Installing OpenSuse Linux on a UEFI laptop

This is my personal experience when installing OpenSuse Leap 15.1 on a small laptopt, HP Stream

  • First create a bootable ISO image on a USB stick as described here. I have chosen OpenSuse Leap, version 15.1, 64 bits and NET install. A WiFi network connection with credentials is required
  • Assuming that the target laptop has a UEFI boot manager with a standard Windows installation (Windows 10 in my case on a cheap HP stream laptop), the first requirement is to access the BIOS menu when starting the PC. In my case this can be achieved by hitting the Esc button after pushing the On button. The F10 function keys brings me in the BIOS screen.
  • From the BIOS menu, navigate to System Configuration / Boot Options sub-menu. Make sure of the following options: USB Boot enabled, Legacy Support disabled (we  use UEFI since OpenSuse supports it), Secure Boot disabled. In the UEFI Boot Order, put USB Diskette on Key/USD Hard Disk as the first option. Then insert the USB stick and pres F10 to save and exit.
  • With the new reboot, the system should enter into the installation process. Follow the network installation until completed.
  • After the installation the laptop will restart. Most likely the correct boot manager will not be reached and there will be a variety of error messages originating from having wiped out the Windows installation, while UEFI has kept an entry to a missing Windows boot. In my case pressing the Esc button brings me back to some BIOS choices, and after pressing F9 I can now reach the OpenSuse boot manager. I then boot into OpenSuse.
  • Open the Console app and enter into the /boot/efi/EFI directory. There will be a Microsoft subfolder (default) and an opensuse one. The idea is to remove the Microsoft UEFI boot by creating a zipped tar copy and removing the directory, with the tar copy acting as backup. This can be done by
    sudo tar cvzf Microsoft.tar.gz Microsoft && sudo rm -rf Microsoft
  • Now the opensuse boot manager should take precedence when rebooting