Simple Steps to Install Mint 15 on Lenovo Y580 [SOLVED]

[cheZ]

hi all ~ can someone please post , in the simplest possible terms , the exact correct steps to install Mint 15 Olivia onto a Lenovo y580. yes , i know there are issues regarding secure boot & Uefi , and without seeming ungrateful , i am not looking for a history or editorial discussion on either secure boot or Uefi ( i have been on the forums for a few years and know that many tech-heads like to go off on technical complex tangents ), i just would quite simply like the simple exact steps ( from point A to Z ) on the install process , and how exactly to disable anything ( in bios etc.. ) that i need to do in order to do a simple complete install from a Live CD/DVD. i already have Mint 15 Cinnamon 64bit burned onto a DVD , and i have also installed a brand new fresh clean Hard Drive ( not yet formatted even ) into the Lenovo y580 laptop , so there is no wiping needed or any worry about Windows OS as the HD is brand new , and i simply want to carefully and properly install Mint 15 Olivia in the simplest and easiest way possible following the correct steps the first time around. i have installed Mint ( previous versions ) before on other non-Uefi laptop computers in the past without any issues or difficulties , but these newer secure boot / Uefi installs are a bit more tricky / complicated and i want to avoid any potential issues. also , if anyone has experience with a Lenovo y580 ( installing or running Mint ) that they can share , that would be greatly appreciated too.
thanks very much in advance to anyone that can help in any way , any specific no-confusing help is very much appreciated !

[usbtux]

Don't know anything but the very basest of secure boot & Uefi - so I wont go into them - google will help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKL1tmn-xC0 - Will show you how to do an external install, but its almost identical to an internal install just point everything at sda

[cheZ]

hi my friend , appreciate your input and link. frankly , although i sincerely appreciate your attempt to try to help , that info does not answer specific issues about preparing bios ( secure boot & Uefi ) before install ( and google is not helpful and quite simply a source of confusing info )....so that advice / youtube vid is a bit of the cart before the horse so to speak. hoping to get the exact steps ( A to Z ) for this detailed process before i attempt anything rash on my new Lenovo y580 , but thanks anyway.

[cheZ]

