Success! I'm writing to you from the laptop in Ubuntu via wifi. I read over the link you gave me. The information was good quality and helped me understand. Thank you for that and for your patience in my efforts to grasp this.
I researched it and found out what it was. Turns out we can thank Lenovo's sheer genius EFI boot system that's designed to make it difficult to install any operating system other than the one the laptop came with. I'm kicking myself for not suspecting this before. Lenovo has a dirty little history of making their laptops difficult in this way. They're marketed toward people who don't tinker like we do. They're for the general public, in other words, people who just use what came on their PC, maybe adding some applications, and who have no desire to understand much about it. I usually have a policy of only buying "No OS" PCs and then installing what I want. I do that to avoid all that crapware manufacturers muck up systems with. Sticking to that policy would have served me well this time. But this laptop was available as a steal and I scooped it up.
Turns out there's a guy who's been through all this with the exact same Lenovo that I have. He was good enough to provide instructions to the public for solving the problem: http://jacobfogg.blogspot.com/2012/0...novo-z570.html
He had spent hours upon hours jumping through tech hoops to make Ubuntu work. I'm grateful he's documented his solutions and will write him to tell him. I didn't know it, but wifi hassles awaited me after I got Ubuntu to work. He documented those, allowing me to get online wirelessly without the same hassles he went through.
Now I have a decision to make. I could do one of these three things:
1. Find the commands to migrate Ubuntu over to Kubuntu
2. Install Kubuntu as an additional distro, giving me the choice of Win 7, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu at boot
3. Wipe out this Ubuntu install and install Kubuntu in its place.
I'll take some time and decide, but I'm leaning toward #2. I could do that and always wipe out an install later if I decide I don't like one of the distros. I do like Kubuntu's layout, look, and organization best.
I like the Linux/GNU software community. A plethora of volunteers create all the great stuff, people use it, and they give back. I see you've been giving back by helping people on the forum. Jacob Fogg gave back via his blog that was a God-send for me. I intend to give back also. I want to write LibreOffice Writer plug-ins for English-speaking people who (like I do) also write in French and German. I have a utility working on my PC and need to learn how to distribute it. I've already started my research on the LibreOffice forum. That's one of my many reasons for installing *buntu. Another big reason is Windows 8. I'm never, never, never using that awful operating system if I can help it. But don't get me started on my grievances against Microsoft or you'll have a whole dissertation on your hands.
I used ghosting with Windows operating systems precisely because of what you talked about. Tinkering to fix a problem was more trouble than it was worth. On my desktop, I have an internal physical hard drive just for ghost images. I disconnect it when not in use. About once a month, I reconnect it and create a full ghost image. If something gets buggy, I just reconnect the drive and restore. This also allows me to investigate dangerous web sites like those ones that install rogue anti-visuses/ ransomware. I used to work for a company that fixed computers trashed by viruses, especially ransomware ones. I saw hijacked PCs all the time. It was appalling.
All right. I've strayed from the topic. Thanks once again for your help. I'm going to go enjoy my 4th. Soon I'll be making my choice on how to install Kubuntu.
Edit: There is one other distro that intrigues me -- Puppy Linux. Maybe I'll add that to the Grub que. That one is so light on system resources, you can boot it and run it quickly from a flash drive.
Originally posted by oshunluvr
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Turns out there's a guy who's been through all this with the exact same Lenovo that I have. He was good enough to provide instructions to the public for solving the problem: http://jacobfogg.blogspot.com/2012/0...novo-z570.html
He had spent hours upon hours jumping through tech hoops to make Ubuntu work. I'm grateful he's documented his solutions and will write him to tell him. I didn't know it, but wifi hassles awaited me after I got Ubuntu to work. He documented those, allowing me to get online wirelessly without the same hassles he went through.
Now I have a decision to make. I could do one of these three things:
1. Find the commands to migrate Ubuntu over to Kubuntu
2. Install Kubuntu as an additional distro, giving me the choice of Win 7, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu at boot
3. Wipe out this Ubuntu install and install Kubuntu in its place.
I'll take some time and decide, but I'm leaning toward #2. I could do that and always wipe out an install later if I decide I don't like one of the distros. I do like Kubuntu's layout, look, and organization best.
I like the Linux/GNU software community. A plethora of volunteers create all the great stuff, people use it, and they give back. I see you've been giving back by helping people on the forum. Jacob Fogg gave back via his blog that was a God-send for me. I intend to give back also. I want to write LibreOffice Writer plug-ins for English-speaking people who (like I do) also write in French and German. I have a utility working on my PC and need to learn how to distribute it. I've already started my research on the LibreOffice forum. That's one of my many reasons for installing *buntu. Another big reason is Windows 8. I'm never, never, never using that awful operating system if I can help it. But don't get me started on my grievances against Microsoft or you'll have a whole dissertation on your hands.
I used ghosting with Windows operating systems precisely because of what you talked about. Tinkering to fix a problem was more trouble than it was worth. On my desktop, I have an internal physical hard drive just for ghost images. I disconnect it when not in use. About once a month, I reconnect it and create a full ghost image. If something gets buggy, I just reconnect the drive and restore. This also allows me to investigate dangerous web sites like those ones that install rogue anti-visuses/ ransomware. I used to work for a company that fixed computers trashed by viruses, especially ransomware ones. I saw hijacked PCs all the time. It was appalling.
All right. I've strayed from the topic. Thanks once again for your help. I'm going to go enjoy my 4th. Soon I'll be making my choice on how to install Kubuntu.
Edit: There is one other distro that intrigues me -- Puppy Linux. Maybe I'll add that to the Grub que. That one is so light on system resources, you can boot it and run it quickly from a flash drive.
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