I am trying to install Clear Linux to my Samsung NP4705RE laptop, I have downloaded the latest version of live-desktop from the clearlinux download site and installed via a USB. Since my computer has Secure Boot enabled by default, I was unable to run the live-desktop from USB, so I disabled and selected the UEFI OS option, it then booted up and allowed me to have access to the GUI installer. I chose the destructive installation. After waiting, it said installation was successfull, I began to reboot and removed USB device. Once rebooted, computer shows that there is no bootable device found; this is verified in BIOS; my computer does indeed use UEFI. I am unable to boot Clear Linux. Just to make sure it isn’t my computer; I have enabled Secure Boot and downloaded and installed Linux Mint 19.2 which works and boots up correctly. How can I boot Clear Linux?
I’ve installed Clear Linux on VirtualBox and everything works as it should, just not for my laptop.
Can you update your BIOS/UEFI is there is an one available? We’ve seen some boot issues resolved by simply doing that.
From the live-desktop, mount the boot partition to see what is in there and we can verify whether it has everything that’s expected. (e.g. mount /dev/sda1 /boot is sda1 is your boot partition.)
I’m not sure if there is a BIOS/UEFI update or not for my computer, Samsung doesn’t provide that information on their website and they do have a software update which does include checking the BIOS version, but I am new to Linux and not sure how to run that exe to upgrade it.
Current BIOS Info:
American Megatrends Inc.
P08RAN.106.130528.2W
Release Date: 05/28/2013
Running the mount command on boot partition:
There are two folders EFI,loader
EFI->BOOT folder->BOOTX64.EFI
EFI->org.clearlinx->bootloaderx64.efi, loaderx64.efi, kernel-org.clearlinix.native.5.2.0-825, twoo free standing zip folders
loader -> entries folder and loader.conf
Well, I found many posts online complaining about boot-related issue. And it seems to me that this problem may not be caused by Clear Linux.
One example here, where someone failed to install Windows
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/samsung-np470r5e-bios-sticks-on-splash-screen.811774/
Maybe it’s a Samsung NP470R5E laptop with a 3rd generation Intel processor. I think Clear Linux is optimized for the latest high specs processors, possibly 7th generation and above. You may want to try to install Clear Linux on a newer machine, or else I would recommend you Linux Mint, Ubuntu or Pop_OS.
I read several posts online for his specific model and I’m afraid it won’t be easy to install any modern OS. After all, if someone failed to install Windows 10, it’s very likely that the problem is related to the hardware, especially given that the vendor have a custom BIOS with no upgrade capability.