No debian live image works on Dell Inspiron 13 (7348)

[mlevant]

I would like to run a debian live on my new Dell Inspiron 13 (7348) laptop (to check for hardware compatibility before installing debian in place of Windows 8.1).
However, so far I have not been able to run any debian live on the laptop.

I have disabled the Secure Boot option in the BIOS and prepared a USB pendrive with the following command (from a debian working system):
dd if=debian-live-7.8.0-amd64-gnome-desktop+nonfree.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M; sync
I am able to run debian live with no problems from this USB pendrive in a different, much older, laptop.

When I try to boot from the USB pendrive on the Dell Inspiron, no EFI mode is available for the USB prendrive, so the only option is to run in LEGACY MODE. When I choose this option, the system hangs rightaway (blinking cursor on gray screen) or, if I choose the "Live (amd64 failsafe)" option, it starts to boot the kernel but hangs shortly after. In particular, right after the following line has appeared on the screen "... ACPI: SSDT (null) 003D3 (v02 ..."

Any suggestion?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

When I try to boot from the USB pendrive on the Dell Inspiron, no EFI mode is available for the USB prendrive, so the only option is to run in LEGACY MODE.

The 64-bit version of the current ISO image should support UEFI booting (I have used it myself).

Are you absolutely sure Secure Boot is disabled?

Is there a "Fast Start" (or similar) option?

That should also be disabled.

[mlevant]

Thanks for the feedback.

In the BIOS, the Secure Boot option (under the Boot menu) is set at <Disabled>.

I cannot find any "Fast Start" (or similar) option in the BIOS. The only other option that I thought could be relevant is "Dell Backup And Recovery"; there are 4 options (0, 1, 2, 3), but none of them allows booting in UEFI mode from the USB pendrive.
I have also tried to disable the Fast Boot option from within Windows 8.1 (following the instructions found in http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/63 ... s-8-a.html): it still does not work.

What next?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Try booting it in "Legacy" mode and use the "nomodeset" kernel parameter.

You can enter this by pressing "e" whilst the Debian GRUB entry is highlighted and adding "nomodeset" (without the quotation marks) at the end of the line that starts with "linux" and then press <Ctrl>+x to boot with this option.

[mlevant]

The "Live (amd64 failsafe)" option in the "Boot menu" contains already the "nomodeset" parameter. I have checked that by hitting TAB on the corresponding menu entry. It reads as follows:
> .linux /live/vmlinuz boot=live config memtest noapic noapm nodma nomce nolapic nomodeset nosmp nosplash vga=normal initrd=/live/initrd.img

As mentioned before, the kernel boot starts, but the system hangs shortly after. In particular, right after the following line has appeared on the screen "... ACPI: SSDT (null) 003D3 (v02 ..."

Should I try change/add any other parameter?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

In particular, right after the following line has appeared on the screen "... ACPI: SSDT (null) 003D3 (v02 ..."

Is that the entire error message?

I have tried putting it in startpage.com but it returns some very broad hits.

[mlevant]

I am not sure it is an error message. It is just the last line on the screen:
[ 0.054387] ACPI: SSDT (null) 003D3 (v02 PmRef Cpu0Cst 00003001 INTL 20130117)

[mlevant]

Should I give up in trying to run a Debian live on this laptop?

In the meantime, I have verified that I can both run Ubuntu 14.04.2 live with no problem (with UEFI boot from USB pendrive). I am also able to boot in UEFI mode from a USB pendrive with debian-jessie-DI-rc2-amd64-netinst.iso (but this is not a live image).

Any suggestion?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

You could try installing the Jessie system and see if you can get it working.

If not, just use Ubuntu.