this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025

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~~Trying to unlock and put Linux on a locked, proprietary pc and I need some help~~ 2 years of compsci isn’t worth a $20 pc. I’m returning it and getting my money back. Details in post (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Gullible@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.world

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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!

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[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 18 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for the confirmation! I’m excited to post the “I did it!” at some point this week.

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

I appreciate that. This is definitely going to be a long learning process for me, but the boundless optimism here, and my malignant hatred for windows, will hopefully keep me going

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago

Good advice, although you'd be surprised how often corporate machines don't have any BIOS/UEFI security.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 months ago

Not if it is Intune enrolled

[+] chromeleon@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Replying to track what I’ve tried so far. It’s a loooong boot

F1, f12, left shift

[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You need wait only until the os starts loading. This should be well below 30sec.

And absolutely crush all of them while you're booting. You're not gonna hurt anything.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

I wish it were so short. It’s about a minute per boot, and I have never mashed this hard or long in my life. Still worth

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.works 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months 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.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I thought it's a RHEL distro.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You might be right, but in my defense, I am very dumb.

[–] sorghum@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Nah, ignorance is always fixable. Everyone has to learn at some point. Willful ignorance though is stupid. Have fun learning.

[–] MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months 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

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If it was stolen it needs to be returned

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

the dude “that’s just your opinion” gif

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You do realize you could end up with cops knocking on your door right?

Chances are it is not stolen. However, I would confirm that to be the case.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Frankly, I wouldn’t even know where to begin to return it. I guess I’ll shoot them an email with the model and pics and send it back to them if they request it. As with the drive’s contents, I expect nothing

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 months ago

That is quite reasonable

If they don't get back to you that is on them