just in-case this may help someone else out , and since i was ...upon much asking of advice & researching , eventually quite successful , i thought i would detail my experience here ( note , this is essentially for those who are discarding Windows altogether , and will be setting up and running MINT 15 ONLY on a Lenovo y580 Laptop );
firstly , since i like many others was having difficulties getting a Mint Olivia Live CD / DVD to boot on my new Lenovo y580 ( which was running Windows 7 ) , i wasted 4 dvds and none seem to work for whatever reason ...so this is what i ended up doing to finally get Mint 15 installed.
First thing to do on a Lenovo y580 running Windows 7 or 8 is to make sure that you DO NOT have the battery saver engaged in the Windows / Lenovo Power Management settings ; this will create battery problems in Linux as this setting is part of the Lenovo utilities and once it is set it becomes impossible to re-set it once Linux Mint is installed , so make sure to turn off battery saver in Windows /Lenovo Power Management so that you can then completely charge the Lenovo y580 battery to a full 100 percent before installing Linux Mint.
On my new Lenovo y580 using Windows 7 that came pre-installed , i downloaded the latest Mint 15 Olivia iso ( Cinnamon 64bit with all codecs ) onto the Windows 7 desktop. i inserted an empty 4gb USB Flash Drive ( formatted in Fat32 ) into the y580 , then ( still using Windows 7 ) , i downloaded and installed Unetbootin onto Windows 7. running Unetbootin ( followed these instructions : [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxL68ewkdrw[/url] ) , i then burned/ copied a bootable Mint 15 onto the USB Flash Drive. then , i shut down y580 and removed the USB Flash Drive.
Next ; i restarted the Lenovo y580 , and , since the Lenovo y580 has both a main HD & an mSata drive for HDD cache , i ran 'RapidTool.exe' located on the Lenovo partition in the 'drivers\RapidDrive\Tools\' folder. (you need to do this if your y580 system came pre-installed with an mSATA. This tool will separate your mSATA SSD from your HDD so that they will be seen as two separate disks). Turn off notebook.
Then ( and this applies to swapping out / replacing the stock 1tb HDD & stock 32gb mSata ) , first un-plug & remove the battery of y580 , and then open bottom cover of Lenovo y580 by removing the two screws and sliding out the cover ( wear anti-static bracelet or touch a piece of metal to avoid any static charge when working inside the computer ). then , remove the stock mSata SSD ( sits alongside the stock HDD ; [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ7Oejv920I[/url] ) by unscrewing the very small single screw and gently pulling out the mSata SSD card. (this of course only applies if your notebook came with a pre-installed mSATA, as mine did).
Next , install your new mSata SSD drive card ( in my case an Intel 256gb mSata )and make sure to put back the tiny single retainer screw that holds down the mSata ... it should sit flat once your replace the small screw after you have plugged the mSata card into the slot. Next ( this applies if you want , as i did , to install MINT 15 onto the mSata and to use as the main drive with OS ) , remove the stock 1tb HDD by removing 2 small retainer screws that hold the HDD caddy in place , then gently push the HDD away from it's leading contact edge where it is plugged in ( gently use / push a small screw-driver on the steel lip of the HDD caddy , you can see the small steel lip near front edge ; [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNi-die2GJs[/url] ) and , once the HDD is disengaged , completely remove / pull out the stock HDD from the laptop computer.
Close up the Lenovo ; Put back the bottom cover on Lenovo y580 by sliding it back into place and replacing the two screws. Turn Laptop over in it's correct normal sitting position & open the lid , do not power on yet. Then plug the USB Flash Drive ( with Live MINT 15 on it ) back into Lenovo y580. > at this point , MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE ONLINE via LAN with an Ethernet cable plugged into the Laptop. Now , turn on notebook and go straight into BIOS ( by pressing F2 key once you see the Lenovo logo screen). Once in the BIOS, go to the Boot menu and disable UEFI. Save these settings in BIOS ( press F10 key ) , and reboot the laptop.
Now , you should see the GRUB for Mint upon re-boot , or quite possibly you might even boot directly into the Live Mint desktop environment ( my Lenovo y580 booted into the GRUB first , and then i simply followed thru ; click Start Linux Mint , to go to the Live Mint environment ). if you do not get the same thing ( if you only get the Lenovo Logo Screen ) then chances are that you have to go into the boot selection menu by pressing F12 key ( upon seeing the Lenovo Logo screen ). If the Mint Live desktop environment doesn't show up upon re-boot , then power down the laptop , re-insert the USB Flash Drive ( make sure USB drive is seated properly in USB slot ) , make sure you are online via a plugged in Ethernet cable , then power the y580 Laptop back on , and press F12 on the logo screen. Make the appropriate selection in the Boot Selection Menu ( choose USB to boot from ) & save ( F10 ) , and the system should boot into MINT Live desktop environment from the USB Flash Drive. once there , you can begin the install of Linux Mint 15 by clicking on the icon " Install Mint ". Since there is only the mSata Drive installed now in the y580 , there is no need to choose the install disk , it will install there by default.
Once you have done the complete Mint 15 install ( and all updates ) , you can ( as i did ) replace / install a storage drive into the now empty HDD bay inside the Lenovo y580 ( in my case i installed a Samsung SSD Pro 512gb ; [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNi-die2GJs[/url] ).
Since my install of Linux Mint was done Oct 1 2013 , i think i was the beneficiary of the now updated Olivia Mint 15 Kernel as most everything absolutely seems to work right out of the box , and upon initial install even bluetooth & wifi works. i will update this post further once i have had a chance to test everything a bit more including the graphics cards. thanks to all who were so helpful and offered great advice on the details of this install described above ~ cheZ

[orkultus]

Glad to see you got it all figured out and working correctly! Thumbs up to you!

