Installing on ACER Aspire 5

WetGeek

Brucehankins Wouldn't having only the drive with Solus installed bypass the need for the boot target menu?

Either that, or it would simply display a "No bootable drive found" error message," depending on the details of its method of being locked down.

WetGeek

kuki you need to change the disk organization in the [SATA] grouping to AHCI

Kuki, when I followed those directions, apparently nothing happened. But it actually did. I was looking for a [SATA] setting to appear, and didn't notice that a [VMD] setting had done so.

Someone from the ACER forum told me about that, and it turned out to be the solution. It's an Intel protocol that needs to be disabled in order for drives that are NOT the primary Windows drive to be listed in the boot options page, and to be exposed to OSs other than Windows.

FINALLY I was able to get Solus installed on that 500GB drive, make it the first entry in the boot order, and successfully booted into Budgie.

The only problem now is that Budgie can't access the WiFi radio. I've ordered a dongle from Amazon, and with any luck I'll be able to update that machine tomorrow. Hoping it will work with our current kernel. The item description says it works with Linux kernel up to 4.4.3, but I'm hoping that's just old advertising data.

Why ACER feels it's necessary to hide that setting and require a secret keypress to expose it is beyone me!

tomscharbach

WetGeek It's an Intel protocol that needs to be disabled in order for drives that are NOT the primary Windows drive to be listed in the boot options page, and to be exposed to OSs other than Windows.

That is very interesting. VDM (not to be confused with Intel Rapid Storage Technology, which is the RAID Windows computer users see in the BIOS of modern Windows computers) has been around for several years and is a tool for enterprise-level computers facilitating hot swaps in RAID arrays. I wonder what in the world Acer was thinking enabling VDM in a consumer laptop.

As a side note, RAID doesn't necessarily interfere with Linux installation on Windows computers. Although Solus recommends using AHCI "if you cannot see your SSD drive", I've never personally had a problem with RAID. Each of my dual-drive dual-boot computers is set to RAID rather than AHCI.

WetGeek

tomscharbach I wonder what in the world Acer was thinking enabling VDM in a consumer laptop.

I'm sure that ACER engineers felt they had good reason to do that, and I don't mind that they did. What ground my gears was that they made it hidden. First I had to figure out how to get to the firmware (press Ctrl+F2 before the splash screen appears), then selected the "Main" tab, then press Ctrl+S to make the VDM setting appear, then disable it, save and reboot. It took three days of research, and much of that depended on luck, and finding the right people to ask.

Here's what Intel says about it. I'm assuming that it may be used because the laptop in question has an NVMe drive for Windows, but also an empty bay for an additional 2.5" disk, which I used for the 500GB SSD I installed Solus on. My little ACER TravelMate laptop (that I bought years ago for motorcycle touring) has that same arrangement, but I had no such problem installing Solus there.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Here's what Intel says about it. I'm assuming that it may be used because the laptop in question has an NVMe drive for Windows, but also an empty bay for an additional 2.5" disk, which I used for the 500GB SSD I installed Solus on. My little ACER TravelMate laptop (that I bought years ago for motorcycle touring) has that same arrangement, but I had no such problem installing Solus there.

We both cited the same Intel document, which doesn't seem to offer a reason for deploying VMD in a consumer environment.

I can see the value of being able to hot swap NVMe drives in data center computers. I don't see the value of deploying VMD for the purpose of facilitating hot swapping in a consumer laptop, which has to be turned off and taken apart to swap drives.

But I'm sure that (as you say) "ACER engineers felt they had good reason to do that", possibly related to the way in which VMD interacts with HCI architecture.

In any event, your basic point -- Acer should not have hidden VMD or made it so incredible hard to disable -- is the critical point. Acer wasted a day of your time for no good reason.

WetGeek

tomscharbach Acer should not have hidden VMD or made it so incredible hard to disable

Perhaps it's the future of laptop compuging, and we're just seeing it first in thiis ACER? If so, I hope other manufacturers will document it properly, or there are gonna be a lot of users scratching their heads (and cussing).

tomscharbach

WetGeek Perhaps it's the future of laptop compuging, and we're just seeing it first in thiis ACER?

I wonder as well. NVMe is the current technology and OEM's will probably optimize it as best they can, including VMD/HCI if that has significant performance gains. As a side thought, it looks like SATA is a dying architecture, to be replaced by NVMe, just as ATA was replaced by SATA. My guess is that all SSDs (M.2 PCIe as well as 2.5") will be NVMe in a few years and SATA, while still functional in older computers, will no longer be used in newer computers. Your guess is as good as mine. I just don't know.

WetGeek If so, I hope other manufacturers will document it properly, or there are gonna be a lot of users scratching their heads (and cussing).

That's the key, it seems to me. Distros may need to document the VMD issue in installation instructions, as well, as most do with AHCI/RAID issues currently, if more OEM's start deploying VMD in consumer computers.

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