Booting to USB lt41p02h netbook to istall linux mint 13

Hi,

I have a lt41p02h netbook and I am trying to install linux mint 13. However, unless I create a recovery usb using the gateway software, the netbook will not recognize any other bootable usb device, even when told to boot there from the BIOS. I have tried a DOS bootable usb, the Linux Mint download that you are supposed to copy to your USB and install from (I have used this on my other netbooks that are not this model). I have even created the windows 8.1 recovery bootable usb and copied over the linux installation files and tried installing it after booting in (it won't install).

Ideally I would like to be able to dual boot between windows and linux mint 13. If not then I would prefer linux mint 13.

I tried gateway support and they consider the fact that you can boot to a usb using their recovery software as the solution to booting from a usb and will not proceed any further.

Any help would be appreciated. I do not want any other version besides linux mint 13 as the netbook has very limited resources.

Thanks in advance.

 

What does the BIOS setup look like? Is secure boot enabled?

 

tried it both ways. stupidest setup i have ever seen.
no matter what you set it in the bios the only way it boots into the usb is if you create a gateway recovery usb. why they have tied this particular model to microsoft is beyond me.

 

Wondering if you have tried using an external cd/dvd drive and booting off of a Linux Mint iso that way instead of with usb?
Editions for Linux Mint 13 "Maya" - Linux Mint
Try plugging the cd/dvd drive into usb and re-booting a few times after making sure that cd/dvd drive is recognized and in the first position for boot option.

 

no i don't own either of those devices.

 

Another option you could try (if you have access to another linux computer to work from) is to "DD" the .iso file onto the flash drive.

I've had to do this in the past when a computer wouldn't recognize a flash drive made with unetbootin or linuxliveusb. I think the DD sort of formats the flash drive so it acts like a cdrom.

you'll have to know which drive letter the linux computer has assigned your flash drive (sdb,sdc, etc..), then its just a matter of putting in the correct path to your mint .iso.

eg: sudo dd bs=4M if=/home/downloads/mint13.iso of=/dev/sdc

How to burn a .iso to a USB device? - Ask Ubuntu

 

Just to be clear, are you using the F12 key to get to the boot menu as you turn on the computer?

There's also geteltorito: Index of /~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito

It's useful for turning bootable ISO images into USB images, e.g. DOS bootable CD-ROMs etc.

Also, what version of the BIOS do you have? For the LT41P on Drivers & Downloads there is version 2.12 as the latest, released 2014/02/19

 

Hi,

I just got off the phone with tech support at Gateway. They are basically saying that they are so tightly binding this computer with Microsoft Windows 8.0 that Gateway will NOT let the computer recognize the USB drive as being bootable unless the usb was created with their Gateway recovery software. I have verified this. Creating a usb device with the Gateway recovery software and booting off of it works. Trying to make the same usb bootable by using any other means and it won't work (tried it on 3 different usb sticks).

Trying to get around this and installing any other OS on the computer would invalidate the warranty. Because this is by design I cannot send it back in for repair so it recognizes the usb as a boot device that was created any other way, because in fact, this is the way it was designed to work, and therefore there is no service issue.

If I had known this I wouldn't have purchased it!. My wife has an older gateway netbook that had windows 7 on it and we have no problems dual booting that (well there were a few issues, but hey that's half the fun in getting it to work). Support says this applies only to WIndows 8 pre-installed computers.

I will try your suggestion in tricking the bios into thinking the usb is a cd rom...not holding my breath but I will let you know.

Hi,

I took your advice and flashed the bios to 2.12.

F12 isn't turned on by default, so I enabled it in the BIOS. It's supposed to show up as a message before windows comes up but it doesn't. If you keep hitting F12 the boot loader does show up but the only option that shows up is the Windows Boot loader. If you select that it just boots into windows. No option to boot to USB or network...

I will try a suggestion from an earlier post. Gateway says they are intentionally doing this (see previous post for the explanation). I will try a few things this weekend. I am definitely not buying Gateway again.

 

That's insane. I would return it and demand a full refund. Ask them to point to any EULA that you had to agree to before unsealing the computer's retail packaging. Demand something in writing.