After a few attempts, my Acer SW3-016 still refuses to find a bootable device, why is this the case?

Windows was running quite horribly beforehand, so I decided to try install Linux on it, of which from my experience has held the upper hand when it comes to perfomance on lower end devices, however, I was dismayed to see that despite following the same steps on other brand desktops/laptops to install Linux, it didn't work properly, as after the OS installation, I was slammed with a "No Bootable Device" error. I tried numerous things, like resetting to the default config file and setting files to become executable to no avail, despite what I did, getting my hopes up, it always came up with the same error. I had previously made post about this quite a while back, and I'd appreciate any help on what to do to avoid this error.

I am attempting to install Linux Lite, and I did it via Balena Etcher because Rufus isn't available on Linux.

Accepted answers

JackE

We need to take a look at the emmc chip with a bootable gparted usb stick. Gparted is a parttion editor with a straightforward graphical interface that can handle both Win & Lin file systems. Go to this link to prepare it by one of the methods you're comfortable with. Then boot from it and post a screenshot of what graphical menu it boots into. Then we'll go from there.

JackE

You must tap F12 on startup to see the bootable USB stick.

All comments

JackE

The USB installation iso boot stick must use GPT partitioning FAT32 format and prepared to install Linux for UEFI bootstrap and GPT partitioned, (not MBR) emmc drive. MBR partitioned emmc will NOT be recognized as a bootable device by UEFI bootstrap. If you can't find a Windows machine to prepare the stick with Rufus or do this with Balena, you should use the DD command in Linux terminal

Jeff7899

Do you have a guide on how to use the DD command? I'm not the most professional with stuff like this

JackE

Plug the stick into the USB port. Then enter the following commands one by one in the terminal.

sudo fdisk -l (This should identify the emmc drive and usb stick probably as /dev/sda and /dev/sdb or sdc respectively)
umount /dev/sdc1 (if the usb stick is identified as sdc)
sudo dd if=filename.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=4M
sync
sudo eject /dev/sdc

For your particular machine, I strongly recommend downloading the 32-bit Q4os Linux centaurus trinity iso because it will have the same look, feel, function of the classic Windows gui but be much faster. You should also download and use the FireFox ESR browser since it's usually much more reliable than the default Konqueror browser

Jeff7899

Nevermind... I found a guide

JackE

Too late. Already posted abbreviated version.

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1033705/#Comment_1033705

Jeff7899

Thank you so much anyway, the guide didn't work

Jeff7899

Should I configure secure boot?

Jeff7899

Still no difference, I followed the steps and although it successfully installed (I configured secure boot) there was no difference in the result

JackE

In stubborn cases like this, you first have to set and save a BIOS supervisor password. Then re-enter the BIOS with the password to disable secure boot. Then install Linux. From then on, you leave the BIOS as-is with the supervisor password enabled and secure boot disabled. Don't try to change anything back.

A word of caution. Many Linux installers aren't that good if you choose a default express instead of a custom install. What installation distros have you tried so far besides LinuxLite? You should try to pick those with halfway decent support forums like Q4os. I'm not sure how good the LinuxLite forums are but you might want to sign up at this link and find out.

Jeff7899

Q4OS has been a little stubborn for me, refuses to live boot so later on I may try install the ISO again, the Linux forum is decent so I may ask over there too, I would’ve tried Xubuntu but I feared that would cause the same issue as my current one

Jeff7899

When you say to disable secure boot, my BIOS brings up several options, should I disable the secure boot check or? At the moment it shows me these options

Jeff7899

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/u0/yir60xgbniza.jpg

Here is the picture sorry for the quality

JackE

Check the BIOS MAIN tab (NOT SECURITY tab) to see if password set option is available.

Jeff7899

The thing is, when this happened a few months ago I set a supervisor password, but I kind of forgot it after neglecting this laptop until now, any way to reset it?

JackE

>>> I kind of forgot it>>>

Aye!!! You'll have to find a way to kind of unforget it somehow. Do this before you try to make any further BIOS changes or you seriously risk not being able to even access the BIOS menu any more.

Jeff7899

Alrighty, I’ll try.

Jeff7899

Good news, I managed to regain the supervisor password and I changed it to something more memorable. How do I disable the secure boot? When I go on the main page there is no option

Jeff7899

Also, when you say for me to not change it at all afterwards, does that mean I should disable secure boot configuration during the installation process?