1

I have a very cheap Acer E1 series that is fairly new. I want to erase Windows completely from this laptop and put only Ubuntu 32 bit on it. I see that the BIOS is UEFI and there can be some issues in installing Ubuntu. So, I want to educate myself properly before I try this.

Is there a well tested guide for installing Ubuntu over Windows 8, in a UEFI laptop? I don't want dual boot. I want Windows off my laptop. Also, I might install more flavors of Linux alongside Ubuntu later.

2 Answers 2

2

Because you have 4GB RAM in your Acer E1 laptop, and fast RAM (1600.0 MHz) at that, you will get better performance if you install the 64-bit Ubuntu instead of the 32-bit Ubuntu. Almost all of the apps that you can find are available for the 64-bit architecture, so there is no reason to select the 32-bit version of Ubuntu for the sake of application compatibility.

The canonical question for installing Ubuntu on a Windows 8 PC is: Installing Ubuntu on a Pre-Installed Windows 8 (64-bit) System (UEFI Supported).

7
  • Actually, I don't really know what I am doing. So, far I disabled secure boot. To allow that, I had to first create a supervisor password in the bios. There are 3 options for secure boot mode. Don't know if I should mess with those. They are ----- Feb 20, 2014 at 6:59
  • key assumption in your link - Your system came with Windows 8 pre-installed (And you do not want to delete it). I want to delete/kill the windows 8 partition. That is the purpose behind getting a new cheap laptop. Feb 20, 2014 at 7:02
  • I removed secure boot and enabled F12 in bios. Now, after pressing F12 after starting pc, the boot manager only shows me 3 options - windows boot manager and 2 network boots. I don't see my external DVD writer here. How do I fix that ? This drive is compatible with win 8. I tried it. Feb 20, 2014 at 7:10
  • Your computer's BIOS didn't detect your external DVD drive, but you can still install Ubuntu from a USB flash drive that you make like this: askubuntu.com/questions/350283/…. my 2 assumptions here are: 1) you have a flash drive 1GB or larger 2) you still have Windows installed somewhere on a computer that you can use to make the bootable Ubuntu live USB.
    – karel
    Feb 20, 2014 at 7:24
  • I tried to use a brand new blank windows usb drive and it did not even detect it at boot time. I just saw the same old boot options - windows and network. How do I get rid of this windows thing ? I hope that I won't be stuck with this windows 8, which is what billy might want. Feb 22, 2014 at 18:34
2

In addition to the links provided by karel, I recommend you read:

Those pages will give you a good understanding of what EFI is, how to use it, and (generally) how to install Linux using EFI. None of them is a step-by-step tutorial, though. In fact, such a tutorial is likely to be deficient because EFIs vary so much in user interfaces, and many of them have idiosyncratic bugs. Thus, when you follow such a tutorial, you're likely to get stuck at some point. That's where an understanding of the issues will be helpful.

2
  • Thanks for your answer. My USB dvd writer and blank usb flash drive do not appear in my boot options. I can only see windows boot manager and 2 network boot options. How do I proceed ? Feb 22, 2014 at 18:36
  • First, enter your firmware setup utility and disable any "fast boot" type options you see. Sometimes those prevent USB boot devices from being initialized. If that fails, you could try installing rEFInd to your hard disk from within Windows. When you reboot, rEFInd should appear, it it should show your CD-R and/or USB flash drive options.
    – Rod Smith
    Feb 22, 2014 at 22:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .