TL;DR - Lenovo is shipping some new models with Windows 10 Signature Edition installed. It has Intel Rapid Storage Technology enabled so Linux cannot access the SSD. Disabling RST is not supported by the shipping BIOS.
TL;DR - Lenovo is shipping some new models with Windows 10 Signature Edition installed. It has Intel Rapid Storage Technology enabled so Linux cannot access the SSD. Disabling RST is not supported by the shipping BIOS.
The rage is inaccurate. Microsoft Signature Edition machines (which are just machines sold at the Microsoft store with no bloatware) don’t require this strange RAID mode. What Lenovo did is shift the blame for their own incompetence.
Windows doesn’t support this custom RAID implementation either - they mentioned it requires slipstreaming in, and all Linux needs is support for it - like any other piece of hardware. All the firmware is doing wrong is forcing it into this RAID mode. Nothing Microsoft requires for a machine to ship with Windows stops you from installing Linux. (Yet they complain and turn it into rage and sue for antitrust…)
Yes, that was pretty much my take on it too. As for the “disable RST” setting being disabled in the BIOS, “[n]ever attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”. That said, the fewer options users are given, the less they can break and that’s probably what Lenovo thought…
I had a laptop some years ago which allowed flipping ahci back to ide mode. Of course, if you did so, Windows would immediately blue screen after boot with inexplicable errors because the disk layout had changed.
Every PC I’ve owned since Core 2 has had that option and it has actually come in handy when trying to install infernal distros (Kali 1.x ugh).
Are you that Mr. Robot guy from the TV?
The rage should be lessened and turned into, “Why didn’t Lenovo (And all other computer manufacturers except to some extent Intel and AMD) develop a Linux driver 6-12 months ago and/or if it was a commercial secret, why didn’t they have one ready to be pushed into the kernel on release?”.
Because manufactures aren’t obligated to develop and release Linux drivers.
I know, it would just be nice :) If Linux had the dominant share I’m sure they would be falling over themselves to support it.
Interestingly, I see there is support for the enterprise version of RST (“RSTe”) - see the Intel manual. As @jabberwork posted, I think Matthew Garrett’s post on the issue hits the nail on the head - it’s not a conscious effort to “prevent Linux installation”.
BTW, isn’t RST just an updated version of Intel’s “fake RAID” of a few years ago?
See Matthew Garret’s post on what is really happening here: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/44694.html
This is dumb drama that isn’t even accurate about why the problem happened, as has been covered elsewhere exhaustively. It is some bloke on Le Reddit stirring up a tempest in a teapot.
Hint: if the submission source is from another forum, like HN or Reddit or Something Awful or whatever else, it is probably either wrong or just looking to signal boost…and so we should ignore it.
Flagged.
Fair comment (upvoted). I was unsure about submitting the story - in the end I did, I guess primarily to see what the Lobsters community thought of the technical aspects of it, rather than the nonsense that’s in the HN and Reddit threads.