Machine: MSI WS65 9TJ-006
OS (dual boot):
- Kubuntu 19.10
- Windows 10
Out of the box install might face the following issues:
- Boot fails / freezes (probably due to issues with "nouveau" drivers for NVidia)
- Wifi not found at all (not supported by kernel in Ubuntu 18.04.3)
- Wifi not found, either after sleep in Linux (ACPI issues) or after boot with Windows
- Boot into Linux not possible after install (booting straight to Windows)
Start linux with the following addition to command line:
modprobe.blacklist=nouveau acpi_osi=! acpi_osi='Windows 2009'
To do so, select Ubuntu in grub (e.g. from Live ISO) and press E. Then add the above in the line
starting with linux right after quiet splash ---
When installing Kubuntu, these options are kept for the installed Grub, so there should be no need to add them to Grub again.
modprobe.blacklist=nouveau disables the problematic driver. If NVidia drivers are not installed
automatically (select "install third party software..." during install), you can install them by:
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
acpi_osi=! acpi_osi='Windows 2009' solves the wifi issue after sleep in Linux. If you set the laptop
to sleep by closing the lid, wifi is still found after wake by opening the lid. If the laptop is in
flight mode, activate wifi by pressing Fn + F10, eventually press twice.
This seems to be a kernel issue, my wifi card appears to be supported for kernel versions after the one of Ubuntu/Kubuntu 18.04.3 LTS only. So I decided to use Kubuntu 19.10, wifi works fine there.
After install, I had to manually set the boot order in BIOS (press Del while starting). My
harddisk has an EFI partition with boot entries for both Ubuntu and Windows. In BIOS you can
set a boot order for these boot entries on the same disk, it is in a submenu of the Boot
tab:
- Boot -> UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities
Note: I tried to fix the boot order using efibootmgr in Linux. --bootnext worked fine, but
setting a boot order seemed to be forgotten after restart. I have not tried setting the boot order
using using bcdedit in Windows, which appears to be an alternative way to solve the issue.
This is fixed after disabling fast startup in Windows 10 (it's "Schnellstart" in German). The option is in:
Control Panel -> Power Options -> Choose what the power buttons do -> Turn on fast startup
In German it is:
Systemsteuerung -> System und Sicherheit -> Energieoptionen -> Auswählen, was beim Drücken des Netzschalters geschehen soll -> Schnellstart aktivieren
To switch between Intel and NVidia graphics, do:
- Open the app "Nvidia X Server Settings"
- Go to "PRIME profiles" and select Intel (Power Saving Mode) or one of the NVidia options.
- Then restart or log out your user session and log in again.
I'm not sure about how to handle Secure Boot in BIOS correctly. I eventually disabled Secure
Boot after installation, when boot went straight to Windows, skipping Grub. However, I'm not
sure if Secure Boot really was the reason for the messed up boot order, since any changes to
boot order using efibootmgr with Secure Boot disabled were ignored, too. The documents read
like Secure Boot should be supported. Maybe Linux users just turn it off to preserve tradition
and culture :-)
In any case, Fixing the EFI boot order in BIOS works:
- Boot -> UEFI Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities
- Desktop: Right click on desktop, then "Configure Desktop..."
- Login Screen: System Settings -> Startup and Shutdown -> Login Screen
- Lock Screen: System Settings -> Desktop Behaviour -> Screen Locking
Suggestions used here come frome these articles:
https://gist.github.com/mari-linhares/cef4cb3440408e44963d1447a7db5ae0
https://medium.com/@carlosero/making-ubuntu-18-04-work-on-msi-gs65-8re-9818f4d9dc9d
I had an issue when installing Ubuntu Mate alongside windows on a MSI Trident. When I choose Ubuntu in grub menu, it went to a blank screen, and never started. At first I changed the boot from UEFI to Legacy, and it worked, but when I rebooted I had to change to UEFI again on BIOS in order to avoid the blank screen, and so on changing everytime I rebooted. Finally, I read somewhere on stackoverflow that, the Trusted Platform Module was the cause of this problem. So I went into BIOS, changed to Legacy, then on Security --> Trusted Computing --> TPM Device Selection, choose dPTM. After that I got no blank screen when starting Ubuntu. This happened with any of the 20.04 flavors of Ubuntu, previous versions worked fine without changing TPM Device Selection options on BIOS.