Alternative method to reach BIOS without OS reliance on your Asus laptop. The top choice is XFCE distribution.
Alternative method to reach BIOS without OS reliance on your Asus laptop. The top choice is XFCE distribution.
Hello everyone, I'm in the process of installing Linux on an old Asus X553M laptop and I've already disabled secure-boot and enabled CSM to allow booting from a pendrive. The machine is still running Windows 10 and I've found 2 ways to access BIOS: one is to shift+restart and enter BIOS from the Windows advanced startup menu, and this is what I used to disable SB et all. The other is by using the method described here: https://errorsdoc.com/support-for-asus/a...ios-setup/ (the first one, just below the table) where I have to shift+shutdown and press the F2 key then power back on with the F2 key. According to the linked article, the BIOS key for the X553M is Del but that doesn't work. I also tried mashing Esc while booting and that doesn't work either. Seeing how both of the above methods I tried are Windows-dependent ways to get into the BIOS, is there a way to enter the BIOS without using windows? Is there some feature I'm missing to enable to allow me to access BIOS by mashing a BIO-key on startup? Also, what are your recommendations for a a distro with the XFCE desktop? I check distrowatch and no distro seems to have XFCE as their flagship. I'm currently thinking PCLinuxOS, OpenSUSE or Linux Lite in that order because I don't want a distro that's tied to / dependent on another one (like Linux Lite is to Ubuntu). I want XFCE because it seems to be the desktop designed for lower specced machines and this laptop has 2 cores and 2GB of RAM. Thank you all for your advice and input!
Usually it's version 2 on Asus devices. It works with any operating system, but if the OS is in hibernation it won't show up, and shutting down when Fast Boot is turned on might be mistaken for hibernation. Turn off Fast Boot.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like you had a few adjustments to make before figuring things out. For choosing a distribution, consider what you need—whether it's lightweight, stability, or specific features. Let me know if you'd like some suggestions!
MX Linux, Void Linux, Mint, EndeavourOS, NetBSD, Devuan and FreeBSD rank high for XFCE support.
Only 2GB of RAM is quite limited, even for XFCE. With such minimal memory, I suggest checking out the resources below: http://openbox.org/wiki/Main_Page http://fluxbox.org https://www.pekwm.se This will help you free up another 160MB, which is a significant amount given your current capacity.
I examined the RAM consumption differences between XFCE and PeKWM on FreeBSD. Here’s what the top reports for XFCE: 392M active, 444M idle, 152K laundry, 865M wired, 2199M free. For PeKWM it shows 59M active, 85M idle, 403M wired, and 3354M free. The XFCE setup has been my daily choice for three years now. I just set up PeKWM an hour ago and still need to enable autostart for things like tint2 for smoother use. Still, PeKWM remains a very lightweight option. I remember using Aero Snap on PeKWM with several snap settings before—more setup work, but it delivers minimal RAM usage.
I used Mint before but don’t remember much about it now. I tried PCLinuxOS XFCE edition, but it’s taking a long time to start up. It also doesn’t seem to be using the entire hard drive—just a small folder besides the system and DVD drive, which I think is where the rest of the storage is. When I right-clicked it, there was no option to format it. Since this is my first Linux experience, would an Arc-based distro be too complex? I also looked into antiX but only found Fluxbox DE and a couple of window managers. Are window managers challenging for beginners? Will I miss out on essential tools compared to a traditional desktop environment? My main goal with this laptop is freeing up space and moving important files from my old PC to this one as backup. Thanks for your assistance!
I acknowledge your account about PCLinuxOS. I recently attempted the installation, but the installer appears to be faulty. I appreciate the ideas behind PCLinuxOS (no systemd or RPM support), though I feel they may not have enough support resources. Many users might struggle to set it up if the installer doesn’t function properly. If you’re mainly interested in using it as a backup, here are some alternatives that could be quicker:
- https://mxlinux.org/download-links
- https://endeavouros.com/latest-release
- https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/live/...1-xfce.iso
- https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan
- https://www.ghostbsd.org
- https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=300
My suggestions start with the ones I personally find most useful, followed by options that suit different hardware capabilities. For MX Linux, the Fluxbox edition is recommended. With EndeavourOS, you can choose between seven desktop environments online or download Openbox for offline use. Void is more challenging but manageable if you’re comfortable with setup. The window manager in Fluxbox is already set up, which saves time. If you prefer Openbox, you can install it later if memory usage becomes an issue. Each option provides a decent experience depending on your needs and skills.