Why can't I start Ubuntu on an Acer Aspire ES1-111M-C56A?

Question

I just bought the 11,6 inches Acer Aspire ES1-111M-C56A (Intel Celeron N2840, 2,1GHz, 2GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, Intel HD Graphics, Win 8.1 with Bing) and I'm facing different problems when trying to install Ubuntu. The Laptop comes with Windows 8.1 and I want to remove it completely.

I disabled the secure boot and changed the boot mode from UEFI to Legacy. If I boot with the UEFI boot mode I go directly to the Windows login page.

The Laptop has a 32GB harddisk and aprox. 14 or 16GB is used by the windows system. The partitions are:

• 100MB (EFI),
• 19GB NTFS (for the user)
• 10GB (recovery?)

If I boot with a Debian LiveUSB (gnome and xfce) or netinst (text mode) the installer recognizes no hard disks (except the USB device I'm already using). If I boot with Xubuntu, the pointer keeps loading infinitely after I choose the language (i.e the first installation window).

With the standard Ubuntu I get the following message right after choosing "Try Ubuntu" from the text mode menu screen:

Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (2,0)

...followed by other messages like:

Call Trace:
[ < fffffff...

(If they are relevant, I will write them completely.)

Both architectures (of all the mentioned distros) were tested: 32 und 64 bits. The laptop has no CD drive, the WiFi wont work out of the box (it's the Broadcom BCM43142) and at the moment I can't setup an Ethernet connection.

I appreciate any comments/suggestions.

Answer 1

I've also bought this little notebook. I faced almost the same problems as you when i booted with 'legacy' mode. I fixed that issue with enabled 'uefi' mode in bios settings. On ubuntu you can either enable or disable the secure boot option to get it booting. (While booting ubuntu enables 'secure boot' anyways) Format an usb stick with FAT32 and copy ubuntu 14.10 x64! (For 'uefi' you need to have th e 64bit version of ubuntu. The 32bit wont boot as uefi only supports 64bit os) For copying i prefer you to use 'unetbootin'. It's an easy tool to copy Linux based OS's to usb sticks. After copying boot from usb. Check in bios first if you have enabled the F12 bootmenu selection. So you have to press the F12 key to get list of 'uefi boot devices'. Choose your usb stick and boot from it. It will boot with uefi boot mode. With that mode its possible to install the os to the emmc. In legacy mode the emmc doesn't(i don't know why). You can only install Linux with uefi mode. I tried that method with ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10 only. It may works with others too.

And about your wifi problem. Check if its a hardware issue or re-install the drivers. If its a hardware bug you have to send it back to acer to get a new 'fixed' one.