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    GT80S: How to install Linux?

    Discussion in 'MSI' started by etcetera, Jul 11, 2017.

  1. etcetera

    etcetera Notebook Evangelist

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    My GT80S (Skylake) has 3xSSD slots and 1xHDD. I want to install Linux on the HDD 2.5" SATA III drive. How do I make it bootable and direct Linux to it?

    What bootloader do I use to give me a selection between the default 2280 M.2 SSD with Windows 10 and the alternative M.2 2280 mirror drive also with Win10 and the 3rd option that is Linux on the 1TB HDD that came with GT80?
     
    etcetera, Jul 11, 2017
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  2. etcetera

    etcetera Notebook Evangelist

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    The correct question is, how to make the 1TB HD 2.5" SATA III bootable?
     
    etcetera, Jul 12, 2017
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  3. superguy25

    superguy25 Notebook Evangelist

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    Why not just run it in a VM? There's plenty of free virtualization software (VMware, Virtual Box, etc) and you can use both the Windows and Linux environments simultaneously. And stuff just works in VMware these days ...
     
    superguy25, Jul 14, 2017
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  4. etcetera

    etcetera Notebook Evangelist

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    Interesting proposition.
     
    etcetera, Jul 16, 2017
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  5. DimitrisCSD

    DimitrisCSD Notebook Consultant

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    You can select which drive you want to boot from in the BIOS.

    Other than that, after installing Linux, you can get something like GRUB boot loader, which is going to ask you on startup which drive you want to boot from.
     
    DimitrisCSD, Jul 17, 2017
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  6. superguy25

    superguy25 Notebook Evangelist

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    VMware makes it quite easy. It's wizard based and the VM can be tailored to run a certain distro (Centos 7.x, Kali, Debian 8, etc). The nice thing is that there's really no performance penalty for virtualization these days since the hardware supports it quite well.

    We use Linux VMs on our security testing laptops and they work quite well. I also have a Kali VM on my GT60 (Ivy Bridge). Give it 2-4 cores and at least 8 GB of RAM, and that sucker flies. If you get VMware workstation pro (not free) or VirtualBox (free), it supports snapshots so if you're doing experimentation and you screw up, you can roll it back easily. Or play with multiple distros to see what you like.

    And of course, you can store the VM itself on any storage you like. So if you want to use the HDD instead of the SSD, just point it to the HDD.

    Best part is if you try it and don't like it, it's really easy to get rid of (just delete the VM files and uninstall the software).
     
    superguy25, Jul 17, 2017
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  7. etcetera

    etcetera Notebook Evangelist

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    Thanks for the reply, this sounds interesting.
     
    etcetera, Jul 16, 2018
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  8. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    From July 12th 2017...
    Interesting, so did you ever try to make the GT80S 2.5" SATA III bootable with Linux or Windows before today?
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2018
    hmscott, Nov 4, 2018
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  9. JeanLegi

    JeanLegi Notebook Evangelist

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    I know very old topic but as far as i know you can install for example ubuntu as an software and you get an boot choice when you start your system.
    i hope this is still the same thing like last year.
     
    JeanLegi, Nov 5, 2018
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  10. hmscott

    hmscott Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Thanks for the response. :)

    Actually I was searching NBR to help @etcetc with booting a clone of his M.2 PCIE drive onto his 2.5" drive, and it's not showing as an option to boot from in the BIOS Boot Options popup menu's.

    I found this older post and was essentially asking if he had booted from the 2.5" SATA 2 port before today, to see if it was a generic boot issue with that port vs another issue with the image.

    He hadn't tried booting from the 2.5" SATA 2 port before today, so I suggested a fresh OS install on a 2.5" drive to see if it would boot.

    We are working it out in DM's...
     
    hmscott, Nov 5, 2018
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  11. etcetera

    etcetera Notebook Evangelist

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    Could it be a driver issue, why the SATAIII 2.5" drive is not visible in the BIOS / boot menu?

    It's visible everywhere else.
     
    etcetera, Nov 13, 2018
    #11