Alienware 17 R3. Is there any way to install linux

Hi Stuart,

do you still have this problem?

Could you finally manage to install Linux?

I have had smilar problems on my ASUS ROG and switching off "secure boot" & "UEFI" in BIOS solved it for me.

I'm thinking about buying an Alienware R3 but only if it runs Linux (in my case Ubuntu).

Maybe you can give it a  try and post the results here!?

Thanks in advance

Werner

Hello, I see you have a laptop with  a ssd and a hitachi hard drive, I have a question unrelated to your post here but I would appreciate it if you can help me out!

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I bought an Alienware 15 r2 recently and I am having some issues with my hard disk. It comes with a 512gb ssd (with the OS) and a 1tb 7200 rpm hard disk. When I turn the computer on 1tb the hard disk is not detected in the windows but it is present in the BIOS, when i restart the computer the disk is present and it functions normally!! On changing the hard disk mode from RAID (the default) to AHCI mode the problem appears to have solved but the same happens everytime I go back to RAID mode. I know there is no connection with that but the horrible customer care is not able to fix this issue and they have issued me a motherboard replacement. But the same thing still happens!

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Hi,

ok, maybe I don't get it right but why are you going back to RAID mode? You don't have a RAID configuration or do you? For a "normal" standard PC / Notebook the default configuration should be AHCI.

Another option: I installed xubuntu in a virtual box VM, and then can full screen the VM and it's just like it were running native.... of course, I want linux mostly for work capability (terminals, email, web browser), and actually acquired the laptop as a gaming rig running windows along side my other machines... so the fact that I'm not getting full performance in linux is not an issue for me.  That said, being able to [ctrl]+[windows]+right to switch to the linux desktop, and hit [right ctrl]+p to unpause, and [right ctrl]+f to go full screen makes for a really quick and painless OS switch.  The other advantage of the VM is that all the custom tools and driver support is running on the host, so you kind of get a best of both worlds here.

I bought the machine for "fun", but I am quite happy to be able to use the 17" 4k display for work when I am not at home.

I bought Alienware 17 R3 in June 2016 with windows 10 w 6700hq with windows 10 and bios setup secure boot / UEFI,  It has 2 ssd drives and a 1tb 7200 hard drive, and I had the same issues with installing ubuntu. What I was trying to do was install ubuntu 16.04 on the second ssd .

As i do use windows only for gaming...the rest of my time is in linux.

.1. i found that if you use rufus disk tools in windows  to put the ubuntu 16.04 image on usb w/ uefi boot (its an option in rufus ) then boot to usb by hitting f12 you should see the usb / ubuntu image in the boot menu and it will install.

2. that being said, after the install 2 things didnt work wifi and sound, I found in ubuntu forums and downloded linux-firmware_1.158_all.deb after which sound and networking wifi were working. :-)

3. other buggy things to mention.  every once in a while sound would stop Id reboot but i would not work.I found this workaround,

$ killall pulseaudio

$ rm .config/pulse/*

wait 10 seconds

$ pulseaudio -k

and reboot sound will work

4. From what im finding..dont try to use the Nvidia / intel /hybrid video card as it seems that  "switchayoo" doesnt work and if you try to use the Nvidia install the driver & try to switch to that card mine fails and upon reboot youll  have no video at all. boot into console and remove the nvidia driver and reboot and graphics will return

5. Ive tried to install Kali linux 2016.1  and 2016.2 doing the same procedure and trying dd just will not boot. Only way to get it to boot and install is turn off secure boot and UEFI and do install. Problem with this is windows 10 requires secure boot on. Ive read theres a way around this but have not tried it.

I wasnt aware you could switch between UEFI/secure boot & legacy boot to run either OS without issues  

B

I have running windows, arch linux and freebsd all with legacy mode off.

You just need to switch secure boot of and afterwards eventually fix windows boot.

Then just perform a linux uefi install and you can select os in the f12 menu.

This page here helped me a lot:

www.alienwarearena.com/.../a-non-gamer-s-review-of-the-alienware-17r3

As a Unix System Admin (contractor ) I was constantly confronted with the problems of dealing with windows of various flavors - from Win95 to Win 7 - and trying to use my various laptops to interface with windows and unix - again various flavors from Sun BSD to HPUX to Digital TrueUnix ...

Since most laptops only have one hd I solved the problems by swapping thew hd depending on my needs.

When I found that Alienware actually has 2 drive bays you can imagine my joy...

I am retired now but I have run Win 7 and 10 on one of the drives and then Ubuntu - currently 17.04 - on the second drive.

By swapping boot disks in the bios I don't have any problems and should I need something from my Windows disk in

Documents or Downloads I can mount the disk and read and write to it anytime.

I recently switched out my hd's to 1gb Samsung Evo 850's -- the difference is amazing. Win10 boots to usable status in

~10 - 12 seconds and Linux comes up in ~ 5 or 6 secs.

Now if I can only find a way to expand memory to 64GB using 16gb sticks I'll be in heaven - yes I do run several programs at the same time and usually 1 or 2 are compilers. My win video editors are also almost unbelievably fast.

I just wish I had this system in the '90s when needed it.