Record Windows 10 Key for Future Use

In the following steps of this procedure, you will be completely replacing the Windows 10 installation that comes preinstalled with the ACEPC AK2 with an Ubuntu installation. Therefore, it is a good idea to record the product key for this Windows installation in case you would like to use the software at a later date.

On the AK2, press [Windows] + [x] and select "Windows PowerShell (Admin)" from the menu that appears. In the PowerShell, type "wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey". This command will display the Window 10 installation's product key. Record this key for future use.

Create bootable USB with latest version of Ubuntu

Note: This procedure has been tested with Windows 10 - 64 bit. There is no obvious reason that it should not also work with Linux and MacOS as well, but they have not yet been tested.

First, insert a USB disk drive into your computer. Be sure that you do not have any files you care about on this drive as they will be deleted.

Download the utility "UNetbootin". There are binaries available for Windows, Linux and MacOSX. Open the UNetbootin utility and select "Ubuntu" from the first distribution drop-down menu and "[latest Ubuntu version]_Live_x64" from the second drop-down menu. Select your USB disk drive letter from the "Drive:" drop-down menu and click "OK". The UNetbootin utility will now download the Ubuntu live image you selected and turn your USB drive into bootable media for installing Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Installation Procedure

Insert your newly-created bootable USB into one of the AK2's USB slots.

Edit BIOS Settings

Restart the AK2 and press [Delete], repeatedly, until the blue BIOS screen appears. Use the right arrow key to select the "Security" tab. Highlight the "Secure Boot" tree and press [Enter]. Highlight "Secure Boot Enable" and press [Enter]. Select "Disabled" so that the "Secure Boot Enable" entry now reads "[Disabled]". Press [Esc] to go back to the main BIOS menu. Use the right arrow key again to select the "Save & Exit" tab. Under "Boot Override", select your bootable USB disk's UEFI partition. It should look something like "UEFI: Generic STORAGE DEVICE 1404, Partition 1". Save changes when prompted. The AK2 will now restart and boot into the Ubuntu installation on your bootable USB drive.

Ubuntu Install Wizard

After the Ubuntu desktop loads, double-click the "Install Ubuntu [version #] LTS" icon. Follow the installer prompts until you reach the "Installation type" prompt. Select "Something else" at this prompt and click "Continue".

Create New Partitions

First, remove all existing Windows partitions by selecting each and clicking the "-" button. You should be left with just your device ("/dev/mmcblk1") and its free space in the disk's full size.

Next, add a partition to this free space by selecting "free space" and clicking "+". Set the size as 200 MB, the type as "Primary", the location as "Beginning of this space", the "Use as" as "FAT32 file system" and the mount point as "/boot/efi". This will provide your system with an EFI boot partition. Click "OK" to create the partition.

Then, add the main (root) partition using the remaining free space on the device. Select "free space" and click "+" again. The size should default to the remaining space on the disk, which is what we want. Select the type as "Logical" the location as "Beginning of this space", the "Use as" as "Ext4 journaling file system" and type (or select) the mount point as "/" (i.e. the root partition). Click "OK" to create this final partition.

Lastly, under "Device for boot loader installation:", in the drop-down menu, select the disk device itself ("/dev/mmcblk1"). Then click "Install Now". When the installation has finished, remove your bootable USB from the AK2 and allow Ubuntu to restart.

After restarting you should be greeted by the Ubuntu login prompt. You are all done!