Boot from USB in Lenovo Yoga 720

[manojg]

Hi,

Does anybody able to boot Mint from USB in Lenovo Yoga 720? I tried, it goes to boot selector but blank screen after selecting the boot option and pressing enter.

Thanks.

[jimallyn]

You should do a search for that on your favorite search engine. I recall seeing several times that people were having trouble with the Yoga (along with a few choice words about Lenovo), but I don't remember where.

[michael louwe]

@ manojg.

The main problem is that many high-end OEM Ultrabooks since late 2016, like the Lenovo Yoga 720, have been preinstalled with Win 10 in fake-RAID disk mode using proprietary Intel RST which does not support Linux and MacOS. Owners need to go through hurdles to boot and install Linux, esp as a dual-boot alongside Win 10.
....... Please refer to ... https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Disc ... -p/3633251

[CliveMcCarthy]

My Lenovo Yoga 720 with a 4K screen just arrived. I've booted into the Bios from Windows (power off menu + shift) changed the Raid to AHCI. Rebooted with a USB loaded with Mint Mate 18.2 (Sonya) 64bit. The screen show a few Linux Grub pre-boot options (Grub 2.02 ~beta2-36ubuntu3.7) (why is Grub a Beta version?) but neither regular boot nor compatibility mode work. I always forget how troublesome bringing up a new type of machine can be.

I don't care about dual-boot at all. Could there be trouble with Nvidia and/or the dual graphics mode?

Help! Please...

From Wikipedia:
Known issues
Many users have discovered that a Linux operating system cannot be installed on many Yoga models including the 900 ISK2, 900 ISK for business and 710.[21][22] There has been much accusation and rumour in the computer press including unfounded claims that Lenovo have deliberately prevented Linux from being installed.[citation needed]The reason that Linux cannot be installed is that Lenovo have implemented the solid state drive (SSD) on these models in RAID mode rather than the more usual AHCI. RAID mode requires additional drivers from Intel that are provided with Windows (version 7 and later) but not currently provided with Linux.

Intel recommends that all new motherboards using Intel chips should be configured using RAID even for a single disc, since this avoids problems when upgrading an AHCI configuration to multiple RAID drives later. However, this reason alone is pointless on a laptop where a second disc cannot be installed. Intel also recommends that solid state discs be set up in RAID mode as it provides improved performance with their chips.[23] Lenovo have apparently followed this advice and have also removed the ability to change the mode back to AHCI in the UEFI setup utility. Although it is theoretically possible to change the mode to AHCI using a suitably programmed bootable USB stick, it is not wise to attempt it because the affected models check the UEFI configuration at startup and will detect the change and refuse to boot.

This inability to change to AHCI means that without RAID drivers, either in the system itself and on the installation media, Linux cannot be installed. Claims that this was a deliberate act on the part of Lenovo are unfounded and unproven because there in nothing to prevent the Linux community from writing their own RAID drivers.[citation needed]

Other products are equally affected. Windows 10 itself cannot be clean installed because the bootable installation media lack the RAID drivers (the installation would have them but it is the installer itself that lacks them). Rescue media built by the 'Backup and Restore' utility cannot restore the backed-up image to the SSD drive because it cannot see it. Even third-party disc imaging utilities such as Acronis True Image lack RAID drivers in the rescue media which are generally based on a Linux system. The RAID drivers can be injected into the boot image on USB stick rescue media (though not on DVD-based media).

In October 2016, Lenovo released 'LINUX only' versions of the BIOS for some of the affected machines. This BIOS adds the ability to switch the drive mode into AHCI. Lenovo state that these BIOSes should not be used for Windows operating systems but it is not clear why.[24]

[CliveMcCarthy]

I'm going to try installing Kali:
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Discussion/Install-linux-in-Lenovo-Yoga-720/td-p/3633251
or Ubuntu 17.04 which is also reported to boot.
And then see if I can install Mint 18.2

[CliveMcCarthy]

Nope. Ubuntu 17.04 exhibits the same problem as Mint 18.2 -- booting from USB stick presents a Grub menu but all goes blank when any option is selected

My Yoga 720 is the 15 inch model with a 4K UHD screen. Others, that have had success, have the 13 inch model with the 1080 HD screen.

[CliveMcCarthy]

I read this forum post https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122257 and tried some Grub menu editing. I added

Code: Select all

$vt_handoff nomodeset xforcevesa


but it made no difference. Is there a Grub expert out there that can advise me on options that might address my issue?

I also turned off the switchable graphics in the Bios so it is just UMA graphics, which means the Intel graphics on the i7.
It could be that 18.2 doesn't have a driver for either the Intel i7-7700HQ or the NVIDIA GTX 1050

[michael louwe]

@ Clive McCarthy,.......

For your Nvidia graphics card, please refer to the fix for 'Solving Freezes during booting' at ... https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sonya_cinnamon.php

Your Kabylake 7th gen processor requires Linux kernel 4.10 or higher and the disabling of Hyper-threading in BIOS setup. LM 18.2 only comes with kernel 4.8.

