Non-OS dependent way to access BIOS on Asus laptop? +Best XFCE distro?

[Luxzio22]

Hello everyone, I'm in the process of installing Linux on an old Asus X553M laptop and I've already disabled secure-boot and enabled CSM to allow booting from a pendrive. 

 

The machine is still running Windows 10 and I've found 2 ways to access BIOS: one is to shift+restart and enter BIOS from the Windows advanced startup menu, and this is what I used to disable SB et all. The other is by using the method described here: https://errorsdoc.com/support-for-asus/asus-laptop-bios-keys-for-bios-setup/ (the first one, just below the table) where I have to shift+shutdown and press the F2 key then power back on with the F2 key. 

 

According to the linked article, the BIOS key for the X553M is Del but that doesn't work. I also tried mashing Esc while booting and that doesn't work either. 

 

Seeing how both of the above methods I tried are Windows-dependent ways to get into the BIOS, is there a way to enter the BIOS without using windows? Is there some feature I'm missing to enable to allow me to access BIOS by mashing a BIO-key on startup? 

 

Also, what are your recommendations for a a distro with the XFCE desktop? I check distrowatch and no distro seems to have XFCE as their flagship. I'm currently thinking PCLinuxOS, OpenSUSE or Linux Lite in that order because I don't want a distro that's tied to / dependent on another one (like Linux Lite is to Ubuntu). I want XFCE because it seems to be the desktop designed for lower specced machines and this laptop has 2 cores and 2GB of RAM. 

 

Thank you all for your advice and input!

[jaslion]

Windows 10 with fastboot tends to takw over bios entering capabilities in a lot of systems. When windows is gone the normal keys work again.

[Kilrah]

It's usually F2 on Asus machines. It's OS independent BUT if the OS is in hibernation that won't be presented to you, and "shutting down" the computer if Fast Boot is enabled in Windows is actually hibernation.

So disable Fast Boot. 

[Luxzio22]

Thank you both for the information, I wasted some time in BIOS before understanding fastboot might be in Windows settings and finally found it and disabled it and a lot of other stuff in the process as well. Turns out the laptop never was really properly shutting down and only going into sleep or something similar. 

 

Now all I got to do is choose a distro; any recommendations? 

[The Hope]

44 minutes ago, Luxzio22 said:

Thank you both for the information, I wasted some time in BIOS before understanding fastboot might be in Windows settings and finally found it and disabled it and a lot of other stuff in the process as well. Turns out the laptop never was really properly shutting down and only going into sleep or something similar. 

 

Now all I got to do is choose a distro; any recommendations? 

MX Linux, Void Linux, Mint, EndeavourOS, NetBSD, Devuan and FreeBSD are among the best systems for XFCE.

[LapsedMemory]

42 minutes ago, Luxzio22 said:

Thank you both for the information, I wasted some time in BIOS before understanding fastboot might be in Windows settings and finally found it and disabled it and a lot of other stuff in the process as well. Turns out the laptop never was really properly shutting down and only going into sleep or something similar. 

 

Now all I got to do is choose a distro; any recommendations? 

Linux Mint is a pretty easy one to learn on and has a full feature set.  

Download Linux Mint 21 - Linux Mint

 

As The Hope stated, you're probably going to be better off sticking with distros that have an XFCE desktop environment, as that's preferred for older hardware (very lightweight).  

[The Hope]

17 minutes ago, LapsedMemory said:

As The Hope stated, you're probably going to be better off sticking with distros that have an XFCE desktop environment, as that's preferred for older hardware (very lightweight).  

 2GB of RAM is very little, even for XFCE. 

 

Because it has so extremely little RAM, I would even recommend the following:

http://openbox.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://fluxbox.org/

https://www.pekwm.se/

 

This way you save another 160MB RAM, which is quite a lot if you only have 2GB of RAM available.

[The Hope]

Today I took a look at the difference between XFCE and PeKWM on FreeBSD in terms of RAM usage.

