Thinkpads Forum

Think Pad 600x, xp

Hallo dear friends !

I got a present - an old Think Pad, which appears to me to be a wonderful still very useful instrument. Since manuals are no more available, I need your step by step help:
1.) Removal of XP and installing LinuxMint Cinamon from USB stick.
> Start + F1
Bios opens. (EasySetupMenue offers to select: Config - Date/time - Password - Start up - Restart)

> Config
Menu offers: MemorySystemBoard - Display - Network - AssetID - QuickBoot - CPU - BootMenu F12 - Initialize)

> F12
Menue offers: F12Boot - Enable - Disable

> Enable > OK
ConfigMenue returns. BootMenuF12 marked.

> F12
returns to MenueF12 enable / disable

MY PROBLEMS:
Where do I have to select the bootable LinuxUSBStick ?
Where do I use the F12 key revealing the setup menue to select the USBStick ?
Is it possible to clear the disk completely using the external DOS based DBAN Eraser - Program?

I should be very grateful for any advice to make this nice laptop work again, which really deserves it.

Thanking in advance

Knut

While booting with the USB stick inserted, press F12 while the Lenovo logo is still being displayed (just like you did with F1 to enter the BIOS). USB devices will usually be the last item on the list.

The Linux Mint installation media can be used to delete Windows, format the HDD and install Linux. Just choose the option that reads something like "Use entire disk" for installation.

Not a Mint user myself, but the good thing about Ubuntu and Mint is that these are newbie user friendly distros with lots of spoonfeeding documentation available. Have a look at their official documentation which clarifies the whole process and your questions:

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.re ... en/latest/

Enjoy the Linux world

Linux Mint in a 600x? Which version of Mint are you planning to use? With a max RAM of 576MB you will probably need to be very selective on the version and GUI of choice...

I don't think Cinnamon will work, but I never tried myself... Keep us posted how it goes...

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Tasurinchi wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 05, 2019 4:38 am

Linux Mint in a 600x?

Oops! I overlooked that bit of info. It's been a very long time since I've installed an OS on a 600 series machine, and I don't remember what exactly the USB boot procedure is. Probably not exactly as I wrote above. IIRC, back when I last installed something, I was still using CD disks. It might be necessary to use a PLOP boot disk to hand off to the USB device.

A little more research lead me to this topic: viewtopic.php?t=36943

I do not think a 600X can boot from USB. I think you should install completely from a CD. Linux Mint and even anything that uses XFCE or LXDE will not run well on your machine. My suggestion is to install Debian with either IceWM, OpenBox, or FluxBox. A few other distro choices would be Puppy Linux, Tiny Core, or Slitaz. BunsenLabs is a good one but I think even that may be a bit much for your machine to handle.

I experimented running Debian Linux on an X61 with only 512MB RAM. To minimize the memory usage I used JWM as the window manager.

Now that I've had a few days to think about it, I think what I did when I had a 600X was to remove the hard drive, and connect it to a different computer to install whatever operating system I wanted, be it Linux of some sort, or Windows, because I could not get the 600X to boot from USB and my optical drives would not read burned disks. That procedure works especially well with Linux since there is not licensing issue to deal with.