Are you trying to dual-boot Linux alongside Win 10 or single-boot Linux.?

[CliveMcCarthy]

I'm not trying for dual boot. I'm hard core Linux Mint Mate. There is no Bios option on the Lenovo to disable Hyperthreading. Since I can't boot into any version of Linux how would I go about making a bootable image with the 4.10 kernel?

You will see, from an earlier post of mine, that I tried nomodeset to no effect.

[CliveMcCarthy]

Since I'm bootless what does anyone think of this strategy:

Rip the 512GB SSD out of the Lenovo, install it on a pre-Kabylake i7-5820K and install Mint 18.2 then upgrade the kernel to 4.10 and install the Nvidia drivers if necessary. Then put the SSD back in the Lenovo. Boot and keep my fingers crossed.

Of course I don't know what card format the 512GB SSD has, though I now have a collection of SSD to SATA connector cards!

Hell! The Lenovo has got tiny Torx screws! What are these guys thinking.
The solution costs $9.00 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074JB8BBX/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My model is YOGA 720-15IKB

[CliveMcCarthy]

My saga continues:

I installed 18.2 on an i7-5820K's SSD then upgraded it's Kernel to 4.10 (easy) http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2017/02/install-kernel-4-10-ubuntu-linux-mint/ I also set up the Nvidia driver and sundry other things. I took the SSD, which has a SATA interface and connected it to a USB port on the Lenovo (I have a very handy SATA to USB adapter). I booted the Lenovo from that. It worked

I changed the Bios video choice back to 'switched' from UMA and now the Nvidia graphics works on the Lenvo. I was also able to trash all the Windows stuff so the Lenovo no longer tries to boot from it. Now, for some reason, the WiFi doesn't work! I can't get to any tools because the Lenovo has no wired network option. I shall put the 18.2 SSD back in the i7-5820K and see what can be done.

My Torx screwdriver set arrives Friday. Any help with a simpler solution would be most gratefully received

The WiFi is operational. I forgot to re-enable a Bios option. More good news: the Lenovo/Wacom pen works -- the drivers are already installed.

[michael louwe]

@ Clive McCarthy,.......

Glad to hear of your success.

Maybe, you should wait for LM 18.3(Oct 2017.?) or LM 19.0(to be released in May 2018), to install it on the internal hard-drive of your Lenovo Yoga 720 15ISK.

[CliveMcCarthy]

I was wondering about how others would fair because Kabylake CPUs are going to be common enough and people will get stuck with 18.2. I wanted the LTS of 18.2 and of course was impatient to get this Lenovo working (I'm writing on it now).

I suspect that the internal 512GB SSD will be in an M.2 format and I have a SATA adapter for that. I have a drive duplicator so I can slam the 60GB SSD I'm using onto the 512GB SSD. There remains the problem of how to get to the rest of the space on the 512GB SSD but I'm hoping that Gparted will figure things out and allow me to expand the partition. We shall see.

If not, then I start over with the 512GB SSD on the i7-5820K and build 18.2 + 4.10 over again. A drag but done once it can be done twice. It will be a different story if Lenovo has soldered the 512GB SSD on to the motherboard. I gather that there are options for that. They do sell YOGA machines with different size SSDs so I expect it to be socketed.

I have successfully copied my original 60GB SSD to a 120GB M.2 SSD with my disk duplicator then resized the principle ext partition to be able to use all of the memory. Thus, when I can open up the Lenovo and get to the 512GB SSD I should be able to do the same.

[CliveMcCarthy]

Not so fast

The mini-Torx screwdriver set allowed me to open up the Yoga 15 and the 512GB SSD was easy to remove. But then I discovered it has an M-key and my SATA to M.2 adapter has a B-key. All of the M.2 SSDs that I have used are M+B keyed and have not been a problem. I tried to boot the Yoga with a 120GB M+B keyed SSD but no luck. It looks like I'm stuck

I'm now looking for a SATA-to-M.2-M-keyed adapter, which may not exist.

What this means is that I'm stuck with an external USB-SATA-SSD boot drive until there is a Mint Live DVD with the 4.10 kernel on it. Is there some tool that would allow me to make a Live DVD from an installation? However, it too has an old Kernel.

The M.2 type-M SSDs have PCI-E interfaces and not SATA so it just can't work.

[bbaker6212]

Linuxium's ISO respin script allows you to create a custom Ubuntu ISO with the latest kernel. I don't know if it also can work with Mint. I'm guessing it may need to be modified. Ask him!

[CliveMcCarthy]

Linuxium's script worked. I was able to make an 18.2 ISO with a 4.10 kernel and the installation worked!

[CliveMcCarthy]

The respin ISO allowed me to install Mint on the Lenovo Yoga 720. The track pad doesn't work but everything else does. I have read that kernel 4.14 will have support for the track pad. I tried 4.14-rc5 which indeed fixed the track pad but it broke the WiFi and support for the Nvidia driver