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I am not able to run/install Linux on my Lenovo ThinkPad E585. I tried both a full installation and running from the USB stick.

All I get is:

  • GRUB starting from the USB stick.
  • Select Linux installer from the USB stick.
  • A blank screen.

This is what I tried so far:

  • Distributions: Devuan, Debian, Manjaro, Artix.
    • devuan_ascii_2.0.0_amd64_netinst.iso
    • debian-9.8.0-amd64-netinst.iso
    • manjaro-kde-18.0.4-stable-x86_64.iso
    • artix-lxqt-openrc-gremlins-20190222-x86_64.iso
  • Installation media: USB stick.
  • Installation types: local, network.
  • BIOS settings: boot from USB port first; disable secure boot and UEFI/Legacy boot to both.
  • Tool to burn the OS: Rufus 3.5.1497. Tried both ISO and DD modes.
  • Partition scheme: GPT/UEFI (non CSM).
  • Init systems: SystemD (Debian, Manjaro), OpenRC (Devuan, Artix).

These are the laptop's specifications:

  • Lenovo ThinkPad E585 (AMD Ryzen 7 2700U, 8+16 GB RAM).
  • Two internal SSD drives (NVMe and SATA3).
  • Working fine with Windows 10.

I found out that to support the AMD Ryzen 7 2700U processor I need at least a kernel version 4.10. Debian 9.8 has version 4.9.30, Devuan 2 has version 4.9.82, Manjaro 18 has version 4.19.28 and Artix has version 4.18.10. So the first two ones should fail to install, but the last two ones should succeed; what happens to me is that they all fail in the same way, i.e. a blank screen after GRUB selection.

The fact I chose a GPT partition scheme instead of a MBR one should not be relevant at this stage.

I ran out of ideas.

References:

4 Answers 4

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I have a E585 with the Ryzen 5 2500u and had the same issue. You need to add noapic to grub by hitting "e" when you are in the grub menu. More details and steps at my blog.

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To install Linux on a Lenovo ThinkPad E585, it is necessary to upgrade the BIOS. The one provided (at least when I bought it) has some issue, which have now been fixed with the end-of-August 2019 release.

With the new BIOS, the installation is as smooth as usual.

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I'm running Fedora 29 64bit on my E585. I followed the guide on Getting Linux to boot on Lenovo Thinkpad E485/E585. Especially the kernel boot parameters ivrs_ioapic[32]=00:14.0 ivrs_ioapic[33]=00:00.1 seem to be important. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with these things so I can just provide the link to this guide.

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Pietro, in my experience you need a slightly newer kernel than those: I started getting a usable system after 4.20 and I got up to 5.0.4.

You can always install in text mode and later update the kernel, of course.

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  • Andrea, my problem is that I cannot even install a base Linux system, from which to make an upgrade. Not even an USB live distro. Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 16:43
  • That is weird. Shutting up, then. Will follow up if I find something useful. Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 17:25
  • Grazie Andrea. Eventually I will wait for a distribution to be released with the latest kernel. Hopefully they will not take too long... Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 22:11

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