12 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
12 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
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# Notes on installing Ubuntu on a Lenovo Q190 #
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*Aug 25, 2013*
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So I like running a full computer on my TV. It's just convenient to be able to easily to Youtube, torrent stuff directly on it, copy files to it over sftp, play any media file I can find, etc etc. Our last "tv box" was a small nettop that was a little under powered: it chocked on high def video files and full screen youtube. So I've been waiting for a replacement that fit the following parameters: cheap (less than $400), small nettop form factor and light on power consumption, and more powerful. The [Lenovo Q190](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/ideacentre/q-series/q190/index.html) hit the mark with dual core and 4gb ram. My only concern was it was a Windows 8 box so it'd be the first time installing Linux on a secure boot machine.
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The good news is it went really well. First note, the Windows 8 partition resizer may be the best thing about Windows 8. I remember being stoked when Windows got its own partition resizer back in Vista or Windows 7 days. The only slight con was that it was pretty hungry. If you were using only 20GB on a fresh install, it wouldn't shrink much lower than 60GB... But the new Windows 8 one is hilarious and will let you shrink down to 100% full. Also it's unbelievably fast, like I had to reload it to double check it had actually done the shrink.
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After that, rebooted the machine and jammed F1 (ok actually I jammed F1, F2, F8, F9, F10, F11, F12, and ESC) to bring up the "BIOS". There I turned off Secure boot in the security menu, and turned off Quick Boot. Then the USB stick booted Ubuntu fine. The install ran fine too. I did have to go back into the BIOS after to reorder the boot drives. Ubuntu manager to name its partition in a way the BIOS could recognize so I just moved that in priority above Windows 8 and next reboot got Grub!
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The device runs fine, all the high def files I could throw at it it ran fine and so far even full screen youtube on higher def seems to be ok.
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The box is supposed to have Wifi but that doesn't seem to have been recognized out of the box but that's ok, I can either poke at it or leave it plugged into ethernet, not a deal breaker. It also came with an adorable hand held keyboard/mouse device but it's bluetooth also doesn't seem to be supported. But it fulfils what I need well so I'm pleased and secureboot was less of a pain to work around than I'd worried about, so yeah!
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