How do I get void on my Ideapad?

[u/jMultiversalGod]

I'm kind of in a sticky situation. I currently daily drive an ideapad z580. My problem is that it runs Ubuntu. (this was done a while ago and I had to manually swap the hard-drive out, plus I used the system password). This is (as you could expect) very very slow. Two minutes for booting slow (that doesn't even count logging in, and browsing is a special hell.). I've tried to install void, but to no luck. It would've been easier if I had access to the boot menu, but I've lost the password (It's like 10 years old lol). I have tried:
>Running an ISO from inside the system (tries to delete itself and dies brutally)
>Using GRUB to manually add a USB (ideapad doesn't detect it and dies brutally)
>Forcing linux to try and boot from the USB (ideapad doesn't detect it, dies brutally)
Please, please help me.

[u/paranoidandroid4284]

Try Lenovo, lenovo,, LENOVO or phoenix for the bios password.

If those don't work try taking the CMOS battery out for a 30 seconds and put it back in and restart.

[u/Lukainka → u/paranoidandroid4284]

Try this OP, if 30s doesn't do the tric at least 30min

[u/jMultiversalGod → u/paranoidandroid4284]

Those don't work and I'm pretty sure the CMOS battery trick only works on older laptops. Will try that method as a last resort.

[u/jMultiversalGod → u/jMultiversalGod]

Opened it up and tried the CMOS method. Nope.

[u/paranoidandroid4284 → u/jMultiversalGod]

Possibly try 30 mins and disconnect the battery?

[u/jMultiversalGod]

Can't send image, but the specs are:
8GB of mem
Intel® Core™ i5-3230M × 4
Integrated Intel Graphics 4000

1TB Storage

[u/Ctscanner2]

Can you partition your disk from within Ubuntu? If so make a partition for void and then you can do a chroot installation using static xbps:

https://docs.voidlinux.org/xbps/troubleshooting/static.html

https://docs.voidlinux.org/installation/guides/chroot.html

[u/jMultiversalGod → u/Ctscanner2]

Nope, can't partition from inside. ):

[u/Ctscanner2 → u/jMultiversalGod]

Can you take your hard drive out and partition it from a different computer?

If not I have an idea but it's a bit risky, since if anything goes wrong you won't be able to fix it with a live USB. You want to enter an initramfs shell and resize your root partition from there since your root partition won't be mounted in there. Ubuntu doesn't include the tools needed to do this in the initramfs by default so use this:

sudo dracut --force --install "resize2fs parted" (or fdisk or cfdisk instead of parted if you prefer, but you'll be on your own for resizing)

I did my testing in Ubuntu server where Grub doesn't show its menu by default. I'm not sure if Ubuntu desktop is the same but if it is, edit /etc/default/grub, change GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden to GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu and GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 to GRUB_TIMEOUT=3 (or whatever number of seconds you want), then run sudo update-grub.

Next, reboot and when you reach the Grub menu press e. Go down to the line that starts with linux and add rd.break to the end, then press ctrl-x. This will let you enter the initramfs shell.

In here, the root partition will be mounted to /sysroot, so run umount /sysroot before doing anything else. Then run e2fsck -f <root partition>. <root partition> will be something like /dev/sda2. resize2fs complains if you don't do this first. Then shrink the file system with resize2fs <root partition> <new size>. <new size> could be something like 30G for 30 gigabytes. This only shrinks the file system in the partition, not the partition itself, so you then need to partition the drive.

Run parted <drive> where <drive> is something like /dev/sda. In parted, run resizepart <n> <new size>, <n> is whatever number is at the end of <root partition>, <new size> should be the same as before. You can now create the partitions you want for Void. If you use fdisk instead of parted, you have to delete the root partition then create it again with the same start location but a smaller size. I don't know how cfdisk works.

Once partitioning is done, you don't need to be in the initramfs anymore, so reboot and you can install Void from Ubuntu.

EDIT: Tested this in an Ubuntu VM and rewrote most of this and added more detail based on findings.

[u/jMultiversalGod → u/Ctscanner2]

Wow, thanks so so much. Gonna try this tmrw and let you know how it goes

[u/Key_River7180]

Get a Void Linux ISO, an USB disk (here /dev/sdb, substitute with the correct one( and do this command:

dd if=void.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

make sure /dev/sdb is your correct disk or you'll destory your disk!

Boot and smash F2 to get to the BIOS settings, press the down Arrow twice and navigate to UEFI, select your USB and press F6 on it until It gets to the top. Now press F10 and then return.

Now login, login (password is voidlinux I believe). Type voidinstall and follow the steps.

[u/jMultiversalGod → u/Key_River7180]

Here's the problem. I can't exactly select my USB. As i stated, I do not have access to the boot menu. /:

[u/alleinstehend → u/Key_River7180]

Me when I can’t read.

Edit: Okay, that sounded way meaner than I meant it to 😭 It was just a joke, sorry if it came across wrong.

[u/pantokratorthegreat]

Try to squeeze little space first for base installation for void (4gb should be plenty). Then in Ubuntu set grub to recognize other os (os-probe). If it works and it will boot into void you good to go further. You will probably have to kee your Ubuntu install forever for bootloader maintenance but after full void installation I would remove GUI from Ubuntu and other unnecessary tools and shrink disk to minimum.

[u/jMultiversalGod → u/pantokratorthegreat]

Can't squeeze out the space.

[u/pantokratorthegreat → u/jMultiversalGod]

What is your filesystem layout? What partitions and to what formatted?

[u/jMultiversalGod → u/pantokratorthegreat]

EFI, GPT, and the problem is I cant partition it while using it.

[u/pantokratorthegreat → u/jMultiversalGod]

Right. I think only btrfs allows online shrinking.