I've been able to get Lite 6.0 installed on my Ideapad 100S-11IBY but I went down a few rabbit holes in the process...
I still have a Windows system and used the following Windows tools:
- 7Zip (which can open and extract files from ISO and VFAT images)
- Rufus (the default file copy mode leaves the USB drive contents modifiable which is crucial for this exercise)
The Windows system was used for all USB stick writing and modifications.
WARNING: For the process documented below to work Secure Boot must be disabled!
In postmortem, as best I can determine the process that worked in the end would look like this:
1) download the MX-Linux 21.1 Xfce x64 ISO image and write it to the USB stick with Rufus, then use the USB stick to install MX on the Ideapad; confirm that MX Linux boots normally after installation
2) write the Lite 6.0 ISO image to the USB stick with Rufus using the default ISO image/file copy mode, leaving the USB stick mounted after Rufus completes so that the USB stick is visible in Windows Explorer as "Linux Lite 6.0"
3) open the MX Linux ISO image with 7Zip and extract the following files to the specified locations on the USB stick, overwriting any existing files:
- \EFI\BOOT\BOOTia32.efi -> \EFI\boot
- \boot\grub\i386-efi -> \boot\grub
- \boot\grub\efi.img -> \boot\grub
4) boot the modified Lite USB stick in the Ideapad (use F12 during initial power-up to get to the list of bootable drives and select the USB drive) selecting the Lite Live option (not the direct install option!)
5) once you have the Lite Live desktop up use the install facility to install Lite, however you must select the "something else" option for disk partitioning
6) Lite's installer should allow you to select the MX Linux partition as the install destination, mounted at the root directory ("/") and requiring formatting; leave the "ESP" (aka Windows Boot Manager) partition as is without formatting - keep a note of the disk device name and partition number of the ext4 partition (in my case this was /dev/mmcblk2p3)
7) proceed with the rest of the installation, however don't select the option to reboot once the installation is complete - select the option to continue with the Live desktop
8 ) from the Live desktop, start a terminal
9) in the terminal enter the commands:
IMPORTANT: in the mount command, use the device name for the ext4 partition on which Lite is installed noted in step 6) above in place of <ext4_partition_device> - on my system this was /dev/mmcblk2p3
10) note the boot id of the MX boot entry in the efibootmgr output; for each of the other disk based entries (leave the remote boot and USB boot options active) use the following command to set them inactive (replace "?" with the entry id, leading 0s not required)
NB: active entries are marked with an asterisk; the objective is to have the MX boot entry be the only active local disk boot entry
11) close the terminal and restart, removing the USB drive when prompted - if all has worked as expected, the Lite GRUB screen should be displayed and Lite should boot normally
This process leaves some EFI boot entries in place that could be deleted, and future upgrades to Lite 7 etc will almost certainly involve a similar process however future Lite 6.x in-place upgrades should work without any problems. Famous last words I know... :
In hindsight, this process worked because of the leftover MX components in the EFI System Partition (ESP). Unfortunately I don't see an easy way to achieve the same effect without the prior MX Linux installation as these components aren't included in the Lite ISO and don't seem to be easily accessible in the MX ISO (GRUB seems to do some funky things during it's installation process from what I've discovered so far).
Edit: add Secure Boot warning
I still have a Windows system and used the following Windows tools:
- 7Zip (which can open and extract files from ISO and VFAT images)
- Rufus (the default file copy mode leaves the USB drive contents modifiable which is crucial for this exercise)
The Windows system was used for all USB stick writing and modifications.
WARNING: For the process documented below to work Secure Boot must be disabled!
In postmortem, as best I can determine the process that worked in the end would look like this:
1) download the MX-Linux 21.1 Xfce x64 ISO image and write it to the USB stick with Rufus, then use the USB stick to install MX on the Ideapad; confirm that MX Linux boots normally after installation
2) write the Lite 6.0 ISO image to the USB stick with Rufus using the default ISO image/file copy mode, leaving the USB stick mounted after Rufus completes so that the USB stick is visible in Windows Explorer as "Linux Lite 6.0"
3) open the MX Linux ISO image with 7Zip and extract the following files to the specified locations on the USB stick, overwriting any existing files:
- \EFI\BOOT\BOOTia32.efi -> \EFI\boot
- \boot\grub\i386-efi -> \boot\grub
- \boot\grub\efi.img -> \boot\grub
4) boot the modified Lite USB stick in the Ideapad (use F12 during initial power-up to get to the list of bootable drives and select the USB drive) selecting the Lite Live option (not the direct install option!)
5) once you have the Lite Live desktop up use the install facility to install Lite, however you must select the "something else" option for disk partitioning
6) Lite's installer should allow you to select the MX Linux partition as the install destination, mounted at the root directory ("/") and requiring formatting; leave the "ESP" (aka Windows Boot Manager) partition as is without formatting - keep a note of the disk device name and partition number of the ext4 partition (in my case this was /dev/mmcblk2p3)
7) proceed with the rest of the installation, however don't select the option to reboot once the installation is complete - select the option to continue with the Live desktop
8 ) from the Live desktop, start a terminal
9) in the terminal enter the commands:
Code:
sudo mkdir mnt
sudo mount <ext4_partition_device> mnt
sudo cp -a /cdrom/boot/grub/i386-efi mnt/boot/grub
sudo umount mnt
sudo rmdir mnt
sudo efibootmgr -v10) note the boot id of the MX boot entry in the efibootmgr output; for each of the other disk based entries (leave the remote boot and USB boot options active) use the following command to set them inactive (replace "?" with the entry id, leading 0s not required)
Code:
sudo efibootmgr -A -b ?11) close the terminal and restart, removing the USB drive when prompted - if all has worked as expected, the Lite GRUB screen should be displayed and Lite should boot normally
This process leaves some EFI boot entries in place that could be deleted, and future upgrades to Lite 7 etc will almost certainly involve a similar process however future Lite 6.x in-place upgrades should work without any problems. Famous last words I know... :
In hindsight, this process worked because of the leftover MX components in the EFI System Partition (ESP). Unfortunately I don't see an easy way to achieve the same effect without the prior MX Linux installation as these components aren't included in the Lite ISO and don't seem to be easily accessible in the MX ISO (GRUB seems to do some funky things during it's installation process from what I've discovered so far).
Edit: add Secure Boot warning