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Windows 10 support "ends" in a few weeks, trying to rig my old HP notebook up to Mint or something just in case it takes down my desktop

Hit a classic problem of the wi-fi adapter not seeing most available networks. Troubleshooting suggested checking to make sure it can handle 5Ghz networks. With some searching I see it has a "dual band" adapter, and set it to prefer 5GHz band... and it still doesn't see my wifi.

I can't mess with the router too much tonight, house is busy with netflix slop.

My question, would a Linux distro be able to take advantage of the 5Ghz band? Assuming Windows is just being unhelpful.

I got it hooked up to ethernet now seeing if updates help. I haven't used this laptop since 2020.

I just want to find a way to make sure the hardware works before I switch the OS.

Windows 10 support "ends" in a few weeks, trying to rig my old HP notebook up to Mint or something just in case it takes down my desktop Hit a classic problem of the wi-fi adapter not seeing most available networks. Troubleshooting suggested checking to make sure it can handle 5Ghz networks. With some searching I see it has a "dual band" adapter, and set it to prefer 5GHz band... and it still doesn't see my wifi. I can't mess with the router too much tonight, house is busy with netflix slop. My question, would a Linux distro be able to take advantage of the 5Ghz band? Assuming Windows is just being unhelpful. I got it hooked up to ethernet now seeing if updates help. I haven't used this laptop since 2020. I just want to find a way to make sure the hardware works before I switch the OS.

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[–] • 1 pt

Fedora has a media writer, idk if Debian had one.

Rufus is pretty good, iirc.. I am so accustomed to the manual steps that I usually end up using them.

The steps are how we do it manually. It's amazing that this shit exists and it will eventually drive you crazy that such tools don't exist on other platforms.

[–] • 0 pt

I flashed the .iso to the USB stick (1hr+)

Flagged the laptop BIOS to boot from USB first, disabled secure boot mode.

Error: not a bootable drive. The thumb drive is 8GB

[–] • 1 pt

I have only had this problem with certain USB drives that appear as floppy disks instead of CD-ROMs.

I have a few keys that are known to work.

If you have another drive that is a different brand, you can try that. Did you use Rufus or manually write it?

[–] • 0 pt

I used Rufus, the USB stick is older than the laptop... works fine but maybe not for this purpose.