How to: Linux Dual Boot on Dell 7710 with Windows 10, NVMe SSD, and UEFI

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Brian Gallimore

subtitle:  Linux doesn’t see Samsung SM951 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD on Dell Precision 7710 laptop preloaded with Windows 10

Here are the steps I took to get LinuxMint 18 installed on a laptop with a NVMe SSD and UEFI while still retaining the original Windows 10 installation:

  1. Within windows drives management, shrink the OS partition and leave the remainder unused (to create room on the for Linux)
  2. Within windows, disable quick boot (in power settings) (causes corruption problems if you leave it on in a dual boot situation)
  3. Within the BIOS settings (F2 during startup):
    1. go to System Configuration, SATA operations, change from RAID ON to AHCI.  (This allows Linux to see the NVMe SSD, but breaks the windows boot process)
    2. disable secure boot
  4. Boot windows to safe mode, let it fix the problem, reboot and test windows boots normally.
  5. Insert bootable USB stick with Linux live CD, choose USB in startup menu (F12)
  6. Choose “something else” during install
    1. partition unused space as EXT4
    2. partition a linux swap space
    3. specify the new partition to be used for the root “/”, and select “format”
    4. it doesn’t matter what you select for “Device for Boot Loader Installation”, it will add it to the boot menu automagically

links to good information on this subject:

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