Q4OS Forum

qqq

Member

Registered: 2024-03-02

Posts: 6

UEFI and BIOS Windows 11 installation

To get the windows installer to work does the computer need to be UEFI?
I got it working well on W11 on a 2016 HP laptop with UEFI.
Then tried a very old 2010 Inspiiron 1545 running W11 with the old BIOS.
That didn't work.
So does it have to be UEFI?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,257

Website

Re: UEFI and BIOS Windows 11 installation

So does it have to be UEFI?

No, Q4OS for Windows installer works with the old legacy bios too.

... That didn't work.

Please describe in more detail, fail description, system messages, etc.

qqq

Member

Registered: 2024-03-02

Posts: 6

Re: UEFI and BIOS Windows 11 installation

Thanks for your quick response.
I am now writing this on the Dell Inspiron 1545.
The machine has run many OSs.
It has a 120GB SSD.
This time I clean installed W11 using RUFUS to make the installer stick.
Then downloaded q4os-winsetup-5.4-r2.zip to Desktop.
I gave it 32GB and a password.
It said it was downloding - then installing.
After about 15 mins it said finish and I opted to Reboot now.
It rebooted - but into windows.
So I shut down, powered on, tapped F12 for boot menu, which appeared.
BUT there was no mention of q40s on it.
I booted to BIOS using F2 - and nothing that seemed relevant was there.
I booted W11 and looked in Programs and Features - again nothing.
Drive C: still said 85 GB available - as before the installation.
So ... is it installed?
If so, how to I access it?
If not, what can I do?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,257

Website

Re: UEFI and BIOS Windows 11 installation

The steps you performed looks to be all right. Unlike on UEFI systems, Windows installer on BIOS writes an entry to the Windows boot manager. It works fine on our testing installs on Windows 10 and Windows 7. So, we would guess the following reasons:
- Kind of incompatibility with Windows 11
- Some security software blocks registering the Q4OS record in Windows boot manager
We would need to get a debug information to be able to investigate the issue. Please attach the following logfile:

c:\users\<username>\appdata\local\temp\wubi-5.x-rev342.log

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,257

Website

Re: UEFI and BIOS Windows 11 installation

You can also perform a testing install of Wubiuefi https://github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi and post what happens. As Q4OS is based on this project it should execute the same way.

qqq

Member

Registered: 2024-03-02

Posts: 6

Re: UEFI and BIOS Windows 11 installation

Had another attempt this morning after a good night's sleep.
All working now.
I was confused by q4os not showing in boot menu.
Had to select "Internal Hard drive" and then it offered windows or q4os.

Now there are a million settings to configure.
And konqueror to try out.

Is there a guide for what do next?

It does look a good operating system.
I am used to Linux Mint, which is very easy to set up and use.
But I will keep exploring q4os.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,257

Website

Re: UEFI and BIOS Windows 11 installation

Is there a guide for what do next?

See https://www.q4os.org/dqa018.html#posti , the paragraph "4. After install steps"

Unlike Mint, Q4OS is designed to be slim and stable, and at the same time expandable.

Last edited by q4osteam (2024-03-03 13:39)