I created a bootable USB of Ubuntu 14.04 and 15.04, via unetbootin, on OS X. The USB live session seems to work in principle, tested it on the Mac I created it on, and can get into a Ubuntu live session (both with 14.04. and 15.04)
The problem:
Trying to get a live session working on my old Thinkpad SL510 (on which I want to install Ubuntu from that session) fails. This is surprising because previously, it worked flawlessly, and in fact, an old version of Ubuntu is installed on the Thinkpad.
Perhaps this is actually related: earlier today, I tried to upgrade the old Ubuntu version on the Thinkpad with apt-get dist-upgrade
. Several errors happened during the upgrade (the Ubuntu version was badly outdated, I should add), so I decided to simply re-install via USB. But, as it turns out, that doesn't seem to work anymore.
Timeline of the error:
Thinkpad starts up. Option to go to BIOS. Changed boot order to have USB drive on top. In addition, I can also select which drive to boot from via F12, and can select the USB as bootable drive.
After selecting the USB with Ubuntu on it, there is a split second of waiting time, then no activity whatsoever, except for a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner.
To summarize:
- Ubuntu Live USB not working on Thinkpad SL510, despite Ubuntu working on the machine previously.
- Problem doesn't seem to be related to boot order (since I can select the USB as boot drive directly), but perhaps to some screw-up during previous distro upgrade of badly outdated Ubuntu on the Thinkpad.
Any ideas what's the problem?
Any chance that it's grub related? But if so, wouldn't the option to boot from USB appear anyway, and the boot problem only appear after installation to HDD?
Or maybe related to not finding a graphics display (maybe some driver got screwed up during the failed upgrade?) If so, I guess Ubuntu boot option nomodeset
might be worth trying, but unfortunately, I don't know how I could even set it, since I never get to the Ubuntu Live Session menu.