Frugal install on new laptop (UEFI-BIOS trouble?)

[pq5190362]

HP Notebook, 14-bp0xx

That does not seem to be the correct model name. Searching for "14-bp0xx" on Google basically does not find anything specific.

What is the actual model name?

Is there no sticker on the body somewhere?

If you do not see the model name but have the serial number of the notebook, then you could also search for the model name by entering the serial number on the HP website:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/products

[pq5190362]

There is no 14-bp0xx on the HP website, but there is a 14-bp000.

Again, you should be able to find out what the exact model number is if you enter the serial number on the HP website.

[YoupMelon]

The box says 14-bp080nd, the xx stuff was what the BIOS mentioned.
I've checked for the latest BIOS for my machine on the HP support site, but that gave an error message, haha.

[pq5190362]

"14-bp080nd":
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-14-bp000-Laptop-PC/15551432/model/17320132

[YoupMelon]

The BIOS update is an .exe file; probably something I can run after installing windows, right? Not an 'image' that I can use in the BIOS maintenance utility.

So I guess the question now is:
What is the probability that the BIOS update will actually solve the problem?
Because if it doesn't, or something goes wrong, I may not be able to return the laptop to the dealer...

Does anyone have enough experience to give me good advice?

[NewUser]

If the BIOS update will fix your trouble you may be able to run the update from FreeDOS. Install FreeDOS on a thumbdrive, put the .exe file there too and boot to FreeDOS.  Sometimes it doesn't work, but most times it does.

[Juanito]

The procedure for grub2 from the forum gave some error messages. Will try again later.

I'd say that your problem is right there - until you can use the forum grub2 or syslinux methods to make a tinycorelinux uefi boot device without errors, you are unlikely to be able to boot without errors.

[Juanito]

Note also that the CorePure64 iso is dual bios/uefi boot - if your machine can boot from cd/dvd, you can burn the iso and test out the uefi boot from cd/dvd.

[YoupMelon]

Note also that the CorePure64 iso is dual bios/uefi boot - if your machine can boot from cd/dvd, you can burn the iso and test out the uefi boot from cd/dvd.

Just for my information:
The USB that was created using core2usb.exe and CorePure64.iso did not contain an EFI folder. Does that mean core2usb didn't create a correct CorePure64 dual bios/uefi bootable USB for me?

[Juanito]

As far as I know, core2usb is windows utility, which is not supported by tinycore.

I doubt that core2usb will produce a uefi bootable device from the CorePure64 iso.

As mentioned earlier, you could try:

* burning the CorePure64 iso to cd/dvd to test
* create a uefi bootable usb stick using the grub2 or syslinux intructions via the links provided

[YoupMelon]

Ok. But then still I find it suspicious that the BIOS reacts so differently to the two EFI's created by that same tool (and there I don't mean core2usb but Universal-USB-installer).
 Univ-USB-inst + Ubuntu -> BIOS shows it top of the list,
 Univ-USB-inst + CorePure64 -> BIOS puts it down the list (but USB does have an EFI folder in it).
Even if that tool disregarded the EFI support in the CorePure64 iso, and just added its own EFI folder, I would expect similar behavior by the BIOS.
Or is that too optimistic?
Can you give me some kind of scenario of what might happen there?

BTW, many thanks to all respondents so far.
Great support, guys!! Two thumbs up.

[Juanito]

I'm not familiar with Univ-USB-inst and anyway, the uefi support in the CorePure64 iso is only intended to work when it is burnt to cd/dvd (I presume this is easy enough to do in windows).

If you can boot ubuntu, you can easily use it to create a uefi bootable tinycore usb stick using the grub2 or syslinux instruction links.

[YoupMelon]

Ok, I will definitely try that.

But since that means I won't be able to use the quick tools in the future anyhow, would there be a way to make the 32bit TinyCore BIOS-bootable (I mean auto-bootable, top-of-the-list in the boot-order)  ?

Or should I expect/accept that now and in the future, UEFI machines will make it practically impossible to just use BIOS-boot in that way?

[YoupMelon]

What firmware (UEFI/BIOS) version is installed? Have you installed the latest firmware already (i.e. "BIOS/UEFI update")?

Just for my information:
Is it possible to give me some scenario that could explain the following:
  some tool + Ubuntu.iso -> BIOS puts it top of the list
  same tool + CorePlus64.iso -> BIOS puts it somewhere down the list, disregarding my boot-order settings in the BIOS
  an update of the BIOS software changes that different behavior
??

[Juanito]

There's a tinycore tool - the tc-install extension - available in the CorePlus iso that will make a 32-bit or 64-bit legacy bios installation to hd or usb stick.

The legacy bios boot order is usually determined in the bios setup by choosing which device (hd, cd/dvd, usb stick, pxe) the bios should try to boot from first.

On my last laptop, uefi boot set the sata bus to full speed, whereas the legacy bios boot set it to a slower speed - since (I suppose) oem's now concentrate on uefi boot, you might be better to stay with that.