-Orkultus-

[cheZ]

hi Chuck ~ thanks so much , frankly your advice and encouragement was invaluable and helped me immensely , if not for you and your most excellent Linux blog ( [url]http://orkultus.wordpress.com/[/url] ) , i probably would not have even attempted , let alone succeeded , with this project. a very sincere thank you , and i will be visiting your blog again shortly for tips on setting up Bumblebee related to the Nivida graphics card issues that may present itself on this particular Lenovo y580 Laptop. and i also want to sincerely thank another great forum member VKen , who was also enormously gracious and helpful as well with this project. thanks again to you both ! ~ cheZ

[titianmom]

CheZ,

Altho I don't have your interest in the SSD/HDD setup, I read through your instructions and felt that they were very clear. Nice job.

My question: Just out of curiousity, did your lenovo, a Multi-media laptop, have anything in the BIOS about using a supervisor password under a menu called "SECURITY"? Did your screen menu actually say "BOOT" vs "STARTUP"?

I'm guessing yours has nothing about setting up a security password for a supervisor, since it isn't a business-class machine. If not, then that confirms a suspicion of mine. I have a T530 and my screens under BIOS (or EFI or whatever its called these days) I suspect are quite different than yours.

To "DISABLE" EFI would be to turn on the use of a Supervisor password to keep regular users from making changes to EFI, and its under SECURITY screen.

Under my STARTUP (probably your BOOT menu?), that is where we can change EFI to LEGACY, BOTH or EFI ONLY. It doesn't say "DISABLE". It may be that mine was designed for Windows 8, although it came with Windows 7 installed. And the BIOS firmware, I suspect, may be a bit different in mine than in yours?

This knowledge might help someone else out with a Business class machine from Lenovo, since most of the ones I've been reading about for dual booting with Linux on Lenovo (newer machines) have all been the consumer-class machines (Ideapads, mostly).

Thanks! Kim

[cheZ]

hi Kim ~ thanks , glad that the instructions that i detailed are clear , i tired to make an extra effort so that someone new to the process could easily understand as there is so much confusing info out there. as far as your suspicions , i think you are absolutely correct , the BIOS is quite possibly different on your machine it seems. There was no security password required on mine i guess , but there is a menu in BIOS for Security , although i simply bypassed it ...as to my knowledge , there was no security password for my machine ever present as i was the original purchaser and never set anything up in that regard ...so i simply assumed that it was not necessary to fiddle with that setting. my screen did say " Startup " ( not boot ). also to disable UEFI in the y580 was very straight-forward , as i had mentioned it was simply a matter of going into the F12 boot menu , and it was right there plain as day ( to disable or enable ). from all that i have read and researched , the equivalent for you would be to change the EFI to " legacy ". i do know that there was mentioned a possible BIOS firmware update for my particular y580 machine that was available ( i saw reference made to it on the Lenovo Forums ) , but frankly when i came across that info , i chose to not bother to even try to install it as my fear was that it may complicate the install process for MINT ( they seem to be changing much in the way of UEFI & etc ). my machine did come with Windows 7 pre-installed if that is any indication of the type of BIOS firmware that it came with from the factory ( probably an older firmware i imagine ) , and the dealer i purchased this machine from mentioned that there was also a free upgrade to Windows 8 if i wanted it , but again , since i don't use Windows on my own personal machines , i didn't bother. sounds like you are right about the differences here with these different model Lenovo laptops , and i hope that your information will enable someone with those specific issues to overcome any difficulty with their own particular attempt at installing Linux Mint , as it works great on the y580 and i am quite happy i was able to get Mint running on my laptop. all the best to you , and please let me know if you have any other questions , im happy to help out if i can ! ~ cheZ

[titianmom]

As I suspected, yours is obviously different, with fewer screens/menus.

The price you pay for getting a business-class machine, one that they expect to sell to companies and businessmen and women who couldn't care less about loading a new OS, for the most part. I simply wanted one that would last me for several years and would survive me travels. Hmmm.....

I plan to install tonight, wish me well. Kim

[cheZ]

hi Kim ~ yes , i agree , these companies never make things easy for the customers who pay the premium prices for tech hardware that sadly ends up obsolete and on the scrap heap all the more faster with each passing year. i have my fingers crossed for you , wishing you all the best for sure !