Installation on Odys myBook 14 stucks after grub menu

[Treehugger]

I want to install Debian on a Odys myBook 14

I disabled UEFI in the BIOS and managed to get grub to show me the installation options, though regardless what I chose, the system halts with an empty Grub screen. Tested with multi-boot version (Debian 9.6.0). I tried numerous other versions and distributions and none of them worked - seeing the grub menu is the furthest I got.

Apparently, a different model from the same vendor caused similar trouble before being a 64bit system with a 32bit EFI, and there are reports of successful installations with it:
https://www.linuxmintusers.de/index.php ... t=prev#new (German, but links to this English documented Git repo:
https://github.com/sundarnagarajan/rdp- ... /README.md

Unfortunately, everything suggested there doesn't work for me and I haven't found any mention of this particular model.


Some specs:
Intel® Celeron® Quad Core Processor N3450
Burst Frequency up to 4x 2,2 GHz
Clock Frequency 4x 1,1 GHz
4 GB DDR III RAM
GPU: Intel® HD Graphics 515
64 GB Flash HDD

BIOS shows as:
American Megatrends
version 2.20.1270
Core Version 5.12
Aptio Setup Utility
Platform firmware Info
EC Version OC.1A.02

Now I'm hoping that someone has an idea what I could try next. Any particular grub command I could try to type in?

I can provide screenshots of the BIOS entries or any other info if that helps, I'd just need to know what it should be.

Thanks in advance!

Guido

[arochester]

the system halts with an empty Grub screen

A picture of this might be helpful. Is it totally blank or is there a flashing cursor in the corner?

[milomak]

is there any particular reason you disabled uefi?

[Treehugger]

the system halts with an empty Grub screen

A picture of this might be helpful. Is it totally blank or is there a flashing cursor in the corner?

It's the grub menu that gets blank after hitting return on "Install". Though the blanking curser in the corner I got with other installation images (I'll have to go through them all to find out which, but will happily do so)

[Treehugger]

is there any particular reason you disabled uefi?

It's part of the instructions here and when enabled, I get the message:

Code: Select all

Secure Boot Violation

Invalid signature detected. Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup

and won't even see the boot menu.

Thanks to both of you!

[sunrat]

So you tried everything on that Github page? There's a lot there. Particularly important are the UEFI settings including disable secure boot. Did you try the Bionic Beaver ISO they offer on that page?

BTW, it's not possible to disable UEFI as that's what starts your computer. You can set UEFI to boot in BIOS compatibility mode (CSM or legacy boot) so it acts like old-school BIOS.

[Treehugger]

So you tried everything on that Github page? There's a lot there. Particularly important are the UEFI settings including disable secure boot. Did you try the Bionic Beaver ISO they offer on that page?

Basically it's three changes in BIOS and booting from a proper installation medium. I did not build my own ISO from scratch but went with the provided Bionic Beaver image instead.

The BIOS settings mentioned there are:

- UEFI --> Security --> Secure Boot menu --> Secure Boot Change Enabled --> Disabled
- UEFI --> Advanced --> ACPI Settings --> Enable ACPI Auto Configuration Change from Enabled --> Disabled
- UEFI --> Chipset --> Audio Configuration --> LPE Audio Support Set to ```LPE Audio ACPI mode`` (default setting)

The third setting doesn't exist on the myBook 14. I was hoping that this wouldn't matter much as it's only an audio setting and being left to default. Everything I linked to pertains to the Odys Trendbook 14. I'm trying my luck with the Odys myBook 14 which leads to zero results when I search for it with "Linux".

Would it help if I take pictures of all BIOS settings available? If I find the time, I'll also ask the vendor tomorrow.

Thanks for the replies so far!

[sunrat]

The error message in your above post seems to indicate Secure Boot is not disabled but you say you have. I'm thinking that unless someone here has experience with the same model computer, you may not get much help. I've heard it's possible to install on a 64 bit computer with 32 bit UEFI but personally have no experience.

[Treehugger]

The error message in your above post seems to indicate Secure Boot is not disabled but you say you have.

No, sorry if I was unclear. I was answering milomak's question if there was any particular reason for me to disable it. A more clear answer would have been:

Yes:
1. it's instructed in the github post I linked to
2. when I don't disable UEFI check, I get that error message.

[cljk]

I have the same model and the same problem.

With Ubuntu Mate and other distributions I see the grub menu - and after choosing any option the screen turns black and nothing more happens.

Tried several distributions, USB as MBR and GPT, (BIOS mode does not work), with 32bit UEFI loader copied to it.... everytime the same.
In the BIOS configuration there is an option called "OS mode" - switched that from "Windows " to "Intel Linux" (for trying).... then the system becomes unusable
I resetted the BIOS configuration by openig the device and unplugging the battery. Tried other OS-Modes but all lead to a system where the display does not turn on. And everytime I had to reset the config.

[Treehugger]

I have the same model and the same problem.
With Ubuntu Mate and other distributions I see the grub menu - and after choosing any option the screen turns black and nothing more happens.

I gave up in the meantime but in case it helps you or others: I managed to boot https://clearlinux.org/, but working on a shell was impossible as the screen was flooded with error messages like:

Code: Select all

i2c_hid ic2-SYNA3602:00: i2c_hid_get_input: incomplete report (32/2457)

Only this message every 0.1 seconds, only the portion behind the '32/' at the end of line varied.

Installation wasn't possible as the WIFI chip wasn't supported and this laptop doesn't have a RJ45 jack.

Also: I politely asked the manufacturer if they had any hint for me, but the only response I got was that nothing but windows is supposed to run on this hardware.

Good luck and let us know if you succeed! I gave mine away to someone else, but could still get access to it.