Category: laptops

Installing Ubuntu 16.04 on Lenovo Thinkpad T440p

Intended audience: Thinkpad owners who are considering Ubuntu 16.04.

We couldn’t get Ubuntu to install successfully in UEFI mode at all, never mind with Secure Boot. The installation would finish, we would reboot, and the computer wouldn’t find an OS. The only way around was to disable UEFI:

  • Go into the BIOS at boot time.
  • Startup → UEFI/legacy boot and choose legacy only.

Installing Ubuntu 16.04 on Dell XPS 9350

Intended audience: XPS owners who are considering Ubuntu 16.04.

BIOS/UEFI settings

Press F2 at POST.

  • Go into Settings → System configuration → SATA Operation and choose Disabled. This is required for the OS to even see the SSD.
  • I was able to set up Ubuntu 16.04 with Secure Boot enabled.

Quirks

  • For the USB-C/Thunderbolt network adaptor to work, it must be plugged in before boot and left plugged in. If you plug it in after boot, or unplug it and replug it after boot, the adaptor is not detected and nothing is shown in journalctl. The only workaround known to me is to reboot, as nothing in the BIOS seemed to affect this behaviour.
  • The SSD is listed as nvme0n1 and the partitions as nvme0n1p1 etc. nvme0 appears to be what the Linux kernel calls the disk controller.