I have an Honor laptop that I want to use as a secondary PC, and I'm planning to install Ubuntu for a new experience. I've mainly used Ubuntu Server through the terminal before, and if I ever encounter issues, I just reinstall the OS. However, I'm wondering if installing Ubuntu or messing around with it could potentially break my laptop's hardware, like the BIOS or SSD.
5 Answers
You used to be able to brick some devices by messing with certain files, but I think they've tightened that up. If you're really determined, you might find a way, but most systems are pretty secure now. Just don't mess with things unless you know what you're doing!
If you overwrite key firmware files, it could prevent the system from booting, and reinstalling wouldn't help since the boot process would be broken.
If you really know what you're doing, then yeah, you can mess things up, especially with BIOS or firmware flashes. But really, using the laptop in a normal way with Ubuntu shouldn't break it. I've had issues with defective hardware causing problems before, but most folks have no issues running Linux.
Technically, yes, but it's pretty rare. Just like with Windows, if you overclock too much or do a lot of rapid writes to your SSD, you might damage it. And there are risks with BIOS updates too—if something goes wrong there, you could have issues. But using Ubuntu normally shouldn't cause any harm.
No way! 99% of things you do in software won't hurt your hardware. Unless you're doing something risky like overclocking or if power goes out while updating the BIOS, you're safe.
Some laptops have a backup partition with drivers specific to that hardware. If you accidentally format it, it can be a hassle to restore. Just be cautious about what you delete, and you should be fine!
How would that brick a machine if I needed to reinstall?