Installing an OS on a laptop with broken screen
Okay, so I have a old laptop (HP if I remember correctly that came with Windows XP) and the screen is like completely broken (the pixels don't turn on, even though you can see that there is actual output onto it) and I would like to wipe the disk and install Ubuntu Server onto it so that I can use it with SSH. Is there any way to do that without actually unmounting the laptop, installing the OS through my current laptop and reputting the hard disk on the old one? Any help is appreciated :P
55 Replies
Trying to make it a home server, as it's the only kind of thing I could use it for to be honest
You can try to connect an external monitor through HDMI (or VGA if it's really that old) if you have one available
Yeah that was what I was thinking, but I remember that with laptops connecting to HDMI does not work in BIOS stuff
I had an old laptop that used to have broken screen and making a BIOS update wouldn't switch to the external monitor even though it was connected to HDMI
(That laptop later got motherboard shutdown so it completely stopped working)
Lots of broken screens š
Yeah xD
Well, maybe the BIOS won't work but if you plug a usb live installer the option to run it should be the first one so a simple enter should work.
I could use my sister's old laptop as home server, but she doesn't want me to touch it so I try to use my dad's old broken screen laptops š
Althought I don't know for sure if the external monitor would work on a live usb, but it's worth a try
I see
I guess I'll look for this laptop in the rooftop and see if it has a HDMI port
As I don't have any VGA ports here š
So is not that old then š
Oh I hope so
I still have one of those that came with Vista, long time ago
I see
nah mate you're asking for a lot haha
Perfect
you'd have to blindly guess where in the installation process you're at
Yeah
That's what I'm afraid of
Or just praying that I can actually read the text
Which is...
Hard
I remember the first time turning it on it was literally like the screen of those old calculators
But with a almost no brightness black for text
there's a lot of GUI elements in ubuntu you'd need to be able to see/click
Yeah but ubuntu server is purely text
ubuntu server is more straight forward with fewer GUI elements
I tried the installer some days ago on a VM
ha
yes
Still a lot of text though
Not straightforward at all
So I guess my best bet would be installing that through another PC
Like, unmounting the PC
Getting the hard disk
Mounting it on my current laptop (through SATA adapter if the disk uses SATA HDD)
And then installing everything
Once everything's done move everything in the old laptop
Really annoying to do though, it's a long process
Try the external monitor first... quick test, and can save you a lot of effort
just remember to setup your ssh
Yeah š
Yep
Once it's setup it's easy
but yeah external monitor doesn't work with BIOS but you're not really installing from BIOS so it might work
It might
Let's hope so
I'm lazy to unmount PCs
If you have a VM, see what the menu looks like. It should be the first option once it boots
Also because last time I unmounted a PC was for the motherboard shutdown one and I literally almost broke stuff
āØ Cables everywhere āØ
*free cables everywhere š
Yeah, you literally open the case and you risk cables being cut
Also
It's a matter of practice but some laptops are designed to be like turtles...
if you know what you're doing...and you're already opening the laptop up....try disconnecting the laptop screen, in theory any external monitor should then become the primary monitor
Hmm, could be a good try
The issue will then be reconnecting the laptop screen if that doesn't work
I've literally never managed to reconnect a laptop screen cable
what u need to reconnect for? it doesn't work š
Try with the external monitor method first, it's safest
Those things literally are "if you plug it off, you won't plug it in again in your life"
It does and doesn't
There are black pixels
:lul:
More like there are black pixels on a green-ish screen
And those black pixels are just turn it on and off whenever they want
I mean if you're at the point of disconnecting the screen and still doesn't work the only other method left would be to unmount the harddrive so who cares about the screen anymore š
Yeah indeed
I could make an even better way to do that
Running the installer on the old laptop and on a VM at the same time
And doing the same steps
š§
Like the good old days š
Indeed
I'll update you guys whenever I start working on it btw
And I'll hope that laptop has an actual ethernet port unlike my current laptop
The screen was completely unusable
And there is no HDMI
So I unmounted the hard drive
And installing ubuntu server from here
It shouldn't be an issue technically
We'll see
I wish I could use this laptop as my home server....
Sadly it's my sister's
This is the old one I was supposed to use
The screen doesn't turn on at all this time
Did you get it to work?
Sadly not
I need to try again with a laptop that supports ethernet, which is going to be my sister's PC
But I'll also need to unmount everything again and plug in the SATA adapter, which is a pain
So that laptop has neither HDMI, VGA nor ethernet ports? š¤
It does have VGA and Ethernet
But I don't have a VGA adapter
And with ethernet connected somehow it didn't display in the local network
Most likely because the installation I did was through wireless network instead
Ah, ok, too bad the drawer of "just in case" old cables didn't work out this time š
Yeah indeed
I got everything covered except the VGA š¤£