Not much of a windows 10 user but got a new laptop. Any tips?

[slitherjef]

I'm not much of a windows user anymore but unfortunately most of the stuff is made for windows or it's just easier to do some things with the OS. Came across a Lenovo yoga at the local best buy and decided to snag it to replace the very old i3 basically x86 raspberry pi with screen and keyboard netbook I had running Linux on.

I have yet to power the new laptop up because I'm not sure if I want to leave it as is with windows 10 home with it's included bloat or just blow out the install for some Linux hair pulling continuation (I'm definitely not good with Linux, I can kind of get by with it and do stuff but it's hair pulling at times). Was going to do this by replacing the nvme drive.

The installed drive is a little too small but workable with extra steps like offloading data between sessions and deleting.

Should I just leave the thing as it is and give windows a trial run? If so, any setup tips for someone who really hasn't used windows much in the past few years? Prefer to keep this thing offline as much as possible besides downloading a few needed drivers.

Or just order new drive and do what I'm used too and hope newer hardware will help my Linux experience?

Thoughts?

 

[maflynn]

I'm not sure what you're looking to do, you mention getting the Lenovo because most stuff is made for windows, but then you mention to install linux.

How big is the drive? You mention its a bit small

I can't speak for the Yoga, but my Thinkpad didn't really come with too much bloat, only their vantage app which is helpful (but not required). If that's all the bloat on the machine, then I'd leave it as is, for now and try it out. See how it works before you decide to install a new drive.

You really shouldn't need to download new drivers at this point and the Vantage app will help in that regard.

What apps are you looking to run?

 

[ScreenSavers]

I use the Yoga as my main laptop these days. I have the 15” with the 11th gen i5 and 256 GB SSD, and I’ve had it about 8 months. It surprisingly didn’t come with much bloat, and it runs very well. I disabled the startup items that are useless and uninstalled a few apps. It’s been great since then.

 

[slitherjef]

Drive is 256gb, a little small for astrophotography. Driver stuff is going to be for the CMOS cameras and ascom accessories.

Linux does work with this stuff but I've been having issues that I can't track down and I've actually wondered if I should just leave the new laptop as is at least for now and give windows a test drive.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Drive is 256gb, a little small for astrophotography. Driver stuff is going to be for the CMOS cameras and ascom accessories.

Linux does work with this stuff but I've been having issues that I can't track down and I've actually wondered if I should just leave the new laptop as is at least for now and give windows a test drive.

I would at least try it and see how it is. Mine is super snappy.

 

[mi7chy]

Is it the Yoga 6 8GB/256GB on sale for $550? Just leave it as is but remove the few bloat pieces like McAfee (revert to Windows Defender), Alexa, etc. You can run Linux off of USB stick with persistence. It's great bang for the buck that's fast booting with fast storage I/O, snappy performance, fanless for day to day stuff like browsing, long battery life, etc.

 

[slitherjef]

Is it the Yoga 6 8GB/256GB on sale for $550? Just leave it as is but remove the few bloat pieces like McAfee (revert to Windows Defender), Alexa, etc. You can run Linux off of USB stick with persistence. It's great bang for the buck that's fast booting with fast storage I/O, snappy performance, fanless for day to day stuff like browsing, long battery life, etc.

Yup that's the one. I haven't gotten any with it yet however.

 

[slitherjef]

Slow moving project here. Got a new drive installed, tried to get a Linux distro installed and I guess having some issues that might be due to the AMD Ryzen set up. Tried Manjaro that hung getting to the desktop, kubuntu gave some errors for iommu but gave me a desktop and I clicked try and iommu error and it just hung.

Ubuntu 20 actually loaded with the iommu error but didn't see the wifi card.

So, about done with it. Either shove the old drive back in which is probably the best idea and deal with the limited storage or leave new drive in and hope a fresh windows 10 install will work, guess I could test that before buying a windows license.

 

[SegNerd]

Couldn't you just clone the old drive to the new drive?

I know Windows Activation is finicky but if you are only using it on one drive, it should be doable. At worst, you might have to call MS and explain the situation.

 

[slitherjef]

Huh. Never thought of that. Only issue with that is it'll clone some of the bloat ware though it's minor. The thought of buying windows 10 pro also crossed my mind, (might be the time to do so if I'm going to do it...) doing this would give me a clean install I think provided there is nothing on the system UEFI mating it specifically to the included factory drive.

