Just thinking aloud here…

Can you boot the install media when the laptop storage is installed?

If so, you can use gparted from the install media to clean the storage device and start from scratch. That might help.

You should be able to tell what mode to install the os in from the boot mode of the install media.

That is odd. However iirc it is an option in the bios.

Fwiw telling grub to uefi boot will not work if the boot device doesn’t have uefi support (and trying to boot in bios mode from a uefi disk fails as well… Been there got the T-shirt)

To get the install media to boot you could try removing the laptop storage…

On all the lenovos here hitting enter when the bios displays the Lenovo splash screen gives a menu that allows you to get at the bios or a boot menu.

You have to be a bit careful cos it’s on a countdown, paused and resumed by the enter key… And you have to get it timed right.

We used to use virtual box on windows with an immutable hard disk to boot the environment with storage, for persistence, elsewhere (usb for example) if required. Just used standard ubuntu for the guest distro.

Once you shut down the VM the vhd reverts to as installed. It’s a bit painful distributing the system but can be done.

You can prevent ordinary users messing with the immutable setting as well if that is a concern.

Wine Is Not an Emulator…

Guys

Problem solved - nope, let’s be honest worked around.

You know that saying in Technology & Design “never update the software” with respect to CNC machines etc.?

well it seems if I install the latest and greatest from XYZ the printer is not recognised. If I keep the original versions everything works (whatever version of windows is installed). So now I have to work out a way of stopping the auto-update…

Tried that - no difference.

Tried setting com port and baud rate in Cura environment for USB Printing NG plug in. No joy (though monitor in Cura stops complaining the printer is offline, it won’t do things like pre-heat the head)

Real head scratcher.

Nope - that’s the one thing I didn’t do (because 3D maker worked with out it)

Thanks for the reminder though - I will try that in the morning.

Laptop - Manjaro because it works and I quite like KDE/plasma.

Work - I use ubuntu server (choice) and Turnkey Linux (legacy) for streaming internally/intranet things respectively. Most of the servers are windoze (corporate policy)

PC at home - Mint (though not so much these days because of an old nvidia card for which there is no longer support and it’s not as convenient as the laptop)