“As for the firmware, if it is like mine I can flash it with a usb stick from BIOS” - Not sure what you’re referring to, are you talking about the BIOS updates, or installing Fedora?
What is “the LiveFS” ?
“I would go ahead with the install without doing any windows related stuff since if you come to the conclusion you want Windows re-installed it is fairly easy to do.” - Yes I understand that, the dilemma is due to the fact I would only ever want to install WIndows in a VM with VirtualBox. So I’d need the key, I believe.
Thanks
The LiveUSB mounts a live filesystem that is pretty much ephemeral so doesn’t exist after shutdown. There is a way to create a live usb with persistence which is generally employed by people wanting to have a mobile home to use on any compatible system. But that would be for advanced topics.
So you can boot up with the liveUSB installer like you have already done, then using the command @favonius gave you above
That will produce the command at the terminal output. If you want it to make a file named winkeys.txt for instance you would do sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables.MSDM >> winkeys.txt to pipe the output of the command (a string of characters) to a file.
This can be done after installing Fedora as well since this is read only data mounted after boot of the system, that is read from the memory of your BIOS.
Then at VM creation time with the appropriate Win installer you should be able to activate it via inputting those keys, though it would really depend on the licensing scheme used by your OEM installation. With my Lenovos in all cases when I first got them I ran the system backup which was (before anyways) the first step they wanted you to do. The license (I have) is also an electronic one which relies on a key (on the one I bought from Lenovo direct) and on a file in BIOS on the other I bought from a Lenovo reseller.
[Edit]: From the POV of making sure and cautiously verifying steps, you should first boot off the Live USB, copy your keys like @favonius notes, then run up a boxes VM of a Windows install to see if you can install Windows that way. I have mixed success with Windows in Boxes, better in Virt-Manager where control is more fine grained.
Well, I guess there is no single point of contact to find all issues and solutions related to your HW. I normally start with internet search using my HW and SW related keywords, adding few words describing my issue and/or adding at least part of error messages I get. This search might end up in Linux distro forums (e.g., quite often Arch Linux forums get best hits, or Fedora, Ubuntu), sometime in HW vendor forums (e.g., Lenovo, HP, etc), or communities of related stack/technology/app (e.g., PipeWire, OpenVPN, systemd-homed and so on depending on issue). If I cannot find a solution, I rephrase my search adding some new hints I found in my first search results, trying to make my search more specific. In most cases it helps. If that is not sufficient, I ask questions in those OS/HW/stack/technology/app related communities. There I get either help or new hints where to search further.
It is always better to ask questions, provide details as FOSS community is keen to help, even if you ask wrong question in wrong place. Be open to learn and be ready to do your homework while the community is trying to help you
Thanks, good advice and I do follow that process most of the time. I just wondered if there might be some sort of program I can install and run to display my hardware and report if it’s working or not. I don’t even know how to see a list of my hardware! I know it must be possible so I am digging on that already!
For hardware issues reporting to the kernel there is a tool installable on Fedora … Linux Hardware Database … https://linux-hardware.org/ it is available as flatpak and when you run it the results get posted anon to their website, I have a few there.
[Edit] : and the script @arturasb mentions above.
(Actually I see it can be done just with : sudo -E hw-probe -all -upload)
Will do that and see what it looks like.
Getting a bit concerned I may have to return this machine before the return window closes, VERY reluctantly I might add, as it’s gorgeous (first time in a long time I’ve touched a machine less than 10 yrs old!).
Audio levels are very low and doesn’t seem fixable. Also I don’t get the touch screen gestures (volume/brightness), not even in VLC which I think supports it natively inside their app. Bummer if I have to send it back
Not certain yet though, grateful for the help here.
That is a good attitude since this way you understand exactly what is to be expected before executing the command.
The strings command is part of the binutils package in fedora. Is that installed?
Did fedora offer to install a package for you when the command failed? dnf list installed binutils should tell you if that package is installed and if it is then the command should work. If not installed then sudo dnf install binutils should provide the command for you.
This would be reason enough for me to return the device. If you are just getting started and you already have storage issues it does not bode well for the future. Although if running from the live media before installing you are restricted to the amount of ram you have for file system size so storage may not really be the problem.
This is what I was referring to as possibly daunting. If your laptop is like mine, Lenovo do not provide BIOS updates other than those that are MSWindows executables. The Lenovo System Updater is also a MSWindows application.
For this along with a few other reasons, I chose the option of dual-booting Windows and Fedora. I’ve had no problems other than very early on there was an issue that returning from suspend failed and required a hard reboot. That has not been an issue for well over two years. I boot Windows on it two or three times a year, mostly to keep Windows itself updated.
@arturasb Has given one possible way to avoid even that if your only reason for dual booting is worrying about being able to update your BIOS. I will say, that these updates are not very frequent. You might expect no more than a few in the lifetime of your laptop.
There is an option to boot a windows environment from USB for bios updates or recovery.
Hirens boot cd has worked well for me and can be placed on a usb by itself or on a ventoy usb for booting. https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
This would leave you free to overwrite windows with fedora, do updates as needed, and still be able to update the bios even if it is only available in a windows exe format.
This is a great option to know about. Thanks, @computersavvy!
Even given this, however, there will always be details to work out with making the update exe available to this booted OS. I’d take care to have this completely sorted out before I made a decision on how to configure things.
That being the case, since BIOS updates will almost certainly be few in number and so infrequent, that aspect probably shouldn’t be a bigger factor than it truly needs to be.
Thanks John. I actually found a video showing how I THINK I may be able to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N69ZiC98i5w
I have another laptop with windows on at the moment. I could downloaded the EXE from Lenovo (bios updater), Extract it on that windows machine, create a bootable USB with the files, then boot to that on the Lenovo. I THINK that might work! Famous last words…
PS - I notice SecureBoot is turned on, on the Lenovo. Would I need to turn that off before I can boot from USB? I read that this is the case, but I just remembered I booted it from a Fedora LiveUSB so apparently not!
In most cases no.
As you see fedora boots quite easily with secure boot. Only if you need 3rd party package to support certain things you are doing or specific hardware does secure boot normally become an issue.
