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For clarity, I have an Acer Aspire 5 A515-51G-5504

I installed 18.04 years ago and I've been using it ever since. I now use virtual machines for everything but when I started dabbling in linux back in 2018, I didn't understand how bad it was to install stuff on my host machine.

A couple years ago I had to install Wine to do some stuff for work and I'm kind of suspicious that it's malicious. I've tried to get rid of it but it refuses to die, like Tyrion Lannister. I've backed up everything I care about so now I'm 100% cool with nuking this whole thing and starting with a fresh installation of 18.04

My question is: should I change anything about BIOS or UEFI before I plug in my bootable flash drive and go through the installation process? I'm pretty sure I evidently did everything correct when I did this back in 2018 because everything has been fine. I changed my password in BIOS (which I do remember) and I'm pretty sure I enabled secure boot back then for UEFI. I just don't know if I should do this stuff again. Note: I do use this computer for work so I'm super nervous about screwing it up

This is what I get when I do lspci:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 620 (rev 07)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #1 (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Intel(R) 100 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller/eSPI Controller - 9D4E (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP108M [GeForce MX150] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8411B PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
02:00.1 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
03:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 31)

And this is what I get when I do sudo dmidecode -t bios -q

    Vendor: Insyde Corp.
    Version: V1.13
    Release Date: 11/08/2017
    Address: 0xE0000
    Runtime Size: 128 kB
    ROM Size: 8192 kB
    Characteristics:
        PCI is supported
        BIOS is upgradeable
        BIOS shadowing is allowed
        Boot from CD is supported
        Selectable boot is supported
        EDD is supported
        Japanese floppy for NEC 9800 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
        Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
        5.25"/360 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
        CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
        ACPI is supported
        USB legacy is supported
        BIOS boot specification is supported
        Targeted content distribution is supported
        UEFI is supported
    BIOS Revision: 1.13
    Firmware Revision: 1.10

Please note that apparently, installing Ubuntu on Acer Aspires is notoriously difficult but somehow I managed to do it in 2018. If I should upgrade my BIOS, will that do something unexpected and negative? Part of me doesn't want to touch anything that isn't broken but I also do not want to compromise my security at all.

So am I good-to-go for doing a fresh install of 18.04 from here? Or am I about to screw this up? Thanks :)

scarednoob
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2 Answers2

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A couple years ago I had to install Wine to do some stuff for work and I'm kind of suspicious that it's malicious.

Nope, WINE is not malware. The software that WINE runs could be, but WINE itself is not. All it does is let one run (some) Windows binaries on Linux

Should I change anything about BIOS or UEFI before I plug in my bootable flash drive and go through the installation process?

Here's what I would personally do

  • Ensure UEFI is on (i.e., don't use plain BIOS). There may just be a setting, if you see something called CSM*, turn that off to use UEFI. UEFI is newer and if you're going to install Ubuntu 22.04, just use UEFI.

  • I would not install 18.04 again. If you're fully reinstalling and wiping everything, I'd just install 22.04 LTS. I'm not sure why you want to keep using 18.04. 18.04 ends standard support at the end of the year. In contrast, 22.04 LTS is supported through the end of 2026.

  • You (maybe) can upgrade the BIOS. I wouldn't. It can break the machine if it goes wrong, so unless there is a good reason to (other than "I can"), I personally wouldn't

  • I'd leave secure boot on. I personally have it off as my current distro (not Ubuntu) doesn't support it by default, but Ubuntu will work with it out of the box, so I'd leave it on, as it is more secure.

I didn't understand how bad it was to install stuff on my host machine.

Look up Docker. If you just need command-line app support, Docker may be easier than a full-blown VM (although it has some downsides like no good support for GUI apps and less isolation compared to a VM).

Warning: don't mess with Python. So many people notice that the Python version is out of date, try some way to upgrade it, and break the OS. Python is a core part of Ubuntu. Messing with it, especially trying to upgrade it, can totally wreck your system. If you need a newer version, use a virtual envoirnment or Docker.

*See this answer over on Super User for what CSM is. Tl;dr it is "BIOS-mode" for UEFI systems

cocomac
  • 3,824
3

If it worked to install and run Ubuntu 18.04.x LTS, and the computer has an 8th generation Intel i5 processor and 8 GB RAM (as I read from a data sheet via the internet), there should be no problem to install Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS or even 22.04 LTS (at least if you switch from Wayland to Xorg).

So my first option is to avoid tampering with the UEFI/BIOS system. But if you want to do it, you can get advice here, but if you want more dialogue and discussion, please start at thread at the Ubuntu Forums, maybe at the 'General Help' or 'Installation & Upgrades' forum.

Please be aware that 18.04.x LTS will reach end of life in April 2023, so it is really worthwhile to upgrade to a newer version. If you want a snappier system, you can try (live from USB) Lubuntu, Xubuntu or some other of the community flavours

sudodus
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