Linux Mint Forums

I have spent hours and hours trying to figure this out myself, so if I am missing something simple- please forgive me.

I am trying to load Mint 14 (XFCE) on a 2007 ThinkPad T60. I just installed a new SSD after the old hard drive crashed.

I mistakenly put the file on a CD not realizing the file was over 700 MB. However, the computer gives me the initial 'Linux Mint' page before shooting an error message.

I have since tried burning the OS on two different DVDs using two different ISO sources using my wife's Mac. The ThinkPad doesn't recognize these discs.

I also moved the ATA into 'compatibility mode' but this did nothing.

Now the computer won't even recognize plop on a CD to try booting from a pen-drive.

Any ideas?

Try to create a bootable USB stick (using windows, for example)

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/cre ... on-windows

Is it possible to create the bootable stick for Mint? Also, I assume no compatibility issues putting linux from a mac onto the drive?

Yes.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/cre ... on-mac-osx

The BIOS tells me: 'Cannot boot from any device'. And specifically, that there's no operating system loaded on the stick. I made sure to prioritize the USB device, but still no luck.

Hi there,

I'm new to the forums, but I saw this in passing.

I happen to own a Thinkpad T60, and last time I tried booting from a USB on it, I believe I had to set the "boot" partition flag on the USB for it to boot correctly.

You can do this with GParted, or the parted command line tool, for example with parted: Not exactly sure what tool to use from a Mac, since I don't own one, but hopefully this is a helpful tip.

You may also be able to use Disk Utility under the Utilities folder in Applications to copy the image to the USB, after you convert the Mint ISO to a DMG.

Hope this helps!
-Liam

I'm a little unclear: I thought I needed to run the file as an iso, not as a dmg.

Also, I used UNetBootIn to mount the iso and then tried running it again and downloaded Mint 10 Live to see if that made a difference- no effect.

Anyone else?

Sorry I had misread the guide that jungle_boy had posted. Please ignore my post.

Although, I still think my particular T60 needed that "boot flag" thing for it to boot from a USB stick, I'll do a test in the morning though.

Let me know- I thought that using UNetBootIn would automatically flag the stick, but if you've got it running then you're still ahead of me..

joincoolkidclub wrote:The BIOS tells me: 'Cannot boot from any device'. And specifically, that there's no operating system loaded on the stick. I made sure to prioritize the USB device, but still no luck.

Hit F12(or whatever it is for your machine) to bring up boot manager. Do this as the machine is posting (lenovo logo comes up). The USB drive should be listed there. If not change usb ports or try another usb drive.

unetbootin will do everything you need to boot.

I hit f12 and selected the drive but was still brought to a BIOS screen that reads 'missing operating system'. I moved it between the three usb ports and still have had no success.

I still haven't been able to figure this out. Any other ideas?

joincoolkidclub wrote:I hit f12 and selected the drive but was still brought to a BIOS screen that reads 'missing operating system'. I moved it between the three usb ports and still have had no success.

ISO you downloaded is fine? Check the md5 to make sure.

100% sure boot flag is set. Unetbootin may have screwed this up.

Does your T60 have >1GB RAM? Create a livecd/liveusb of another distro like ubuntu. Boot into that, download linux mint there, and create a linux mint liveusb from there. (This may take a while).

Does the drive boot on other machines? Any extra desktop/laptops laying around?

Try a different drive. Some just don't work.