Lenovo boot

[Fred Claus]

I'm testing out a cool new Linux distro and I have a question. I've put this one on a couple old laptops, but one is acting funny. On my Lenovo IdeaPad 3 the screen comes on then off multiple times before it finally shows the Lenovo logo. Any ideas what could be the issue? The link below is a short video 9n what it's doing.

New video by Husky Logic

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[HCHTech]

the screen comes on then off multiple times before it finally shows the Lenovo logo

Assuming it works normally after it settles down, that sure looks like a driver issue to me - its having trouble recognizing the screen maybe, so it's cycling through options until it finds one it likes? Are there any other drivers you can try?

 

[Fred Claus]

Drivers were good. There is only two I could find and neither one fixed the issue. I did figure it out though. I enabled legacy boot and turned fastbóot off.

 

[xrobwx71]

What distro? I'm currently trying Garuda Linux. I'm always interested in new distros.

 

[Markverhyden]

If it's a Lenovo then the Lenovo splash screen should PXE and should have nothing to do with the OS/drivers. All OEM machines I've seen do that. In theory. I'm assuming the drive is not easily removable so I'd nuke it and see how it responds with bare metal.

 

[HCHTech]

If it's a Lenovo then the Lenovo splash screen should PXE

This is a good point. I'm out of my depth here - what video standard? is in use during POST anyway? Before someone does a LMGTFY post, wikipedia says this about "Real mode". I vaguely remember reading about that back in the dark days of DOS computers I had so much fun with. I remember the first time I saw a vendor logo on the BIOS screen - I remember thinking "Aha, someone thought of a new way to do things...I hope they got some credit!".

 

[Markverhyden]

This is a good point. I'm out of my depth here - what video standard? is in use during POST anyway? Before someone does a LMGTFY post, wikipedia says this about "Real mode". I vaguely remember reading about that back in the dark days of DOS computers I had so much fun with. I remember the first time I saw a vendor logo on the BIOS screen - I remember thinking "Aha, someone thought of a new way to do things...I hope they got some credit!".

Generally there's 2 splash screens. One is BIOS and one is the OEM (when the OS starts loading). I can remember fiddling around changing both many years ago. I just did a quick search on "change BIOS splash" and it looks like it's much more difficult or even impossible depending on the OEM. Looks like changing the OS is still relatively easy.

How to Change Windows 10 Boot Screen in an Easy Way - MiniTool Partition Wizard

This post shows you how to change the default Windows 10 boot screen step by step.

www.partitionwizard.com

 

[GTP]

I had a lot of fun customising boot logo's back in the Windows 95/98/ME/XP days.
I had an animated logo of the "7 Dwarves" singing "I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go..."

Later I had all the computers on a custom startup sound, "Gentlemen...Start your engines...grrr grr grrrr..."

Sounded like a Le Mans race starting ..

Played with Win 7 a little but kinda lost interest after that.

 

[HCHTech]

I had a lot of fun customising boot logo's back in the Windows 95/98/ME/XP days.

Back in the XP days, I built a handful of "music" computers for myself and friends - think living room PC with a big hard disk for MP3s and fancy audio card. I had a modified Windows logo with a music staff and notes, I thought that was kind of fun.

 

[Diggs]

What distro? I'm currently trying Garuda Linux. I'm always interested in new distros.

I'm exploring MX Linux these days. They are one of the few to maintain a 32-bit version which I have running on an ancient thin client.

 

[nlinecomputers]

You should be able to disable the Bios splash screen in the Bios.

what boot loader are you using with this distribution? GRUB2?

 

[Fred Claus]

I'm still working on this. Nothing I have done seems to work so far. It flashes twice before the Lenovo screen, then once after that screen. Then it boots fine. I did notice that the BIOS had an update in August of 23 that I am trying to do. The trouble is it only gives me an exe file. Does anyone know how to make a bootable flashdrive from the EXE? I only know how to if I have a bootable ISO. This is the website I'm working with .

laptops and netbooks :: 3 series :: ideapad 3 17iml05 - Lenovo Support US

pcsupport.lenovo.com

 

[frase]

Maybe being a Lenovo is the issue. Download the distro again as an ISO and create the bootable with Rufus or BalenaEtcher.
It could just be a bad image. AFAIK you need to execute the file from the Flash menu within the system, should be a key or whatever to press to flash.

@GTP I still do that lol on my 98SE system. The best part is building them and modding etc, I collect the Big Box Games as well from the era.
Have heaps including the OG Deus Ex, Freelancer, Doom to name a few.

 

[Fred Claus]

It's not the ISO for the distro I'm trying to get, it's the bios update. The same distro file worked on multiple Lenovo computers. This one machine seems to be the only problem one.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Run the exe from a WinPE disk.

 

[Fred Claus]

I thought about that this morning. That worked to update the BIOS. I guess that wasn't my issue though, because it's still happening.

You know how some Linux distros have white text scrolling up the screen before the distro loads? This laptop doesn't do that, but my other one does. Could the flashing screen be this models way of doing those checks, so in fact there is nothing actually wrong

 

[Fred Claus]

You should be able to disable the Bios splash screen in the Bios.

what boot loader are you using with this distribution? GRUB2?

Grub2 I believe. I also found it not to be the distro, as I've put two different distros (Zorin and Mint) on this same computer. The issue is still the same.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Honestly that looks like a hardware issue. As mentioned above the system is in PXE mode so it maybe trying to boot off the network. Turn off PXE boot and make sure your boot order is correct. Disable secure and or fastboot options.

 

[Markverhyden]

You know how some Linux distros have white text scrolling up the screen before the distro loads? This laptop doesn't do that, but my other one does. Could the flashing screen be this models way of doing those checks, so in fact there is nothing actually wrong

It's not just Linux. It's any OS. As I mentioned above there are generally 2 splash screens. One is the OEM and one is the OS. Usually both of them have options to be verbose or not during the boot process.

I've got a T450 that I have verbose turned on in BIOS. I see the entries related to TPM, boot options, etc. MS OS's usually have verbose turned off. In Linux implementation varies but can usually be adjusted by editing /etc/default/grub.

 

[britechguy]

One is the OEM and one is the OS.

Yep. I routinely turn on verbose messaging on the Windows startup and shutdown process. I don't know that I've ever done so for the BIOS stuff.