Dell Inspiron 11 P24T 32GB eMMC install

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ThenuT82

Dell Inspiron 11 P24T 32GB eMMC install

Post by ThenuT82 »

It took me a couple of days to get Linux Mint installed because I had to mash a few forums together to get it to work.
I bought the machine for a portable more powerful Kodi machine rather than a android box and was going to by a NUC or mini PC but had a friend getting rid of 2 of the Inspirons and figured that will work easily. After getting the machine thinking it was the 15 series and I could just add a hard drive and install linux ran into the emmc flash hdd that made things little more difficult...
I figured if can save some time for someone else I will post my install steps....

What didnt work:
Downloaded My OS (Linux Mint 18.2, tried 17.2 and I will explain that later), used Yumi an pendrive variant for multi booting, changed my BIOS settings to support legacy then got it to boot to USB and start the install. Once it was complete got the "there is no boot device" screen. Thought it was the image, re-download, no joy. Tried different usb burning tools (Rufus, MS USb creation tool, unetbootin, etc...) with no joy and tried to manually install grub to emmcblkboot0, also no joy. I also read that use unetbootin with Linux Mint 17.2 then upgrade but it did not show emmc devices during the install.

What worked:
Used Linux Mint 18.2
Burned USB using Rufus with the FAT32(clean install), MBR with BIOS/UEFI options selected
Updated system BIOS to latest firmware
Rebooted and entered the BIOS settings(F2) went to the boot tab, changed settings to -> Fast boot - disabled, Secure boot - disabled, Legacey option - on
Rebooted and entered boot option menu(F12), selected under the UEFI options the USB I had installed
The grub screen comes up, highlight default kernel and type "e" to edit parameters, replaced "quiet splash" with "nomodeset" <-- This was because anytime I tried to run UEFI mode, my screen would flash and then hang, so found a forum for this and it worked, this was because a of a incompatibility with universal graphic drivers, then F10 to boot
Installed the OS as I seemed fit, which this time it asked me about the UEFI boot and would I like to proceed.... once install is complete re-enter the BIOS and Changed back -> Secure boot - enabled (This automatically disables legacy option)

After this was able to boot to OS no issue.
barkman

Re: Dell Inspiron 11 P24T 32GB eMMC install

Post by barkman »

All I can say is THANK YOU, ThenuT82! I got one of these same little Dell machines, pre-installed with Win10 and the performance was so horrible that I wanted to toss that and install Mint. After making a few dumb mistakes, which accidentally wiped all Windows partitions, I was left with a machine that was nonworking. Like you, I could launch from USB or DVD (attached via USB), but after installing, could never get the thing to boot. I can't tell you how many forum posts (here and elsewhere) I read with possible fixes - none of which worked. I finally ran across your post, followed your directions EXACTLY and now I'm up and running. Hurray! Now, I can actually use my machine.
lisa

Re: Dell Inspiron 11 P24T 32GB eMMC install

Post by lisa »

Thanks! That worked for my little Asus laptop too. I followed your instructions to the letter and now it works. :D
SwimDan

Re: Dell Inspiron 11 P24T 32GB eMMC install

Post by SwimDan »

Thanks a lot it works for me with a Dell Inspiron 11 3162. The only thing is that I had to disable Firmware TPM for the boot sequence to play out completely. With TPM enabled it hung up after showing the mint logo for a second. I installed Mint 19 Cinnamon with a Rufus prepared usb stick.
orlioe

Re: Dell Inspiron 11 P24T 32GB eMMC install

Post by orlioe »

Yes, yes, yes! That indeed helped a lot, every comment above added a little to the saga's happy ending. My little machine is Dell Inspiron 11-3162 (BIOS 2.4.0), Mint 19 v.2 - Mate 64 bit (32bit didn't recognize the mmc)

If I may add my experience with Dell Inspiron 11, for those who plan to get rid of Windows 10 once and forever and don't use dual boot:
Once you boot from Mint USB, use GParted(search for it in the Mint Menu) to wipe the eMMC partitions (mostly the EFI 512 MB one, containing the windows backup files) before initiating the install. Or during the install don't chose "Erase disk and Install Linux Mint" as that will by pass the partition I mentioned. Use "Something else" instead to clean the eMMC. With the last option, the install manager required to create new EFI ("requirement of the partition table"), before the "/" and swap area. I assigned 256 MB for efi, 28.5 Gb for sys files and 2.5 GB for swap.

That might not be the best partitioning, not an expert, please correct me, if wrong. But that efi deletion definitely made the normal boot happen.

Also, I installed Cinnamon first and got around 550-570 MB used RAM measured with https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/htop and around 450 with Mate, so I chose Mate.
Jeff16505

Re: Dell Inspiron 11 P24T 32GB eMMC install

Post by Jeff16505 »

Thank you, thank you, ThenuT82! You are my new personal hero! Your instructions worked PERFECTLY. I was about to toss this Dell P24T through a window after trying about 50 different suggestions for loading a different OS onto the eMMC drive. Yours was the first suggestion that worked! THANKS AGAIN!
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