[NOOB] Delete WIndows + Installation of Manjaro Cinnamon on a Thinkpad e14 | Ryzen7 - 4700

Hello guys,
Finally I found my favorite distro. The Cinnamon Edition of Manjaro offers an amazing experience from the amateur to the most advanced user.
I have a BRAND NEW Lenovo Thinkpad E14 GEN2 with a Ryzen 7 processor. I want to completely DELETE the pre-installed windows, along with the awful grub entry that stays hidden on every install.
Before moving on with the installation I need to perform the following steps (according to the following article from rd.nz

  1. Run Lenovo Vantage and do a System Update.
  2. Update BIOS from support site (1.10 being the latest)
  3. Disable fast startup
  4. Turn off BitLocker encryption with *Start menu > Device Encryption > Turn Off
  5. Reboot and press F1 to enter the BIOS menu.
  6. Disable Secure Boot (though this step might be not necessary due to the newer kernel, that comes pre-installed with manjaro 5.10)

I am afraid not to break anything, so I would be grateful for any advice. Is this the proper method to install the manjaro on a system, that comes pre-installed with Windows?
Also during installation, what are the exact steps that I must perform so I might wipe out the entire windows installation?
I am a LInux User for several years now and I do not tend to return to Windows :slight_smile:
Any help would be much appreciated!
Eddie.

Please, I apologize if I posted this on the wrong forum.

What you can do it :

  1. Update the bios
  2. Disable fast startup and secure boot
  3. Start with a live system
  4. Format everything with Gparted
  5. Install Manjaro

Thank you!
What exactly do you mean by saying “format everything”?
You mean that I must delete all partitions? This will leave unaffected the bios, isn’t it?

Yes, delete and format each single partition to end up with a hard disk with only unallocated.
It does not affect the bios, as the bios is not stored on your hard drive but on a ROM chip on your motherboard.

1 Like

Thank you!
Much appreciated~!

What about the option “Format Disc and Install Manjaro” from Calamares?
You suggest that it’s better to format the disc manually?
Thank you.

recheck all option in your UEFI ( for linux)

SecureBoot off
Fast Boot off
No CSM
No Legacy
all disks on AHCI
No optane/rst

boot only on UEFI:<partition 1> → EFI install manjaro

you can check in terminal , before install

inxi  -Fxza
test -d /sys/firmware/efi && echo efi || echo bios
sudo efibootmgr -v
sudo parted -l 
2 Likes

Wow,
Thank you Stephane!
Excellent instructions! :grin:

Please,
Can you tell me some more regarding the last instruction?

boot only on UEFI:<partition 1> → EFI install manjaro

Thank you.

on usb iso there is 2 partitions
one for iso ( in MBR )
other is ESP for EFI

as you want to delete all windows ,
you have to format before in GPT
and create a /boot/efi in vfat ( fat32) size 33Mo to 100Mo
not forget to add on mountpoint flag boot & esp

if you need to format before install , there is Gparted

you need
/boot/efi ( fat32 ) 33Mo ( no windows ) , add flags ( boot, esp )
/ between 30Go to 50go
/home all the rest

Swap partition will be automatically added during the installation?

if you have more than 6Gb ( dont forget that you share video memory with ram) ,
no need

( there is an another way with systemd-swap and zram cant be done after)
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Zswap