[SOLVED]Dual boot LM 17 x64 MATE on HP laptop 15-f0009wm

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billaj4jz

[SOLVED]Dual boot LM 17 x64 MATE on HP laptop 15-f0009wm

Post by billaj4jz »

Greetings! I'm very new to Linux, and I'm glad to be a part of the community that supports this excellent open-source OS.

I have successfully installed LM17 on three machines: an old AMD Sempron 3400; an old Compaq Presario 1500 laptop; and a brand-new HP brand model 15-f009wm. The latter machine is the one I had the most trouble doing the install, so in thanks for all the help I found on this fine board, I want to give back by sharing a solution not easily obtained.

Needing a new laptop and not having the $ for a new MacBook, my wife and I had a problem. We prayed about it, and found an HP brand laptop computer, model 15-f009wm (http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Black-15.6 ... N/36561200). $240, tax included. It is no powerhouse, but it does come with 500GB hard drive (no DVD Rom drive, however, but I have an external superdrive I used to install the .iso). The new computer came with Windows 8.1, which is fairly slow and generally agravating on my budget machine. I considered how well Linux Mint 17 runs on my old AMD Sempron, so I reasoned that it may be a better OS on my new laptop. However, for a number of reasons, I wanted to keep Windows 8.1 on the machine.

The HP model 15-f009wm has a 64 bit dual-core AMD processor running at 1 Ghz. I opted for the Linux Mint 17 64 bit MATE edition as the OS. The HP also has the UEFI boot manager, as well as a number of quirks built into the ROM BIOS menu. I followed instructions for a Windows 8.1 dual boot install found on this board: see this article- http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 9&t=164979 . I turned off "Fast Startup" inside of Windows (see this article: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/63 ... s-8-a.html. I then "shrunk" my main partition inside of the 500 GB hard drive by using the Windows disk manager. I split the drive 50/50 with 250 GB to Windows 8.1, collectively with three partitions (It gets the first 3 partitions (EFI, Recovery (an HP recovery partition), Boot) by default and by rule) and gave the other 250 GB to LM17 (one big partition at this juncture). All that went very well.

I then booted the computer and pressed the "f10" button. I went to "boot options" and turned off "Secure Boot", and enabled "legacy Support" causing me to reboot the computer and then enter a 4 digit passcode (supplied on screen) to continue the operation. In hindsight, I do not believe that I had to do this step whatsoever- my belief is that LM17 supports Secure Boot and will boot fine in UEFI mode (I'll explain how I figured this out later). IMPORTANTLY: I moved up my "DVD" boot device to the top of the boot order in the BIOS (I suppose you would make the "USB" boot device top priority if you were doing and install with a flash drive).

I then ran the LM17 x64 MATE live disc from an external DVD ROM drive. I chose the "Install Linux" CD icon and began the install. After a couple of screens, I got to the infamous do-or-die partition install screen. Note: "Install LM17 alongside Windows 8.1" did NOT come up as an option. I was given the option of erasing the entire disk or "doing something else". I picked the "Do something else" option and went to the partition manager screen. Here, I simply took the one big 250 GB partition and divided it into two parts: two partitions- a swap (8 GB) and a ext4 partition for the rest. I I made the bigger partition my "mount point" -- read "/"--- and installed the LM17 x64 MATE OS. Everything seemed to go well.

I started up my computer after the apparently good install and immediately, my machine booted up Windows 8.1. I was perplexed: I thought I should have been seeing the black "GRB" loader screen and have been given the option of what OS I want the computer to boot- but no joy! I then kept playing around with the BIOS settings, and searched the web boards for advice. I found none.

Finally, I rebooted the computer and payed close attention to words at the bottom left of the initial start-up screen (i had to look quickly, as the computer kept booting quickly into Win 8.1). What I saw was critical: it said, "Press Esc for boot options". I pressed the "Esc" key quickly (NOTE WELL, AFTER I DID THIS THE FIRST TIME, I WAS THEN GIVEN THE OPTION OF USING THE "F9" KEY TO REACH THIS CRITICAL BOOT MANAGER SCREEN. I found myself presented with a never-seen-before BIOS screen with a boot manager. The boot manager gave me the option of booting "ubuntu-hitachi89324u32" hard drive, or something to that effect. The key thing was to boot the "ubuntu". I selected this option and, voila! The computer booted to the black GRB loader (the Grub) screen and I was given the standard choices to boot LM17 MATE. Having chose to boot LM17 MATE, everything worked just fine- and still does- everything!

I then rebooted the computer- it booted straight into Win 8.1 again. I reasoned that the options in the BIOS (f10) screen about Secure boot and Legacy support could be changed back to factory settings (that is, "Secure boot" to "on" and "Legacy support" to off.) The computer then booted in UEFI mode with SECURE BOOT. I was correct- everything is fine and LM17 supports UEFI and SECURE BOOT (I believe I read that the security keys are signed by Ubuntu, which LM is based upon).

NOTE WELL: Somehow, the HP will always default boot into Win 8.1., unless you press, -VERY QUICKLY- at initial startup (before HP is in the center of the screen!) the now "f9" key. After you press the "f9" key, then you will reach the computer's own boot manager and be given the option of the "ubuntu" labeled drive and then on to the Linux Grub loader.

So now I have a low cost machine (which is much faster and more stable in the Linux OS environment) with both Linux and Win 8.1 capabilities. The best part of this deal is that Linux Mint 17 allows you to view all the files on the Windows 8.1 NTFS partition, and you can modify and work with them (Windows, however, cannot "see" the Linux files).

I hope this "solution" helps those who might have a brand-new HP laptop or other similarly constructed computer to install Linux Mint 17 and thereafter enjoy all its benefits. Thanks again to the folks who run this website for the web space, and for the Linux Mint team for their phenomenal work. God bless.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
soccerz619

Re: [SOLVED]Dual boot LM 17 x64 MATE on HP laptop 15-f0009wm

Post by soccerz619 »

Walmart recently dropped the prices on these machines, and I'm in the market to do the same thing you did, so thank you for the write-up!! How has performance on the Linux drive been? I've never used an AMD processor, and the salesperson at Walmart said it gets hot when using it; have you experienced this in either the Linux partition or the Windows 8 partition?

Does Win8 run faster now that it has a smaller drive size? Does the Win8 perform OK enough to use? My wife doesn't care for Linux, so my plan is to dual-boot something until I can get her more accustomed to Linux.
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