Any chance to boot not a Windows? (W510)

expello
expello Member Posts: 3 New User

Is there any chance in the near future to boot something else that is not Windows 8? Some Linux distribution... or may be Android for x86?

 

p.s. I saw the other posts in the thread but I want an official answer from ACER

Answers

  • iheartlinux
    iheartlinux Member Posts: 7 New User

    Also really wanting this answer. I'm too nervous given that people on here can barely seem to get a legit recovery disk to boot, let alone any other CPU, and the fact that clovertrail has a closed architecture that isn't in the linux kernel yet.

  • jdshewey
    jdshewey Member Posts: 8 New User

    Acer's official answer is no. This is because Intel's official answer is no. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/09/intel-declares-clover-trail-atom-processor-a-no-linux-zone/

    That being said, the reason that Intel does not support this is because they do not want to share the special sauce in their power saving features. The speculation is that these power-saving options are in an API established by Microsoft and due to contractual obligations, intel is not supposed to share the specifics of this API. What this really means is that you probably will be able to boot linux (eventually) on these devices but you will get very poor battery life out of it. To get that working properly will require a very enterprising person to reverse-engineer the API.

    This aside, the processor in the W510 is a clover trail and was for netbooks origionally. What this means is that only distros tailored to netbooks are able to boot devices running this processor. Long story short, even if you can manage to cobble together a USB key that works properly with the UEFI boot system (which I have) the kernels lock up because they do not support the instruction set in this CPU. This chip is also 32 bit, which compounds the issue as 64 bit kernels will lock up for obvious reasons.

  • mnme
    mnme Member Posts: 1 New User
    @jdshewey: how did you manage to create a usb key that actually shows up in bios? I made many linux usb sticks (32 and 64 bit, with and without shim) and disabled secure boot, but none of them showed up in the boot menu (F12 on boot)... I know that they wont boot but I want simply nake a usb stick that will be booted.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Read the earlier threads. You also need to erase the store.

This discussion has been closed.