I don't buy many off the shelf computers.

I suppose I could just reinstall the factory drive and use it for a bit to see how it is, I can look into cloning things I got an external USB 3 m.2 enclosure laying around.

I think I've read some tidbits about something up with things with newer kernels and AMD. The missing wifi adapter is confusing and there is no Ethernet port on the machine.

Guess I'll sleep on things.

 

[sracer]

Yup that's the one. I haven't gotten any with it yet however.

I have the Yoga 6 too. I just swapped out the 256GB for a 1TB Samsung NVMe drive. I performed an "in place" clone of the drive (I also bought a USB-C NVMe enclosure to clone the drive) I'm keeping the original 256GB drive around but will pick up another 256GB for playing around with Linux.

I'll post my experiences when I have something to report.

The more I use this system the more I love it. I'm quite pleased with what I got for $550.

 

[slitherjef]

So, good news? A fresh download of the latest Manjaro 21 iso (previous one I had was out of date) it booted very quickly off the thumb drive. Do the desktop. But no wifi or network at all. It's blind to the wifi adapter. I pulled the back cover off (next time it'll probably be to reinstall the factory drive as I'm about over this, the hoops and work arounds and other garbage I need to do to get a functioning system is hair pulling) to make sure the card was seated and it was.

Card is either toast or just incompatible with Linux (Broadcom?).

Couple possible solutions?
Find another maybe more compatible card and hope it plays nice with system hardware and bios

USB Ethernet adapter which will eat up a port but it'd be used as an add needed basis I guess

Scrap the entire idea.

Welcome to a portless wireless reality I guess 🤦‍♂️

I checked into m.2 wifi cards, not horrible on pricing and seems like a quick swap but issues seem to be most cards are for Intel processors only and not for AMD

Really getting dejected here. Will check to see if wifi card is detected in the bios and get info on it. For AMD to be more open towards open source seems as of Intel is getting all the love. Might turn to Intel next build or purchase

Btw, if anyone has a suggestion on a compatible wifi card or at least USB wifi or even wired adapter I'm open to hear them

 

[slitherjef]

Read something else:
It's got a tpm firmware security chip integrated in it.

No matter what Linux iso I try, there is no network. Latest mint actually seen the x out wifi icon but nothing no connection it doesn't exist. No networking exist.

In the bios the wifi adapter is detected. I cannot find the make of the adapter anywhere.

About ready to give up. Right now I have no computer with this set up just a paperweight. No way right off to connect to the internet to see if I can get drivers but if the card is not detected by the OS, guess it's a moot point.

There are no hardware switch for wifi I can see on the device. It's either toast, locked out or unsupported with Linux.

Sigh

Another edit. Really thinking about just calling this and giving up. I did find it to be a realtek 8852 network card. That's it.

This has been a frustrating experience and shouldn't be this difficult. I've disabled pretty much everything I could relating to secure something or other in the bios.

 

[sracer]

I just downloaded Ubuntu 21.04 64-bit live stick and booted the Yoga 6 from the thumbdrive. WiFi works. Touchscreen works. Absolutely stunning.

 

[slitherjef]

I'll give it a go. Probably last ditch effort at that. I'm really surprised Manjaro didn't work. Have you found which network adapter your system uses?

 

[sracer]

I'll give it a go. Probably last ditch effort at that. I'm really surprised Manjaro didn't work. Have you found which network adapter your system uses?

No, I didn't check. I first tried a Peppermint 10 live stick which booted up and didn't recognize the wifi adapter. I searched around and found people using Linux on it with success so I figured that the latest distros would probably work... and it did.

Once I get another NVMe stick, I'll poke around to get Peppermint working on it... which looks like will require some work to get the wifi drivers installed.

 

[slitherjef]

Same thing. Under network nothing is there just VPN not set up and network proxy.

The card does not exist. I probably got an expensive paperweight. Unless there is a physical switch (unlikely) I think either the cars is toast or other issue. Under wifi no wifi adapter found...

 

[slitherjef]

I've tried pretty much everything I can think off even disabling fast start up, AMD virtualizing, extensions, tried legacy boot. Latest Ubuntu still no networking card exist which is really strange considering I believe the card also has the Bluetooth adapter built in! I could be wrong about this, the new m.2 wifi adapters I looked at appeared to include Bluetooth on the module.

