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!

  • Botzo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    30 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.