I have a new Lenovo desktop. 3000 J series. It has Vista on it. I need to either dual boot it with Linux or - if that is not possible - replace Vista with Linux. (I need a Linux development environment.)
I have a Ubuntu CD, but the machine does not boot from it. I went into the bios to see if I could change the boot load order. If one can, I don’t understand how.
Boot Protocol - this cannot be changed
Boot Strap Type: Choices are BBS, int 18H, int 19H and Auto detect.
Auto detect seems to bypass the CD all together.
The other 3 *seem *to hit the CD (the light flashes a lot) but then Vista loads anyway.
I tried the Ubuntu CD on an eMachine and it boots right into Linux. I’ve googled Lenovo and Linux and all kinds of combinations but am apparently still missing a key search word, because I haven’t found anything on how to do this yet…
I am willing to wipe the hard drive all together, but if the machine will only boot to Vista, I don’t know how to do that. Can anyone point me to some tools or does anyone have some experience with Lenovo and Linux? (I asked the freaking sales guy if this were possible and he said “sure.” This is twice in two weeks that I got BS from a sales person.)
Have you checked with the folks at the Ubuntu forums? Unlike a lot of Linux forums, they don’t give you any flack for asking a n00b question. I’d be surprised if someone there didn’t have the answer you’re looking for.
Thanks! I’ll check there!
There is an article here from a week or so ago about Ubuntu on a Thinkpad, via Slashdot, that may have some pointers for you.
OK, I got it sorted. At start up there is a prompt cntrl-S. I tried it and got the options above. Turns out that is for the ethernet bios…
After some research I found that Lenovo used to be IBM. Also found that the Del key will give you BIOS options. But alas no boot stuff in there either. 
Finally, after hitting keys randomly, I find that F12 will allow me to change the boot order. And low and behold, Ubuntu boots!
Great stuff.
They like to keep you guessing, don’t they?
Let us know how you fare with it.
I run Ubuntu on a desktop, plus dual-boot with XP on another.
I have a new laptop with Vista on it and don’t want to mess up the warranty on it but am going to get a second hard drive and install Ubuntu on that, see how that goes.
Good to hear you got it sorted - I’ll post this here anyway:
I just had the job of trying to set up Ubuntu Linux on a machine that had a CD drive, but would not boot from it. The machine will boot from a floppy though, so I created a boot floppy with Smart Boot Manager on it (you can do this on almost any other machine - Mac, Windows or Linux). Booting from that floppy brings up a comprehensive boot menu, including boot from CD, even if the BIOS doesn’t support this natively or if it isn’t working for some other reason.