Final edit: having now done more research, the bios is secured and to get to boot options would essentially involve manually editing the bios with a second computer and downloading Chinese software to finish the job. I think I’m just returning this one. This is a bit beyond my skill level

I purchased a Lenovo mini pc online to turn into my second ever Linux machine (whoo), and when I tried booting it up for the first time, I found it asking for a network to sync data from an Amazon employee. I will be frank, fuck Amazon. If someone stole it, I hope the lost money was enough to cause Bezos to shit himself and die, only for a clone to rise in his place to do the same in a never-ending Sisyphean hellscape of skin peeling feculent horror. The fantasy that my holding on to this, and it is likely a fantasy, will affect Amazon is a bonus, not a detriment.

Now, that said, it was probably resold from Amazon’s stock at a decent discount, but not wiped. How can I install Linux on a machine that I don’t actually have full access to? I’m passably tech savvy, and more than willing to learn more to get back on Linux after 10 years of Microsoft pissing me off.

TLDR: How can I install Linux on an Amazon OS machine that I don’t actually have full access to?

Edit: my flash drive is ready, just struggling to get to the boot menu at this point. I can only mash so hard for so long!

  • actionjbone@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    18·
    8 days ago

    It’s most likely an off-lease corporate PC that didn’t get properly wiped.

    Like the other poster said, if you boot from a USB drive you should be able to wipe out windows easily enough.

      • actionjbone@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        8 days ago

        Good luck! If you have trouble getting it to boot from usb, try not to get too discouraged. It sometimes takes a couple tries with some of these little PCs.

        Also, 2 things:

        • don’t trash the old USB drive yet. Try using gparted or some other utility to departition and repartition it. Sometimes, those things can get corrupted but not actually ruined.

        • you probably already figured this out, but don’t use the same USB port for the next try. If the drive WAS killed, it’s possible that the port is physically damaged.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      8 days ago

      If that does not work, remove the boot medium and connect it to another Linux machine to wipe it.

      And you may have to reset the bios.

  • chromeleon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    8 days ago

    Amazon OS? Is there such a thing?

    Anyway, have you tried booting from a live USB to install Linux? DuckDuckGo says this about the Lenovo mini PC: To enter the BIOS on a Lenovo mini PC, you typically need to press the F1 or F2 key during the startup process. If these keys do not work, you can also try the Enter key or consult the user manual for your specific model.

    • Botzo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      8 days ago

      Amazon OS? Is there such a thing?

      Amazon Linux is definitely a thing, but not for desktop OS (I mean it’s Linux, so I don’t see why not, but …)

      And yeah, any number of keys are used to enter the bios or boot menu! Del, left shift, f12, f10, f2, etc.

      Just keep trying them!

      Oh, and sometimes tab will disable the little splash menu so you can see the boot prompts.

    • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      4·
      8 days ago

      It’s a thing as far as I can tell. Or it’s a strong overlay on top of windows. I currently can’t tell, given that I’m fighting with a second login screen on top of the usual pc setup.

      I haven’t tried that yet, that was going to be the first thing i wanted to try tomorrow. The front port ate my last good usb, so I intended to buy another tomorrow. I appreciate you affirming that that was the correct route, as I’m fairly new to all of this

      • sorghum@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        8 days ago

        Delete is usually the key to press on Lenovo machines to get to the BIOS so you can change the boot load order and redo or disable secure boot.

        I’m curious about what is on that ssd. If you are too and the ssd is removable, taking it out and putting it in an enclosure to see what’s on it would be interesting.

        • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          2·
          8 days ago

          I can try it. If it happens to be interesting, which I personally doubt, would there be any interest in my dumping it onto mediafire or some such? I can parse the difference between windows, MacOS, Linux, but delving into something even slightly more opaque is beyond me.

          • sorghum@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            8 days ago

            It’s up to you. The reason I’m into computers was because I broke the family computer when I was a kid and had to fix it so my parents wouldn’t find out that I broke it, lol. From there my curiosity about how they worked and how to upgrade them only took me further. Now I have 8 machines and 1 lenovo mini as a router in my house and none run Windows anymore. Anything from Mint, Fedora, OpenSUSE, OPNSense, Debian, Raspbian, SteamOS, and Arch (btw). My next project will be checking out how Plasma Big Screen is coming along and build a home theater PC. Your new hobby can take you down some rabbit holes for sure. An unwiped corporate SSD is quite a big slip up for their infosec team if it wasn’t stolen.

            • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
              2·
              8 days ago

              That’s a significantly more interesting story than my start (and long stall). “What’s a tracking cookie?” I asked webcrawler. And then my personality became open source freeware for 6 years.

              But if you think that there might be anything of interest, I’ll definitely check it out. Others mentioned that it’s likely a distro of red hat so I’ll see if I can somehow dump or sync it to a flash drive. Unfortunately, I don’t have any spare ssds to swap, and while I’d love to sync the OS to a drive, my priority is definitely to get the flip off of windows already.

  • MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    7 days ago

    If mashing keys isn’t working, try the Novo button instead - most Lenovo mini PCs have this tiny pinhole or button (usually on the side/back) that you press with a paperclip to directly access the boot menu without the keyboard mashng frustration.

    • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      You got me pretty excited for a minute, but unfortunately this model doesn’t have one. I really appreciate the help, though. I have only a few more keys to try, before I loop back to the beginning with a fresher arm