 

This is what top indicates in terms of RAM usage in XFCE.

Mem: 392M Active, 444M Inact, 152K Laundry, 865M Wired, 2199M Free

 

PeKWM.

Mem: 59M Active, 85M Inact, 403M Wired, 3354M Free

 

 

The XFCE configuration is a setup that I have been using almost daily for 3 years now.

I only created the PeKWM configuration an hour ago, and I still need setup autostart for things like tint2 so that it becomes easy to use.

But the point remains that PeKWM is extremely lightweight. I know I had Aero Snap configured on PeKWM in the past with eight different snap options.

It takes a little more configuration work, but it's not that hard to make PeKWM more productive than any other desktop, and you will have absurdly low RAM usage.

[Luxzio22]

I once used Mint years ago but I've forgotten the little of what I leaned back then. I tried out PCLinuxOS XFCE edition and it doesn't seem to be installing correctly because it takes a long time to boot. It also doesn't seem to be using all of the HDD space even though I asked it to and it shows me a ''0kb'' folder aside from the system folder and the DVD drive, which I'm guessing is where the rest of the drive is hidden. I tried right clicking it and it seems there's no way to format it.

 

Since this is effectively my first time using Linux, wouldn't Arc-based distros be too much? I also considered antiX but it only has the Fluxbox DE and two other window managers like the one you suggested. Are window managers very difficult to use for beginners? Will I be lacking in stuff I'll need to do basic stuff with them when compared to a traditional DE? My first priority with this laptop is clearing plenty of space and moving important files from my main PC onto it as backup. 

 

Thank you for your help! 

[The Hope]

34 minutes ago, Luxzio22 said:

I once used Mint years ago but I've forgotten the little of what I leaned back then. I tried out PCLinuxOS XFCE edition and it doesn't seem to be installing correctly because it takes a long time to boot. It also doesn't seem to be using all of the HDD space even though I asked it to and it shows me a ''0kb'' folder aside from the system folder and the DVD drive, which I'm guessing is where the rest of the drive is hidden. I tried right clicking it and it seems there's no way to format it.

 

Since this is effectively my first time using Linux, wouldn't Arc-based distros be too much? I also considered antiX but it only has the Fluxbox DE and two other window managers like the one you suggested. Are window managers very difficult to use for beginners? Will I be lacking in stuff I'll need to do basic stuff with them when compared to a traditional DE? My first priority with this laptop is clearing plenty of space and moving important files from my main PC onto it as backup. 

 

Thank you for your help! 

I can confirm your story regarding PCLinuxOS. I also tried installing it recently and the installer is currently completely broken.
I like the concepts behind PCLinuxOS (no systemd and RPM support) but my impression is that they currently lack a lot of manpower as many people will never be able to install the system if the installer simply doesn't work properly.

 

If you mainly want to use it as a backup and not much more then the following options will probably take the least time from you:

https://mxlinux.org/download-links/

https://endeavouros.com/latest-release/

https://repo-default.voidlinux.org/live/current/void-live-x86_64-20221001-xfce.iso

https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan

https://www.ghostbsd.org/

https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=300

 

My ranking goes from the things I recommend the most to things that should also work decently but will be less good for your hardware.

 

For MX Linux I would of course recommend the Fluxbox edition.

For EndeavourOS: The offline option installs a fully themed Xfce and the online option provides you with the choice of seven Desktop Environments Xfce, Mate, LXQt, LXDE, Cinnamon, Plasma, Gnome, Budgie, window manager Openbox and tiling window managers i3-WM, BSPWM, Sway, Qtile and Worm.

 

Void is a bit more difficult, but depending on your skills and time invested it can be fine. Note that you can always install a window manager later if XFCE uses too much RAM.

 

The window manager of MX Linux (Fluxbox) is preconfigured, this saves you a lot of time. Same thing if you take EndeavourOS and choose Openbox during installation, that's going to save you time. Functionality will normally be good enough for what you have in mind with that hardware. Very similar to a full desktop environment.