Lenovo Ideapad U410 linux only installation

[fetchinson]

Hi folks, I'm about to buy a lenovo u410 and only need to have linux on it, ready to delete windows completely. I've gone through a couple of threads relating to installation problems and drives not being recognized on this model:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2020155
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...38#post9274738
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2023374

and it seems to me that problems are only to be expected if one wants to have a dual boot system with both linux and windows. Is this correct? Seems to me that if I deactivate the raid setup in the BIOS and do a completely new install of linux I should be fine.

I was just not 100% sure that this is the case, can somebody confirm?

Also, those of you who run ubuntu on the u410: wifi, fn keys, volume controls, webcam, etc, all these things work?

[ulot]

I haven't tried Ubuntu yet, but I have successfully installed Fedora 17 with Win7. I broke the raid array, killed the raid meta data, and labeled the drives gpt. After that it installed fine and saw all the drives. Didn't bother trying to use the IRST or RAID, but there are some docs about Intel's Linux support for it. Bumblebee appears to work with the graphics cards as well. Had to load the non-free firmware for the Wireless-N 2200, but then it was detected right away.

The only thing that has been an issue is with the Mobile Express SATA RAID controller. It wants to put the non-SSD drive in UDMA/100. Just started working on that tonight. Plan to write a blog post of all the steps taken once I'm done.

All said it isn't the easiest laptop install, but for a new hybrid ultrabook it has been much smoother then I expected. My Dell XPS 1345 had a rocky start, but things got better over time as the kernel and software updates fixed some of the issues.

[phyjcowl]

A few days ago I got an IdeaPad U410. I made the mistake of installing Kubuntu without doing enough reading on the proper way. Although Kubuntu worked fine, it didn't install properly for dual booting. In your case, I guess that doesn't matter.

Most everything seems to work fine, including the function keys. The touchpad is flaky though. The right button doesn't function properly and the left button causes it to move as well. There was a way to fix this that I came across in these forums but I haven't tried it yet and don't recall the link.

The main problem I have, is that after installing Ubuntu, the system refuses to let me F2 to get into its BIOS settings. It just totally ignores that. It also doesn't allow me to boot back into the OEM recovery partitions so I cannot figure out how to resolve the F2 problem.

I've done a lot of searching and I can't find any mention of the F2/BIOS settings problem anywhere. I'm thinking a may return it now. Because while I'd be fine to not have Windows on it, I see it as a potentially big problem not to be able to access the BIOS settings.

[fetchinson]

Thanks a lot for all the details!

I broke the raid array, killed the raid meta data, and labeled the drives gpt.

Breaking the raid array means you disable it in the BIOS?

Had to load the non-free firmware for the Wireless-N 2200, but then it was detected right away.

How did you do this exactly? Was there a fedora rpm for it?

The only thing that has been an issue is with the Mobile Express SATA RAID controller. It wants to put the non-SSD drive in UDMA/100.

And why is that a problem?

[ulot]

The main problem I have, is that after installing Ubuntu, the system refuses to let me F2 to get into its BIOS settings. It just totally ignores that. It also doesn't allow me to boot back into the OEM recovery partitions so I cannot figure out how to resolve the F2 problem.

Hold the Fn key that is between ctrl and alt key while pressing the function keys. Unlike most laptops, the function keys are meta keys while the feature keys (volume, brightness, and such) are hardware keys. Normally it is the other way around and you hold down Fn for the feature keys.

[ulot]

Breaking the raid array means you disable it in the BIOS?

Set the BIOS to AHCI, delete the raid partitions, and used dmraid to remove the meta data. Used the install console to do those last two steps before continuing the install. The dmraid command is:

dmraid -r -E /dev/sda
dmraid -r -E /dev/sdb

If you plan to run UEFI, you'll need to use gpart to label the disks as 'gpt'.

How did you do this exactly? Was there a fedora rpm for it?

Yes. Redhat does not allow non-free rpms in the distro repos, but you can find it in the rpmfusion repo. I would imagine Ubuntu has the firmware as well. Don't know what repo to look in though.

And why is that a problem?

Normally UDMA/100 doesn't do anything to SATA, but for some reason it is treating it as an IDE drive. I think it might have to do with the driver for the non-boot drive not being loaded at boot. Didn't get much chance to look at it. I found next to nothing about the Intel Mobile Express Chipset SATA AHCI controller that is in the laptop. Really not even sure if it is supported or not.

Sorry for the lack of Ubuntu specific directions. Don't normally use it. I found your post looking for more information on setting up the U410.

[phyjcowl]

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately that wasn't the problem. I never figured out exactly why it stopped letting me access the BIOS, I just returned the system to the store and will get something else.

[lakerssuperman]

Just curious, anyone install 12.10 on this laptop? If so, how is the experience? Has it improved over 12.10?

[frizi]

I would be also interested about this answer to know with which difficulties I have to count.

Except of this I am thinking if the GRUB can be installed while leaving the raid partitions in the initial state like for ex.:

SSD: 1.Windows 32Gb
HDD: 1. Windows Raid copy 32Gb
2. Linux 64Gb
3. Storage - rest 400GB
Since the U410 has min 4GB Ram I would not install any swap partition.

Could such partitioning and installing be done. The idea behind it is to leave the Raid and Windows and just add the Linux system to it. If there would be better to have the Storage before the Linux partitions please let me know.

Thank you in advance.

[snowz]

I'm also planing to buy the U410 in short future. I've also asked some questions on askubuntu.com about this ultrabook.

Battery
The thing that I found out till now is that the battery life on Ubuntu isn't so long than on Windows, because the linux kernel does not support it or something like that.