This PC is a gorgeous piece of hardware, so I decided to disregard my own long held practice of not trying to install Linux on state of the art/bleeding edge hardware. I expected problems, but I never imagined it could be this bizarre.
I first disabled Bitlocker in Windows 10, disabled secure boot, shrunk the Windows partition to create free space (intending to dual boot) and tried to install from a USB drive prepped with 15.1 net install. I was able to boot to the thumb drive without difficulty, and the usual green bars worked their way across the screen, etc., but the installer halted when unable to detect a network connection. The on board wifi is a relatively new Intel 9560, so I put in an older USB wifi dongle and tried again.. same result.
I then tried again with a 15.1 DVD image, hoping to get a system to boot, so I could install a newer kernel to get wifi. That's where it got ugly. The installer not only can't even detect wifi it cannot see the hard drive, in fact the partitioner not only can't find any partitions it cannot even find a drive, not even the thumb drive. (Win10 is still fully functional when I reboot). I expected that Optane would make my efforts more complicated, but this seems a little extreme.
Before I go any further (i.e. waste more time) I would like to know if anyone can offer constructive feedback, thanks in advance.
Dell - Inspiron 13.3" 7000 2-in-1 4K Ultra HD Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 512GB SSD + 32GB Optane
I first disabled Bitlocker in Windows 10, disabled secure boot, shrunk the Windows partition to create free space (intending to dual boot) and tried to install from a USB drive prepped with 15.1 net install. I was able to boot to the thumb drive without difficulty, and the usual green bars worked their way across the screen, etc., but the installer halted when unable to detect a network connection. The on board wifi is a relatively new Intel 9560, so I put in an older USB wifi dongle and tried again.. same result.
I then tried again with a 15.1 DVD image, hoping to get a system to boot, so I could install a newer kernel to get wifi. That's where it got ugly. The installer not only can't even detect wifi it cannot see the hard drive, in fact the partitioner not only can't find any partitions it cannot even find a drive, not even the thumb drive. (Win10 is still fully functional when I reboot). I expected that Optane would make my efforts more complicated, but this seems a little extreme.
Before I go any further (i.e. waste more time) I would like to know if anyone can offer constructive feedback, thanks in advance.
Dell - Inspiron 13.3" 7000 2-in-1 4K Ultra HD Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 512GB SSD + 32GB Optane