I'm trying to give an old Sony Vaio PCG-71211W to my mother, but Windows runs too slowly on it. I created an Alpine Linux installer and have been trying to start the laptop from it, but I can't figure out how to open the boot menu. What key or BIOS settings should I use, and are there any tips for creating compatible installation media?
3 Answers
Make sure the USB is connected before powering on, then try the boot-menu key repeatedly during startup; on some Vaio models it may be F11, F12, or Assist rather than F2. If the USB still does not appear, enable USB boot in the BIOS and recreate the installer.
Try entering the BIOS by pressing F2 repeatedly immediately after powering the laptop on. From there, check the boot order and move the USB drive above the internal disk. If you used Rufus to create the installer, try DD mode, or use an MBR partition scheme with the BIOS target option.
That laptop is fairly old, so Alpine may not be the easiest choice unless the person using it already knows Alpine. A lightweight Debian-based option such as antiX, MX Linux with Fluxbox, Q4OS, or Lubuntu may be easier to set up and should run reasonably well. Having around 4 GB of RAM would help a lot.
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