How do I put Ubuntu on a crashed machine?

[Big_Ted]

My ma has a 2 yr old laptop that had windows 8 on it ... a Dell .... she does not want it anymore ..... it crashed .... is there a way to put Ubuntu on it?



thanks as always

[Karolina.K]

Can you access bios and such boot menu?

If you can then you should be able to install ubuntu , from a cd or usb

[egeezer]

Windows 8 used the so-called Secure Boot, which was constructed to be secure against Linux. If you access the BIOS (the UEFI, really) you should be able to turn off Secure Boot, in which case you can install from a CD, DVD, or USB, as miyamoto2 said.

To do that, you will probably need to press some function key (I know Dell used to use F12, but it might be DEL) at the monent the first screen appears (the one that advertises Dell).

[Karolina.K]

the keys that my different computers have had has been esc, f8, f9, f12 (for entering boot menu)
my last computer had a different button called assist (it had win8, I had no problem installing ubuntu )

[MoebusNet]

You didn't give us much information about the laptop, but this should answer most of the initial questions you will have about installing Ubuntu:

https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/instal...d64/index.html

After you've read through this, check back with any questions. Welcome!

[grahammechanical]

Secure Boot, which was constructed to be secure against Linux.

I am not sure that statement is accurate. Secure boot certainly does not stop us installing Ubuntu.

• Use a supported version of Ubuntu. Support for UEFI appeared in 11.10, but has become more reliable in next versions. Support for UEFISecureBoot appeared in 12.10 and 12.04.2.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI#SecureBoot

http://web.dodds.net/~vorlon/wiki/bl..._Ubuntu_12.10/

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...ubuntu-desktop

Regards.

[jack96]

If you put Ubuntu onto a usb or cd from a seperate machine, assuming you have one, you can install it from the USB if you can access the BIOS and change the boot sequence. Make USB the priority drive to boot from, reboot the PC, and install linux, with the "format drive and install" option, not sure the exact wording.

[Ratscallion]

Ask for step-by-step help if you need it.

If you put Ubuntu onto a usb or cd from a seperate machine, assuming you have one, you can install it from the USB if you can access the BIOS and change the boot sequence. Make USB the priority drive to boot from, reboot the PC, and install linux, with the "format drive and install" option, not sure the exact wording.

Just adding to this, if you don't have another computer - and can't borrow someone's to make a LiveCD/LiveUSB, you can always order one from the ubuntu website, which you can do from, for instance, a public (library) computer or your phone. I'd also test the liveCD on the computer that you know works, that way when it comes to use it on the 'crashed' computer, you know there's no issue with the disc. By test, I just mean make sure you can boot into it.

[ian-weisser]

it crashed .... is there a way to put Ubuntu on it?

I suppose it would depend on why it crashed.
If Windows crashed, but the hardware is fine, then download an installer image, put it on a USB stick, and run the Live environment to test what works.
If the hardware failed, then probably not. Ubuntu is great, but it's not magic.

[newb85]

Lots of great suggestions so far. With the several mentions of using an installation USB or CD, it's worth noting that for recent versions of Ubuntu, the .iso has been too large for a traditional CD, so the options are really USB or DVD. (Lighter variants like Xubuntu and Lubuntu still fit on CD.) And of course, the USB drive must be 1GB or larger.