Installation of linux is getting easier, but not all of the JOI Books hardware is supported out of the box, so do backup your system first.
Setting up a bootable USB Thumbdrive
First thing you'll need is a bootable thumbdirve as the JOI Book has no DVD or CDROM drive.
Download the latest version of elementary OS (I used 5.1.3). https://elementary.io/ Note Donation is optional, if you're short on cash, simply put 0 in the customized price box. If you can afford a donation, I would highly encourage it, your contribution and help is what keeps these projects Alive.
Now you need an application in windows that allows you to create a bootable USB drive. I used Rufus and there are excellent instructions on how to do this part on the elementary website (https://elementary.io/docs/installation#download-elementary-os) so I won't repeat it here. Come back to this page once you get to the "Booting from the Install Drive" Part
Booting from the USB Thumbdrive
When you reboot your JOI Book, you may need to enter into the BIOS settings in order to set the first boot drive to your USB drive. To do this follow the steps below
Make sure your Thumbdrive is plugged into the USB port.
Reboot your PC
During the "JOI Logo" screen hold down the "Esc" key.
In the bios go to the "Boot" menu, then change "Boot Option #1" to your USB drive (In my case "UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler...")
5. Save your changes and exit the BIOS.
6. At the prompt select "Try or Install Elementary OS"
7. When prompted, select "Try"
Note it's important to "Try" first before we make any changes to your hard drive as not everything will work out of the box first time.
Your new Elementary OS - OK we need to fix a few things
Firstly if your touchpad doesn't move the mouse around or you can't click on stuff, don't panic, simply, plug in a USB mouse (wireless or wired). The touchpad can be fixed by following these steps <INSERT LINK HERE>, but we'll do that after the install.
There maybe a few other issues like wifi may not be stable or not work and there could be some slowness, but we'll address those items later. Lets move onto the install.
To Install Elementary OS click on the blue e icon (right most icon at the bottom of the screen)
This will bring up the install wizard. Step 1 select your language
Step 2: Choose your keyboard layout. For the JOI Book stick with English (US), English (US)
Step 3: When prompted for the "Updates and other software" unselect "Download Updates", this is simply because we haven't set up the JOI Book wifi drivers yet, if you attempt to download updates now , it will be very very very slow!. Do tick the "Install third-party software", not sure if it's really required for the JOI Book, but it doesn't hurt
Step 4: For the Installation type, my advise is stick with the 1st option, this is the easiest way to install Elementary OS along side Windows, so you can boot into either. Only choose the other options if you know what you're doing.
Step 5: On your screen it my look a little different than what is shown below, but don't worry, typically you'll see your windows drive on the left and on the right it will be telling you how much space it will take away from your windows drive to make into the Elementary OS. I would recommend a minimum of 20GB if you have enough disk space.
Step 6: This is the point of no return, so please ensure you took a back up first. If Happy with the settings, then click continue, and the install process will create the partitions needed to install elementary OS.
Step 7: Choose your Time zone, In my case I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Step 8: Enter a user name and password for yourself. Also if you don't want to type it in every time you start your laptop, then check the "Log in Automatically" check box.
Important: Do remember your password, you'll need this when the screensaver activates or to use the admin commands.
Step 9: Wait for the install to complete, then click "Restart Now" when prompted
When your system boots up you should see a new prompt asking you if you want to boot Elementary OS or windows (select Elementary OS). Note if there is no prompt and you end up back in Windows, it probably means the boot order in your bios is set wrongly, reboot, go back into your BIOS (hold down esc key at the JOI Logo screen) and set the first boot device to "Ubuntu"
Once started you should be greeted with your new Elementary OS. Note there's still lots more to setup, so please proceed to my other blogs on this site for more tips.