Thinkpad x120e not booting with Ubuntu 12.10

**sertua** · March 15th, 2013

Greetings,

I installed Ubuntu 12.10 on a Thinkpad x120e that was running Windows 7. All I get is "Operating System not found" when I boot.

I started to look for solutions here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/X120e
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1699238

And then did some googling and tried many fixes for many hours. I haven't found a solution yet.

My last operation consisted of erasing my hard drive completely and re-installing Ubuntu 12.10. I then ran boot-repair. The log is here: http://paste.ubuntu.com/5616505/

I'm not a newbie to Ubuntu, I'm a regular user, but I don't have much technical knowledge of Linux.

I appreciate your help.

**sandyd** · March 15th, 2013

moved to absolute beginners section

**kurt18947** · March 15th, 2013

I assume you're try to boot from a live USB? I see that message every time I try to boot from a USB that was not formatted with Windows on one desktop machine. That machine is running a Gigabyte board & AMD Athlon II processor. A USB prepared with Gparted and Unetbootin will boot fine off a Thinkpad or older Gigabyte/AMD machine but not the machine with the Gigabyte/AMD785 chipset, I get the "Operating system not found" or "Boot Error" message. A DVD will boot fine. If I Format in Windows - a quick format is fine - then create the live USB with Unetbootin, it boots fine. If you have or can get someone with Windows to do a quick format on your flash drive, it might be worth a try. I've tried to find the difference between a live USB on a windows formatted flash drive and one that was not formatted with Windows. I can't find anything obvious but there's something different.

**sertua** · March 16th, 2013

Thank you Kurt for trying to help.

12.10 is on my hard drive.

Maybe I should point out that I have already successfully installed and configured dozens of Linux distros on many different PCs over the past four years.

**sertua** · March 17th, 2013

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

**kurt18947** · March 17th, 2013

I've never used this but Hirens boot CD is pretty regarded, I think. This is for a USB drive.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk

**sertua** · March 17th, 2013

Thanks Kurt.

I can boot on a usb drive with Ubuntu or any other distro, but the problem is with the one I install on my hard drive. I think this has to do with secure boot / UEFI but despite my extensive research and many attempts, I can't get Ubuntu to boot from the hard drive.

**kurt18947** · March 17th, 2013

Originally Posted by sertua

Thanks Kurt.

I can boot on a usb drive with Ubuntu or any other distro, but the problem is with the one I install on my hard drive. I think this has to do with secure boot / UEFI but despite my extensive research and many attempts, I can't get Ubuntu to boot from the hard drive.

I think (never used it) that Hiren's boot USB is intended to fix problems with hard drive booting. It's just installed on a USB drive instead of a CD. Does the X120e have UEFI/secure boot? I thought those technologies came to the fore after the X120e was released. I hope you're able to solve your problem. I use a 3rd party boot manager so have virtually no experience with with GRUB.

**sertua** · March 18th, 2013

Originally Posted by kurt18947

Does the X120e have UEFI/secure boot? I thought those technologies came to the fore after the X120e was released. I hope you're able to solve your problem. I use a 3rd party boot manager so have virtually no experience with with GRUB.

Yes it does. Sadly.

**oldfred** · March 18th, 2013

If it was running Windows 7, it cannot have secure boot as only Windows 8 supported secure boot. Some Windows 7 systems used UEFI to boot, but most newer Windows 7 systems even with UEFI/BIOS used the BIOS mode to boot.

Best to see details.

Post the link to the BootInfo report that this creates. Is part of Boot-Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info
Boot Repair -Also handles LVM, GPT, separate /boot and UEFI dual boot.:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
You can repair many boot issues with this or 'Create BootInfo' report (Other Options) & post the link it creates, so we can see your exact configuration and diagnose advanced problems.
Install in Ubuntu liveCD or USB or Full RepairCD with Boot-Repair (for newer computers)
http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuSecureRemix