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    Linux Mint Live USB fails to boot on Alienware 17 R4

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by ponx, Jun 16, 2017.

  1. ponx

    ponx Notebook Consultant

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    Hi,

    I've just taken delivery of a new AW17R4 and I'm trying to test out a live USB stick of Mint 18.2 beta.

    In legacy mode it starts to boot, then freezes after failing with a kernel panic.
    In UEFI mode it also starts to boot, but also freezes - I catch a flash of a message regarding 'nouveau', so perhaps it doesn't like the GTX 1070 card..?

    This is my first experience with UEFI/Win10, so I'm not sure if I've got some config wrong in BIOS or not...

    Anyone had any similar issue, got any ideas..?

    (I have disabled Windows fast-boot, and I'm using Mint 18.2 beta so it has the latest kernel, etc, as it's new hardware.)

    ponx
     
  2. Vasudev

    Vasudev Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Change SATA operation to AHCI and try again.
     
  3. ponx

    ponx Notebook Consultant

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    Got Mint 18.1 to boot up fine; problem must've been with 18.2 beta...
     
  4. leeloyd

    leeloyd Notebook Consultant

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    If you have Optimus, switching in Discreet GPU Only mod in Windows (Fn + F7) may help before Linux Mint's installation. Later you can switch back in Optimus mod in Windows, Linux once installed will be fine.