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Wipe-clean Ubuntu installation

cn flag
hal

I recently bought a Thinkpad carbon X1 gen9 with Ubuntu preinstalled. The preinstalled Ubuntu have some problems (see this forum) and I was thinking of trying Debian.

As soon as I try to boot from the USB stick that has an image of Debian I am "thrown" into grub and I am unable to do anything else (I guess lack of knowledge).

Now, I thought that I try another distro, and tried to boot up Kubuntu. The result was that Kubuntu never loaded and something like a recovery mode of Ubuntu was triggered, resulting into a fresh Ubuntu installation. (see also this post where the same happened)

I have the feeling that this is related to some configuration from Ubuntu/Lenovo, triggering a recovery mode. As [this post] suggests, completely deleting Ubuntu did the job for him/her, so I was wondering how I can format from an Ubuntu installation.

Thank you

user535733 avatar
cn flag
Are you actually booting those various USB installers successfully? It's hard to tell from your description. A successful boot of a Debian installer should give you a Debian screen with a big Debian logo and Debian install options. If not, then seems like a How-do-I-select-boot-device-in-BIOS question that's not related to Ubuntu. Ubuntu does not muck around with your BIOS boot selection options.
hal avatar
cn flag
hal
Yes I am. I have done successfully this procedure multiple times, on multiple machines. I was actually in doubt in the beginning whether the Debian installer was properly burned, that's why I tried Kubuntu (more straightforward). The fact that Kubuntu also fails to boot signals that it's not a USB stick/boot image problem.
user535733 avatar
cn flag
Can you add a picture of the "*something like recovery mode*" ?
hal avatar
cn flag
hal
It's not a specific screen or something. What happens (e.g. when I try to boot Kubuntu) is that the Ubuntu are reinstalling. I am not getting an option for installing Kubuntu. Even if I try to boot another image with Ubuntu OS, I am also not getting an option to wipe-clean and install Ubuntu, it goes straight installing Ubuntu with the oem kernel, which is used in the preinstalled version in Thinkpads.
karel avatar
sa flag
Does this answer your question? [Removing an Ubuntu installation](https://askubuntu.com/questions/277838/removing-an-ubuntu-installation)
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