)
Okay so I am now using Windows to burn the Ubuntu USB key that will erase it, a little like ordering a man to build the scaffold of his own hanging. I believe the Lenovo support page claims 20.04 LTE is the supported one on this laptop, and I'm installing 22.04 LTE, so this is the first example of LIVING ON THE EDGE that's going to get me in trouble!!
I dawdled a bit because I thought I'd do some quick tasks in Windows before wiping it:
- Copy some large files from an SD card to an SMB server. I ultimately was not able to do this. SMB kept erroring out on Windows.
- Test the touchpad, so if Linux felt bad I'd have a basis for comparison. I was not able to do this. I couldn't find certain basic touchpad settings and ultimately have up.
- Listen to a song, again for comparison. I was not able to do this. The sound in Windows was not working.
It's possible the sound (and some of the touchpad oddities?) are due to needing a reboot, which Windows keeps insisting it needs to enable support for hardware. But I can't do this right now because I'm burning a USB key.
Interestingly, the sound outage is accompanied by a toolbar icon showing sound is out. If I click it, rather than doing something useful like display an error message, it brings up a window with a "live agent". To what end? Unclear.
At the least, this is fortifying me against the upcoming feeling, when there's something basic I can't get working in four or five hours, of "damn, if I was using Windows, this would just work!"
Sure, okay Windows. Go ahead and install your update. Enjoy your last delicious cigarette.
Oh, good. It's "flashing" the "embedded controller". That's probably good. I mean. Probably? Probably that's good? I still have not left Windows land
After allowing Windows its reboot and update, sound started working. Actually these are pretty good speakers.
Also, just to remind me what I'm leaving behind, that one single software update I allowed Windows caused it to add a weather widget I did *not* ask for to the corner. Fascinating I selected *every* privacy option, but it still thought it was ok to add something that clearly periodically contacts a web service without asking me first
(Also if I type, say, "XClarity" into the Start menu to see if I have XClarity installed, it does a Bing search. But THAT I expected, however much I dislike it, from the other Windows box. Wanting to tell me the local weather (real interesting it knows what the local weather is even though I disabled location services!) was a subversion I was totally unprepared for
Oh… right after posting this I tried to alt-tab, accidentally entered win-tab, and win-tab caused the weather widget I don't want to blossom into a picture of Donald Trump. I guess, somehow, a dedicated button for showing you a picture of Donald Trump is something I should expect of Windows by now.
Actually, this Lenovo Vantage thing (runs through all the pieces of hardware in your laptop, tells you which ones need firmware updates, installs them) is *really* nice. Exactly what I feel like I'm usually missing in Windows. This is a pleasant surprise because the last time I bought a Lenovo was when they were installing like, Superfish malware.
…I'm assuming that Vantage didn't just install Superfish, of course.
Hm. The Lenovo boot menu is not letting me select the USB stick with the Ubuntu installer on it. When I select it the screen just blinks black then it takes me back to the same menu. Some Google hits are recommending I disable secure boot. Should I need to disable secure boot to run the Ubuntu 22 LTS installer? I thought Ubuntu kernels were signed by Microsoft or some shit
Now that I'm inside the Ubuntu installer, the first thing I notice is that it has not detected the 1080p laptop screen ("1.5x retina") is a high density display, and it does not give any options to increase the font size. I am forty years old and my eyes are not so good. I'm finding the text very hard to read. Imagine how bad it would be if this monitor were 4k!
It would be nice to include font size options on the screen with language select, esp if you don't detect HiDPI monitors.
Why does Ubuntu require a firmware level password for secure boot when Windows does not appear to require this?
(This is not a good photo. My phone camera is struggling to accommodate the Ubuntu installer's tiny text.)
@mcc Why does installing non-free drivers require Secure Boot to be configured in the first place? 😬
@dos It only needs to be configured if it's already enabled; no configuration is needed if it's not turned on. Also only needs to be done once (unless you clear the MOKs in the BIOS, or reinstall the OS)
The specifics are around non-free drivers usually being DKMS modules, built on the target system, and as such unable to be signed by canonical. "configuring" it in this case generates a "Machine Owner Key" (MOK) which is then used to sign the compiled DKMS modules, but that MOK also needs to be enrolled into the BIOS to be trusted.
The password is pretty much solely for proof-of-presence: OS asks shim to install/trust the MOK, supplying a password. On reboot, shim sees pending enrollment and asks for the password to confirm it. This ensures the person enrolling it is doing it intentionally. IIRC it's never used for anything else, and is also discarded after the operation is done.
@becomethewaifu Makes sense, thanks! It wasn't clear that it's only needed with SB enabled.
