I purchased a 2021 Dell Latitude 5420 i7 with 16GB from a refurbisher. It runs Windows 10 Pro well as far as I can see, but I want to install Debian since I've preferred it for nearly 20 years.

There is a BIOS admin password set, so I cannot change the boot device and install from a USB stick. There does not seem to be a BIOS pw reset jumper on the board any more; the advice is to contact Dell. That fails because I'm not the registered owner and an attempt to register my ownership was rejected (can't say unreasonably)

Online BIOS password generator fails because it's too new I presume. If vendor can supply satisfactory previous ownership data I could at least register and pay for a password from Dell.

And finally the question - if I buy a new M2 SSD and install Debian to it using another machine, would that be expected to boot normally in place of the UEFI Windows 10 SSD which is there at the moment?

Angus Mackenzie
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On 31 Oct 2024 08:32 +0000, from angus@bellheath.org (Angus Mackenzie):

And finally the question - if I buy a new M2 SSD and install Debian to it using
another machine, would that be expected to boot normally in place of the UEFI Windows 10 SSD which is there at the moment?

As long as you don't use a custom kernel, moving a Debian installation
from one system to another should be relatively unproblematic. You may
need to do some manual tweaking with regards to which firmware gets
loaded on boot to get full hardware functionality.

Alternatively, if you simply install the new, empty SSD, the laptop
should be unable to boot from it and depending on how the firmware is configured should let you boot from a different device.

Both of those are, of course, assuming that the laptop will accept the
new SSD in place of the old one without requiring the administrator
password.

Have you tried disconnecting all power from the motherboard (including
any CMOS/RTC backup battery)? Historically that would clear NVRAM and
thus firmware settings, but that of course requires that the settings
are in battery-backed NVRAM and not in flash. If the Windows license
details are stored in firmware settings memory this might cause you to
lose that, but I assume that's not a significant issue for you.

--
Michael Kjörling
🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se

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On 31/10/24 16:32, Angus Mackenzie wrote:

I purchased a 2021 Dell Latitude 5420 i7 with 16GB from a refurbisher. It runs
Windows 10 Pro well as far as I can see, but I want to install Debian since I've preferred it for nearly 20 years.

There is a BIOS admin password set, so I cannot change the boot device and install from a USB stick. There does not seem to be a BIOS pw reset jumper on the board any more; the advice is to contact Dell. That fails because I'm not the registered owner and an attempt to register my ownership was rejected (can't say unreasonably)

Online BIOS password generator fails because it's too new I presume. If vendor
can supply satisfactory previous ownership data I could at least register and pay for a password from Dell.

And finally the question - if I buy a new M2 SSD and install Debian to it using
another machine, would that be expected to boot normally in place of the UEFI Windows 10 SSD which is there at the moment?

I would return the computer to the vendor for replacement or refund.

The vendor should not have sold a computer that has a set BIOS admin
password, without providing you with that password.

How will you be able to check for necessary BIOS updates, and, install
BIOS updates, if you cannot access the BIOS?

I have three Dell computers that I bought from refurbishers - an AIO, a powerful workstation, and, a powerful "laptop" computer, each with MS
(it just occurred to me, after all of the times that I have written MS
Win, that MS also stands for Multiple Sclerosis...) Win10 installed. I
have successfully installed Linux on each of them. None had a BIOS
password set, and, at least one had to have a BIOS update.

I believe that a desktop workstation that I purchased, new, also
required a BIOS update. You need to be able to install BIOS updates.

I believe that the first thing to do, when booting a newly received
computer, before installing any additional operating system on it, and,
before using any preinstalled operating system on the computer, for
anything other than this initial task, is to check for, and, install,
any BIOS updates. Other, more knowledgeable people can either confirm or
refute that my belief is valid.

Also, if you have a set BIOS admin password, are you going to be able to install the necessary microcode updates? Recently, and, not for the
first time, an Intel Microcode update has been required to be installed,
and, an AMD microcode update (for an Intel Xeon CPU, which runs AMD64
Linux kernel, I think).

So, I reiterate - unless the vendor can provide you with the set BIOS
admin password, I recommend that you return the computer to the vendor,
for refund or replacement.

..
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............

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