Installing ubuntu on a Lenovo Thinkpad x201

Question

I am new to Ubuntu. I have googled a lot to try and get answers and have not succeeded. This is a refurbed Thinkpad with Windows 10. I used Rufus to create a bootable usb with Ubuntu. Then I rebooted the Thinkpad, pressed F12 to choose the Usb for booting. So far so good.

But, now nothing happens. I am looking at a black screen with a blinking cursor. I've waited about 15 minutes thinking that maybe it's a very slow process. But nothing.

The computer has 4Gig of memory but otherwise its on the slow side. It has 150G of SSD.

Any tips? Thanks!

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 16 '17 at 17:38

1

Type crtl + alt + f2 -- > if you made an account login
Then sudo service lightdm restart

answered Jun 16 '17 at 17:38

NerdOfCode

2,498

doesn't seem to do anything. when do you mean? Before boot sequence? – pitosalas Jun 16 '17 at 17:51
No after you boot and you see the black screen. – NerdOfCode Jun 16 '17 at 17:53
Doesn't do anything. How long am I expected to wait looking at a black screen, knowing its coming off a usb? – pitosalas Jun 16 '17 at 17:57
Did you make an account yet? – NerdOfCode Jun 16 '17 at 17:58
I have yet to enter ubuntu for the first time, so, no. No account. – pitosalas Jun 16 '17 at 17:58
this is a first install attempt – pitosalas Jun 16 '17 at 17:58
Take a look at this fix. fix – NerdOfCode Jun 16 '17 at 17:59
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – pitosalas Jun 16 '17 at 18:25

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 22 '17 at 13:40

under Rufus after u choose the ISO file, change the partition scheme to MBR with BIOS option, it should prompt you to download some file and then it will re-create the bootup disk. After that u should be able to boot up. If this solves your problem, it most probably is because your motherboard does not support UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) which after you selected the ISO it automatically changed even you changed before selecting the ISO file. Hope it helps

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 05 '17 at 18:52

Similar problem.

I've made sure that the USB stick iso is set to MBR. During boot I press F12 and get the option to load the USB stick. Then the menu appears and when choosing to try Ubuntu without installing I can see the splash screen which is then turned to a black screen which stays. forever... I've tried to edit the menu option to include nomodeset as suggested in another thread (My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it?) but it only results in having some blurred lines on the screen. I'd appreciate any help!

Adi

False alarm. It just took forever (15 minutes..) but eventually, the GUI did load ! — Adi Lavy, Dec 05 '17 at 19:18

Installing ubuntu on a Lenovo Thinkpad x201

3 Answers3