uniq_

Install Debian 10 on Lenovo D330-10IGM

I recently helped setting up a cheap used Lenovo D330-10IGM. I realy like compact 10 inch notebook table convertibles like this. Too bad such machines always come with Windows 10 preinstalled. So I of course the first thing I'm going to do is installing my favourite operating system: Debian. This is quite a process and in case I'll need to retrace my steps I'm writing them down here:

  1. Prepare USB Flash-Drive with a Debian Installer
    • download debian installer iso, it's easiest to get an unofficial image with non-free drivers included (https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/). I prefer gnome, but it should work fairly similar with most desktop envirionments.
    • connect a big enough usb drive (the debian image i used required ~4GB)
    • flash it to a usb drive. eg on a debian system you can just run: sudo dd if=~/Downloads/debian-live-10.2.0-amd64-gnome+nonfree.iso of=/dev/yourusbdrive bs=8K
    • optional tip: once dd finishes run sync to wait for the OS to write buffered data to your flash drive
  2. Lets start by disabling Secure Boot and check that USB boot is enabled:
    • make sure your D330 is shut down
    • Press [Volume Up] + [Power] until the backlight comes on. This will bring the machine into UEFI mode.
    • click: BIOS Setup
    • click: Security (on the left side)
    • click: Secure Boot (you want this to be disabled)
    • click: Boot (on the left side)
    • check that USB Boot is set to enbaled
    • click: Save and Exit (lower right)
    • click: yes (to save changes)
  3. Install Debian (gnome):
    • make sure your D330 is shut down
    • plug your usb previously prepared drive in
    • Press [Volume Up] + [Power] until the backlight comes on. This will bring the machine into UEFI mode.
    • click: Boot Menu
    • click: Linpus lite (SanDisk) (I'm using a SanDisk Flash drive, this is probably labeled differently when you try.)
    • select to boot the live version in the bootloader (nevermind that the bootloader is flipped 90°, booting might also take a while)
    • once gnome booted click the activities hot-corner (right top in gnome)
    • click debian installer to start it (usually the first item dock on the left)
    • configure everything to your liking.
    • manual disk setup is currently required, I removed all existing windows partitions and set the partitions it up like this:
      • 1st partition - mount point: /boot, flags: legacy-boot, size: 200MB, fs: ext2
      • 2nd partition - mount point: /boot/efi, flags: boot, site: 55MB, fs: fat32
      • 3rd partition - mount point: /, flags: none, size: the rest of the avialable space, fs: ext4
      • (note: I didn't configure a swap partition because I want the eMMC to last as long as possible)

That's pretty much it. Everything important seems to be working. After waking up from power saving mode both the trackpad and keyboard are not working anymore. A simple workaround is to just disconnect the tablet and re-attach it, so I didn't look any further into this as of now.

written by uniq on 2020-01-13