Continued from The Acer ES11-132, Linux, UEFI, and Secure Boot Part 1DDR3L RAM notes before Debian, Fedora, or Ubuntu installation
In some developing markets such as the Philippines and Indonesia, the
Acer ES11-132 is sold with 2 GB of
DDR3L RAM, though in most markets the notebook comes with at least 4 GB. However, the ES11-132 has a single slot for upgrading the RAM up to 8 GB DDR3L, and users planning to run a
Linux distribution with a modern graphical desktop environment such as
Gnome 3, Cinnamon, or
KDE4 or later, should consider investing in a RAM upgrade.
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| The ES11-132 with Fedora 25 Gnome3 next to a Surface Pro 4. The ES11-132's form factor is comparable to the SP4. |
The
Intel Celeron 3450 on the ES11-132 is surprisingly responsive even with only 2 GB of RAM ,and with
Fedora 25 Gnome installed, Gnome 3 works very well for single window tasks. Out-of-the box, even
Windows 10 Home SL works with nary a chirp. However, unless you're planning to switch to a command line only
FreeBSD 11 install, the 2 GB of DDR3L will not last you in the long term.
Note: Acer notes on their user guide that only professionals should perform the memory upgrade. Moreover, Acer places a sticker on the compartment door indicating that users void their warranty if they open the door.
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| The ES11-132 has a single compartment door for the hard drive and RAM. Unfortunately, it has a warranty sticker. |
The lack of RAM is particularly noticeable during installation. A base installation using physical media of
Ubuntu 14.04 or
Debian 8 Jessie takes roughly more than three hours to complete - unusual since the process takes only half an hour at the most on my older
Toshiba NB520 with an
Intel Atom and 4 GB of RAM. If you are using an external optical drive to perform a Linux installation on the ES11-132, make sure you connect the drive using the
USB 3.0 connector at the rear, and a second USB port if your optical drive requires additional power. Use the same rear USB 3.0 port if are using a bootable Linux
LiveUSB.
Setup Utility and common boot errors
As mentioned in
Part 1 of this series, update the BIOS regardless if you are dual-booting with Windows, or performing a full Linux installation. Once you reboot, tap the
F2 button on the Acer logo to enter the
InsydeH20 Setup Utility. Verify that the
System BIOS Version is correctly updated on the
Information tab.
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| My system came with v1.06 and updated using the Windows executable to v1.08, which is the current version of this writing. |
Unlike manufacturers such as
HP,
Dell,
Zotac, and
ASUS, Acer severely trims down their UEFI system and pretty much limits any configuration changes from Setup Utility. Unfortunately, you will have to make changes to Setup Utility to get Linux to boot and install. The two most common issues Linux users encounter are the "
Security Boot Fail" and "
No Bootable Device" errors.
Note: This article won't attempt to address issues related to all Linux distribution but focuses on
Ubuntu 14.04, Debian 8 Jessie, and
Fedora 25.
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| Depending on your Linux distribution, Linux users should be prepared to perform a few steps to resolve a Security Boot Fail message. |
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