I’m always shopping for laptops to outfit with Linux and one of my favorite stops is DellRefurbished.com. On the weekend while surfing that site I came upon a good deal on a Dell Latitude 5410 laptop. The (new to me machine) came with an i7 processor. Using the ‘inxi’ command it easy to see that this laptop was a good bargain at forty-five percent off a list price of $399.
The battery is in great shape for a three-year-old laptop that weighs a little bit over three pounds. I’ve been using Dell Computers with Linux loaded on them for over twenty years. However, lately, these Latitude 5410s have come with Intel Rapid Storage Technology for use with the Windows 10 Professional operating system that came pre-installed on the laptop. Linux Mint would not install when starting from a live USB drive.
The solution that I quickly found when upgrading one of these laptops a couple of weeks ago is as follows:
When starting up the Latitude press the F2 function key to enter the BIOS and look for the SATA controls and change from RST to AHCI. Save the settings in your BIOS restart the computer and complete the installation of Linux Mint.
For more information on this particular issue, you should consult the excellent documentation from Ubuntu. https://help.ubuntu.com/rst/