Thinkpads Forum

Good day,

I recently bought a X220 thinkpad to use as a work laptop (smaller and tougher than my previous ASUS).
I purchased it from ebay (http://www.ebay.fr/itm/351964588957?_tr ... EBIDX%3AIT) and it came with windows 7 pro installed on it.

I don't have any grudge against windows 7, but I want something lighter and free, that is why I want to install Debian on it.

My issue is that the x220 won't boot from the usb (Sandisk Cruzer Facet of 32GB). The flashdrive is recognized in the BIOS, and I placed it on top of Boot Priority Order.
By pressing F12 I can attempt a boot on it, but after a few seconds I m back on the boot menu.
I tried all the USB port, and various flashdrive as well. The USB boot is also working on my other laptop.
I have set UEFI/Legacy Mode to Both and also put the Boot Mode in Diagnostics instead of Quick
The weird part of it is that there no Secure Boot option available in the BIOS, thus I can't choose to disable it.

The UEFI BIOS version is 8DET73WW (1.43)
The Embedded Controller Version is 8DHT34WW (1.24)

I found this topic with a similar issue (https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/pre-ins ... m-usb/7074), the solution for him was to use an "old HP flashdrive", but after trying different usb flashdrive the boot was still not happening.


Thank you for your help !

What program are you using to create the bootable USB drive?

Hi Axur,
Thank you for your reply.
I created the bootable USB drive with the dd command on ubuntu:

~ dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=4M && sync

(I first unmounted USB)

Try building the bootable flash disk using Rufus on WIndows.

Did you select USB HDD in the Boot priority?
Other settings:
UEFI/Legacy Both
Legacy First
Boot mode Quick
Display F12 option

Thank you for your replies RealBlackStuff and axur, it is very appreciated.

@RealBlackStuff Yeah all these options were set up

@ axur : I tried using rufus and it worked ! I can boot with debian now

Have a great day,

Alex

Sorry for the necro bump but did you ever find solution? I have exactly the same problem and can't figure it out.

Recognizes the USB drive but when try to boot from, it just comes back to the same screen after a second or so.

Any recommendations on what to try? How should I be creating the boot USB?

Thank you

Rufus.

mario24601 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:22 am

Sorry for the necro bump but did you ever find solution? I have exactly the same problem and can't figure it out.

Recognizes the USB drive but when try to boot from, it just comes back to the same screen after a second or so.

Any recommendations on what to try? How should I be creating the boot USB?

Thank you

Maybe the usb needs GPT. You could try gdisk:

gdisk - GPT fdisk text-mode partitioning tool

Hello,

I had the same problem last week trying to install various linux distribs on my x201, I also had the problem of "no system installed" message after trying to boot on the usb stick, and sometimes I met another last problem about the block sizes.

The only method that work was this one and it's variant (for a 32gb usb):

1st method:

1. Doing a full FAT32format of the usb stick with windows (8.1 in my case)
2. Plugged in the stick on linux.
3. Launch gparted and erase all data, change partition table for msdos, and create a new primary partition with FAT32.
4. Open a terminal and launch the two followings command:
4.1 This one to know what's the right device: 4.2 This last one to format the right block sizes (sdd in my case) 5. Now, use UNetbootin in order to clone your iso on the stick.
6. Once it's done, turn off and try to boot it again.

2nd method (variant):
IF it doesn't work, repeat the same method but replace step 5 by doing it manually with the following command and wait (it took me 90 or 180seconds to clone it by usb): (the same command that you use, but without offlag and bs).

This method and the variant of step 5 are the only two ways that worked well for me. I did the same with a samsung micro sd and it worked too.

Thanks all! Finally got it to work!

Nice little laptop, wish it had ips. Maybe someday do a swap.

Installed osx. Overall seems ok. Runs hotter and more fan engaged than it did with Win 10.

mario24601 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:13 am

Installed osx. Overall seems ok. Runs hotter and more fan engaged than it did with Win 10.

Did you already install tlp and thinkfan? Only thing I don't get right on the X220 is the touchpad, disabled it in the end.

I had the same problem till I realised that BIOS-Startup options has an option "excluded from boot priority" off the screen... And my USB was there