Hope this is the right place to ask this kind of thing. If not…er, sorry.
I’ve got an old Toshiba laptop that I use all the time and dual boots Ubuntu (99% of the time) and Windows (the other 1% of things for which there is no Linux alternative). However, it is now getting a bit knackered, with keys falling off and mousepad buttons not working properly, so I thought it was time to get a new one. My first thought was just to go into Tescos or Argos, buy a cheap laptop, and install the latest Ubuntu. However, a quick bit of research tells me that, over the last few years, things have changed, and there are now devilish BIOS changes that can make it difficult/impossible to install Linux.
Can anyone please recommend a cheapo laptop (say under £350) that is known to be straightforward for installing a dual-boot Linux/Windows environment?
but it’d be better off with 8GB RAM (requires complete disassembly to add RAM)
Or if you want one with Ubuntu pre-installed (and you already have a Windows installation disk and valid license)
All I’m saying is recent HP’s (at least the ones with AMD CPU’s and graphics) seem to work well with Ubuntu/Mint/Peppermint, except for a small easy to apply tweak necessary to the rtl8723be wireless driver.
Thanks for the replies. Yes I’m looking for a laptop with Windows pre-installed (sorry I wasn’t clear about that). I don’t have a Windows installation disk: my old PC has got some version of Windows (Vista, possibly) on it, but no media. It seemed to me that the cheapest way to get a machine that would run both OSs was to buy one with Windows pre-installed and then add the Linux.
Thanks for your suggestions of machines that would fit the bill. I’ll look into those options. It sounds as though HP machines with the AMD chipsets are a reliable option. I’m quite happy to do some simple tweak to get the WiFi working, but I’m no Linux expert and don’t want to have to spend days researching fixes to a plethora of problems. I might be prepared to do that if I’d got an old laptop and wanted to try out Linux, but not when I’m contemplating a new one that will need to run Linux 99% of the time. Unfortunately there are just a few obscure things I do, for which there is no Linux equivalent to the software available for Windows, so it does need to run both.
Just an update on this. Following suggestions here, I bought an HP with the AMD chipset and Win 10 pre-installed. Installing Linux was pretty straightforward: I disabled Safe Boot and Fast Boot then just booted from an Ubuntu LiveCD (handily, there was one on the cover of the last Linux Format mag). Have answered the question that ‘yes, I would like to install Ubuntu alongside Windows’, the installer did pretty much everything. I then just had to use efibootmgr to change the UEFI boot order so that Grub was the first boot item. Everything seems to work OK out of the box: even the WiFi is working, although it seems a bit intermittent. I don’t know if that’sa problem or just something random that happened.
Great news, glad to hear your new HP isn’t giving you any problems (except possibly wireless stability which should be easy to fix)
The wireless stability issue is probably being caused by it having an rlt8723be adapter which requires a couple of driver options adding to stabilise it.
Run:
lsmod | grep rtl8723be
if in the list of returns you see “rtl8723be”
run:
sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf
then
echo "options rtl8723be fwlps=0 ips=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf
then REBOOT.
Wireless should now be much more stable.
if the lsmod command doesn’t return rtl8723be … instead run:
sudo lshw -C network
and
lspci -vnn | grep -i net
and post the output back here.
Have you switched to the proprietary AMD graphics drivers yet ?
I tried lsmod and it seems like it is not a rtl8723be. I the ran lshw and lspci – results posted below. It looks like its a Broadcom Wifi chip. I think I’ve read about all kinds of problems with those, so maybe this is not good news.
I haven’t installed any specific AMD graphics drivers but I dunno what the Ubuntu disk may have installed.
It is Ubuntu 15.10. It was just the version of Ubuntu that happened to be on the cover CD of Linux Format mag. I’ve no special attachment to it though.
The wireless signal icon shows a signal that varies up and down from almost nothing to full strength, even when I’m sitting within touching distance of the router. Then, every so often (maybe every hour or so) it loses signal completely. When this happens, it seems to have some difficulty reconnecting, and the wireless password pop-up box appears, although the correct password is in the box already.
So it is annoying, rather than disastrous.
Other wifi-connected devices in the house don’t suffer from the same symptoms, so I don’t think it’s the router.
Opting out of BT Fon is quite a drastic step because I find it a very useful service to be able to filch a bit of bandwith from other people’s routers when I’m out and about. So I’m really trying to understand the chain of logic that got us here. Am I right in thinking that:
lshw has told us that the pc has a Broadcom BCM43142 wifi chip;
dpkg has told us that Ubuntu has installed a bcmwl-kernel-source package, which is the right driver for the Broadcom chip;
lsmod tells us which modules are actually loaded in the kernel, which is presumably wl, and presumably that is the compiled version of bcmwl-kernel-source;
therefore I have got the correct driver for the chip;
Update: I’m wondering if I’ve been a complete numpty here! I just ran LinSSID and I can see someone else (probably my next door neighbour) is running a wireless router with a very healthy signal on the same channel as mine. They only moved in just before Christmas and I think they must have set this up in the last few days: I’ve certainly not had any wifi problems before (or at least not since BT fixed a router firmware update problem last year) and we had a houseful of family over Christmas, all using the wifi for various phones/tablets/PCs, and no-one complaining. So I think it could be one of those unhappy coincidences thatmake fault-finding so difficult (them putting in a new router about the same time as I bought a new laptop).
Anyway, I’ve changed channels to one that looks clear. I’ll see if that makes a difference! The signal icon still looks suspiciously low, though.
Many thanks for all your work on this and sorry if turns out to have been a wild goose chase.
Opting out of BTPHON is only at you router … it should not (as far as I’m aware) affect your ability to connect to other peoples BT routers, just their ability to connect to yours.
Your wireless is being confused by you having 2 distinctly separate networks with the same name so it keeps swapping (or attempting to swap) between them … it MAY however be possible to tell it to only use one of them … whether this will change anything I don’t know, but worth a shot
Right-click the networkmanager icon in the system tray
Select “Edit Connections”
Highlight your wireless profile, and click “Edit”
Select the “Wi-Fi” tab
set the BSSID drop menu to BSSID: CC:96:A0:0C:12:21
click the “Save” button.
Now log off/on … or disconnect wireless and reconnect.
SteveW… Try and steer clear of Samsung note books! no way so far can I dual boot Ubuntu on mine which has pre installed Windows 8 which by the way has lost it’s reg key or should I say no longer accepts It!
I will say Mark Greaves has been very helpful giving his time and advice trying to resolve this issue…getting close to a 'clean windows wipe off ’ excuse the pun.
