Q4OS Forum

not_a_rockstar

Member

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 3

Intel X5-Intel X5-Z8300 Atom Quad is 6t4 bit but needs a 32 bit UEFI

I've found looking around on other forums that a 32 bit file is needed for this particular processor for proper Linux boot.  Presently it gets almost nowhere.

Here's what Google AI says, and it makes sense to me:
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The Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor has a 64-bit architecture, but almost every computer built with it uses a restricted 32-bit UEFI firmware. [1] This mismatch means a standard 64-bit Linux USB installer will refuse to boot on your PC. You need a setup specifically configured to bridge this 32-bit to 64-bit gap.

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There are instructions as to how to add a file to the EFI | boot directory of a rufus generated installer USB stick.

Add the Boot File: Before unplugging the USB drive, open it in your file manager. Go into the EFI folder, then open the BOOT folder. Download a file named bootia32.efi (available on open-source repositories like GitHub) and drop it directly into that BOOT folder. [1]

But it appears that someone posted in the forums 3 years ago, that this type of early Atom processor that uses 32bit UEFI simply cannot use Q4OS.  is that actually the case?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,371

Website

Re: Intel X5-Intel X5-Z8300 Atom Quad is 6t4 bit but needs a 32 bit UEFI

We would recommend you to use "install-cd" to install Q4OS and post back the result.

not_a_rockstar

Member

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 3

Re: Intel X5-Intel X5-Z8300 Atom Quad is 6t4 bit but needs a 32 bit UEFI

I tried using the install CD image - using rufus to make a bootable USB stick - same result.  I do have a USB CD Drive - should I try to make a bootable CD and try to boot from that?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,371

Website

Re: Intel X5-Intel X5-Z8300 Atom Quad is 6t4 bit but needs a 32 bit UEFI

should I try to make a bootable CD and try to boot from that?

No, it wouldn't make things better. Q4OS media feature 64bit UEFI binaries only.

You could also try to install plain Debian and Q4OS on top of that Debian setup according to https://www.q4os.org/dqa017.html . Please report the result.

not_a_rockstar

Member

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 3

Re: Intel X5-Intel X5-Z8300 Atom Quad is 6t4 bit but needs a 32 bit UEFI

should I try to make a bootable CD and try to boot from that?

No, it wouldn't make things better. Q4OS media feature 64bit UEFI binaries only.

You could also try to install plain Debian and Q4OS on top of that Debian setup according to https://www.q4os.org/dqa017.html . Please report the result.

OK, I'm going to see if there's a Debian distro that does this 32bit UEFI bridging, then follow the Q4OS installation instructions.  I'm very green at linux - have only done recent fedora installs on a couple of machines that M$ says are no good for Win11.  That was really stretching my abilities!

Oddly enough, I have some UNIX experience from the late 1980's.  Console stuff for linux was sort of a throwback to those days.

Added later 33 min 09 s:
Debian installers seem to want to use either a net installation (with a live internet connection - which I don't have on this machine) or via a CD or DVD image burned to either of those.  I wonder if I'm using too large of a USB stick - it's a USB 3.0, 126 GB stick.  I'm going to try a smaller USB stick with a DVD image burned to it.