Got a rather unique situation here, just wondering if anyone has a way around it...
I bought a cheap (used) laptop off eBay (an old Dell Latitude 2120), with the intention of installing Linux on it. The computer currently has Windows 7.
So, I downloaded the Linux Mint ISO, used a program called Rufus to make a USB drive bootable. However, it looks like the computer is set to boot from the Hard disk first before the USB. I attempted to go in to the BIOS but it looks like there the BIOS is locked and you need a password to change the boot order (which I don't have).
So does anyone have any idea about the best way to proceed? (Note that I would prefer to have the Laptop to be Linux only; i.e. no 'dual boot' with a separate Linux partition, or running Linux on top of Windows)
Some of the ideas that I was thinking of:
- Is there any way the BIOS can be unlocked without the password? (I suspect not, since that would defeat the whole point of the password.)
- Is there a way to force the computer (once windows is running) to execute the ISO? (I've tried wincdemu, but that just ends up mounting the ISO as a disk rather than executing the Linux boot sequence)
- Can Windows be removed from the hard drive (perhaps with a format), so that the boot sequence skips over the HDD and boots from the USB? (That sounds like the easiest solution, but I don't want to run the risk of wiping out Windows but not having Linux installed either, leaving it completely unusable)
I bought a cheap (used) laptop off eBay (an old Dell Latitude 2120), with the intention of installing Linux on it. The computer currently has Windows 7.
So, I downloaded the Linux Mint ISO, used a program called Rufus to make a USB drive bootable. However, it looks like the computer is set to boot from the Hard disk first before the USB. I attempted to go in to the BIOS but it looks like there the BIOS is locked and you need a password to change the boot order (which I don't have).
So does anyone have any idea about the best way to proceed? (Note that I would prefer to have the Laptop to be Linux only; i.e. no 'dual boot' with a separate Linux partition, or running Linux on top of Windows)
Some of the ideas that I was thinking of:
- Is there any way the BIOS can be unlocked without the password? (I suspect not, since that would defeat the whole point of the password.)
- Is there a way to force the computer (once windows is running) to execute the ISO? (I've tried wincdemu, but that just ends up mounting the ISO as a disk rather than executing the Linux boot sequence)
- Can Windows be removed from the hard drive (perhaps with a format), so that the boot sequence skips over the HDD and boots from the USB? (That sounds like the easiest solution, but I don't want to run the risk of wiping out Windows but not having Linux installed either, leaving it completely unusable)
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2FStHhT
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