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Re: Problem installing Debian on Dell XPS 13 9360 laptop





On 08/02/2021 17:03, Lou Poppler wrote:
On Mon, 2021-02-08 at 11:46 +0000, Bernard McNeill wrote:

On 07/02/2021 22:26, Lou Poppler wrote:
On Sun, 2021-02-07 at 15:14 -0700, Lou Poppler wrote:
On Sun, 2021-02-07 at 20:44 +0000, Bernard McNeill wrote:

[...]
Trial-1. Reboot, no attempt to use F12.
      Boots directly into Windows.


[...]
See install manual https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

Also worth asking:
. Is the machine booting in BIOS mode or UEFI mode, with or without
   "Secure Boot"?  Was the machine booting in that same mode during your
   debian installation?
. Are the "disks" involved both/all partitioned in the same schema --
    i.e.  GPT partitions or MBR partitions?

I forgot when writing the above, but another important question is whether you
have already disabled the Windows Fast Startup option in Windows 10.  This is
mandatory, and things will work differently depending on whether it is disabled
already or not. See section 3.6.4 of the install manual.


Fast startup was _not_ disabled - I thought (from install manual) only
applicable to Win-8, and this machine Win-10.
It is disabled now.

Good.  This is updated in the new version of the install manual, thanks to
Holger Wansing.
(see https://www.debian.org/releases/testing/amd64/ch03s06.en.html )

In the same spirit, found a 'Fastboot' option in BIOS: It was set to
'Minimal', it is now set to 'Thorough'.

UEFI mode, Secure Boot always set.

Nothing much has changed, except that reboot now offers opportunity to
skip a disk check (not taken).

I am nervous that not disabling 'Fast startup' might have messed up
process from beginning - I may repeat entire installation.

Yes worth a re-do.  Pay attention to section 6.3.7 of the install manual, about
getting the grub boot loader installed (onto your removable disk).

+++  Are the "disks" involved both/all partitioned in the same schema --
+++  i.e.  GPT partitions or MBR partitions?
I have partitioned nothing on the laptop's SSD (and don't really want to
- the idea of the external USB HDD for Debian was to make that drive a
sandbox - no possible corruption of other work under Win-10).
The external USB HDD was partitioned by the debian_installer (Guided
total disk).

This should be OK.  You said above UEFI/Secure-boot always set, which implies
that all the disks should be setup as GPT style.

FWIW I sense that in some way the 'Debian' option in the boot list
points to Win-10 on the SSD, rather than the Debian on the external HDD.
If it pointed to rubbish surely the machine would simply hang.

Best regards



I was planning the re-install, and came across this page:
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Dell/Dell_XPS_13_9360

It says to 'Change the SATA from RAID On to AHCI, without this change Linux will not find SSD'. Questions: 1. To me, SATA is a reference to HDD, no internal HDD on my copy of this model - so not relevant ?
           2. I don't care if Linux just 'finds' the SSD.
But I care very greatly about Linux _disturbing_ the contents of the SSD - I consider this Win-10's domain.
              Do I need to worry about this?

In passing, I note the same link shows a need to disable Secure Boot - is this now obsolete?

Best regards


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