I have been installing Unix/Linux as dual boot with Windows for 30 years
without problem but I am struggling with my first attempt to install on
a Lenovo Thinkpad E570 laptop with a UEFI BIOS. I am using Rufus to
format a USB memory stick with the following parameters:

Boot selection: Debian 1150-i386-netinst.iso
Partition scheme: GPT
Target system: UEFI (non CSM)
File system: FAT32
Cluster size: 4096

Rufus runs and creates what seems like a reasonable image. But when i
reboot and try and boot from the USB stick there is a brief flash of the
LED on the drive and the boot menu returns to the the default Windows
boot device. I have googled looking for similar problems and tried
turning off Secure Boot but I am getting nowhere. I have also looked at
quite a number of YouTube videos and tried a couple of USB memory
sticks. At the moment I am completely out of ideas. Any suggestions on
what I am doing wrong or where would be a better place to ask the
question? I am trying to install a 32bit version of Debian alongside a
64 bit version of Windows; could this be a problem?

--
Martin Liddle,
Staveley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire UK

Am 21.11.2022 um 17:33:10 Uhr schrieb Martin Liddle:

> I have been installing Unix/Linux as dual boot with Windows for 30
> years without problem but I am struggling with my first attempt to
> install on a Lenovo Thinkpad E570 laptop with a UEFI BIOS.

Go to the UEFI and set the boot mechanism to "UEFI only". Disable
Fastboot.

> I am using Rufus to format a USB memory stick with the following
> parameters:

Don't use Rufus, only write the original ISO image to the flash disk.

Boot into Windows, disable Fastboot and Hibernate.
If you don't have a free partition, shrink the windows partition, so
you have enough free unpartitioned space on the disk.

Then boot the Debian flash disk and do the partitioning.

On 22/11/2022 07:28, Marco Moock wrote:
> Am 21.11.2022 um 17:33:10 Uhr schrieb Martin Liddle:
>
>> I have been installing Unix/Linux as dual boot with Windows for 30
>> years without problem but I am struggling with my first attempt to
>> install on a Lenovo Thinkpad E570 laptop with a UEFI BIOS.
>
> Go to the UEFI and set the boot mechanism to "UEFI only". Disable
> Fastboot.
>
Thank you for your response. Boot mechanism is "UEFI only". I can't
find a Fastboot setting in the BIOS but there is a setting to disable
fast-startup in Power Options and I have turned that off.
>> I am using Rufus to format a USB memory stick with the following
>> parameters:
>
> Don't use Rufus, only write the original ISO image to the flash disk.
>
In Linux I have copied the ISO to the flash drive.

cp debian-11.5.0-i386-netinst.iso /dev/sdb

> Boot into Windows, disable Fastboot and Hibernate.
> If you don't have a free partition, shrink the windows partition, so
> you have enough free unpartitioned space on the disk.
>
As I have said previously I have done this lots of times on non UEFI
hardware and had already made space available.

> Then boot the Debian flash disk and do the partitioning.
>
Sadly the Debian flash drive still won't boot. There is a setting in
the BIOS to enable or disable USB UEFI BIOS support; enabled seemed to
be sensible but I have tried with it disabled. The complete lack of any
output when it fails to boot is making it very difficult to diagnose
what is going on. As I can't find anything relevant via googling I am
clearly doing something stupid but have no clue as to what that is.

--
Martin Liddle,
Staveley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire UK

Hi Martin!

In article <tlgcom$3pqmj$1@dont-email.me>,
Martin Liddle <news15@tynecomp.co.uk> wrote:
>I have been installing Unix/Linux as dual boot with Windows for 30 years
>without problem but I am struggling with my first attempt to install on
>a Lenovo Thinkpad E570 laptop with a UEFI BIOS. I am using Rufus to
>format a USB memory stick with the following parameters:
>
>Boot selection: Debian 1150-i386-netinst.iso
>Partition scheme: GPT
>Target system: UEFI (non CSM)
>File system: FAT32
>Cluster size: 4096
>
>Rufus runs and creates what seems like a reasonable image. But when i
>reboot and try and boot from the USB stick there is a brief flash of the
>LED on the drive and the boot menu returns to the the default Windows
>boot device. I have googled looking for similar problems and tried
>turning off Secure Boot but I am getting nowhere. I have also looked at
>quite a number of YouTube videos and tried a couple of USB memory
>sticks. At the moment I am completely out of ideas. Any suggestions on
>what I am doing wrong or where would be a better place to ask the
>question? I am trying to install a 32bit version of Debian alongside a
>64 bit version of Windows; could this be a problem?

That's exactly your problem. When booting via UEFI, the firmware will
only ever boot an image using a matching architecture/size. As your
system is using a 64-bit UEFI implementation, it won't boot a 32-bit
image. You'll need to grab the amd64 netinst instead.

Steve (the Debian guy who made those images)

--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK
steve@einval.com https://www.einval.com/~steve/

Am 22.11.2022 um 16:42:27 Uhr schrieb Martin Liddle:

> In Linux I have copied the ISO to the flash drive.
>
> cp debian-11.5.0-i386-netinst.iso /dev/sdb

You need to use dd to do that.

dd if=debian-11.5.0-i386-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdb status=progress bs=4M

On 22/11/2022 17:46, Steve McIntyre wrote:
>
> That's exactly your problem. When booting via UEFI, the firmware will
> only ever boot an image using a matching architecture/size. As your
> system is using a 64-bit UEFI implementation, it won't boot a 32-bit
> image. You'll need to grab the amd64 netinst instead.
>

Thank you, that is very helpful. However I do have a good reason to run
a 32 bit version for the time being. I have finally discovered a BIOS
setting that with secure boot off, allows me to give legacy devices
priority over UEFI; this has allowed me to do a basic 32 bit install
from a DVD drive with one issue; the grub installation failed. I have
reset the BIOS back to Secure boot and Windows stills boots. How would
I install grub in this situation (assuming that I can)?

--
Martin Liddle, Tynemouth Computer Services
Staveley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire UK

Am 22.11.2022 um 18:59:28 Uhr schrieb Martin Liddle:

> hank you, that is very helpful. However I do have a good reason to
> run a 32 bit version for the time being. I have finally discovered a
> BIOS setting that with secure boot off, allows me to give legacy
> devices priority over UEFI; this has allowed me to do a basic 32 bit
> install from a DVD drive with one issue; the grub installation
> failed. I have reset the BIOS back to Secure boot and Windows stills
> boots. How would I install grub in this situation (assuming that I
> can)?

i386/i686 and UEFI might be a problem. What is the exact reason for
using i386 in 2022 on a machine with UEFI that has a amd64 compatible
cpu.