I did have the thought perhaps because I straight pulled the stock m.2 drive out before it's first boot perhaps that broke something. Kind of stupid if it did. At this point I'm thinking of ordering a USB ethernet adapter.

Also at the point of just scrapping the whole thing, perhaps the laptop itself. I guess this is what I get for wanting to modify something.

 

[sracer]

Do you still have the original drive with the Win10 preload on it? If so, put that back in and boot it up. If the wifi adapter isn't working then it is possible that the network card is malfunctioning.

 

[slitherjef]

Yeah I got the stock drive. Was thinking about reinstalling and not wasting the more premium 1tb drive I was going to use.

I have this thought that the new network adapter was installed in purpose to keep people from installing Linux on these lower end machines and eat into the more premium ThinkPads that are actually certified for Linux directly from Lenovo. You know, make changing your os for less with more road blocks by using an adapter that doesn't play nice with Linux and needs work arounds. Also noted looking at new adapter cards most state windows and Intel only... Hmmm... 🤔 🤨

Just a tinfoil hat thought I guess.

Anyway I might grab a USB network adapter (wired) and perhaps try one of those incompatible cheapo adapters. I might also be at the point of just doing something else all together.

In the meantime thinking of installing the stock drive back in and maybe restore defaults in windows. Wonder if I can put the stock windows drive back in, install Linux onto a thumb drive and load the stock windows install in a VM...

 

[sracer]

Yeah I got the stock drive. Was thinking about reinstalling and not wasting the more premium 1tb drive I was going to use.

I have this thought that the new network adapter was installed in purpose to keep people from installing Linux on these lower end machines and eat into the more premium ThinkPads that are actually certified for Linux directly from Lenovo. You know, make changing your os for less with more road blocks by using an adapter that doesn't play nice with Linux and needs work arounds. Also noted looking at new adapter cards most state windows and Intel only... Hmmm... 🤔 🤨

Just a tinfoil hat thought I guess.

Anyway I might grab a USB network adapter (wired) and perhaps try one of those incompatible cheapo adapters. I might also be at the point of just doing something else all together.

In the meantime thinking of installing the stock drive back in and maybe restore defaults in windows. Wonder if I can put the stock windows drive back in, install Linux onto a thumb drive and load the stock windows install in a VM...

I think I disproved your tinfoil thought by the fact that I was able to boot up an Ubuntu live stick and get WiFi working. My Peppermint stick DIDN'T recognize the WiFi (but it also uses an older version of Debian/Lubuntu). That is pretty clear to me that it is an issue with the driver bundled with a particular distro.

I'm puzzled why you are focused on this idea of getting a USB network adapter BEFORE booting up the stock drive.

You said, "installing the stock drive back in and maybe restore defaults in Windows". Did you initially boot that original drive up with Windows? I thought you didn't ever boot the drive, but I could have misread what you wrote.

Given what you've written, it is more likely that you have a hardware defect with the WiFi card, but you wan't know for sure until you re-install the original drive with the original Windows 10 preload and see if WiFi works then.

 

[slitherjef]

I meant the default UEFI settings. This computer has never been booted in my hands with the stock drive. I've disabled secure boot and changed a few settings in the UEFI settings hence loading up defaults for it.

The USB adapter was just in case. I've read windows had some issues with this particular card also. And also going on the context I might have a defective network adapter or could need drivers for it to get it to work.

I mean Ubuntu found your wifi adapter (still not sure if you have the realtek adapter or Intel in your machine) my machine could have a later build date and slight hardware revision (ie the realtek adapter). Mine didn't. Could be a bad WiFi adapter, but I could get lspci to tell me it's a realtek adapter but not much else.

You're right however, probably be a good move to install the stock windows drive and check things out.

 

[cubeover]

Linux will eventually be lacking some crucial application or two.
In a couple of months there may be a Windows 11 (macOS Edition hehe] release, which you may find more suitable, aesthetically. I am a huge anti-fan of Windows 10 dumbed-down nokia-pc-suite kind of GUI, but no matter how many times i tried Ubuntu, since v9 actually, i found it barren and missing this or that. As a basic secondary computer may be OK.

 

[ScreenSavers]

I’ve been using Windows 11 on my Yoga for about a month. I’ve been very impressed with it to say the least.

 

[sracer]

I’ve been using Windows 11 on my Yoga for about a month. I’ve been very impressed with it to say the least.

That's good news. What differences have you noticed between Win 11 and 10 (other than the obvious UI changes)?