I’m trying to install 16.04 Ubuntu Mate using the mini.iso on a ThinkPad T450s. However, when I get to the initial menu and select “install”, the screen goes black without any further activity. The installation process never begins. I’ve also tried “command-line install” with the same result. I have the machine set to legacy boot (uefi doesn’t even get me to the menu), secure boot is disabled, and I’ve checked everything else I can think of that might be preventing things from working. I know the usb is fine because I’ve used it to successfully install the same OS on a T60 (and am very happy with it, that’s why I want to now install it on my main machine).
Any help would be appreciated.
Problem solved. I had a wireless mouse receiver still plugged into a usb port, which was apparently fouling up the installer. After removing it, things are working as they should.
EDIT: see below for further issues.
Maybe not. The mini iso has a little quirk with it. During the install all activity will will stop. No internet usage, no cpu usage, it looks dead. But after several minutes it magically springs back to life. This and how long a basic install takes is why I dropped the mini.iso in favor of the server.iso. With the server iso everything is on the disk (which fits on a CD) for a basic install and takes only a few minutes to install.
So first I would let it set in that install stage for 10 or 15 minutes. I have had older equip take as much as 45 minutes to get by this dead space.
I assume your aware of this..
mini system in UEFI mode
While the minimal iso image is handy, it isn't useful for installing on UEFI-based systems that you want to run in UEFI mode. The mini iso lacks the proper files for booting the computer in UEFI mode. Thus, the computer will boot in BIOS compatibility mode, and the installation will be in BIOS mode.
You can use an Ubuntu Server amd64 iso file (64-bit) for 'mini installations' in UEFI mode.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD#mini_system_in_UEFI_mode
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And you found the answer. Didn’t see it until I posted 
Unfortunately, I’ve run into another problem. It’s failing to configure the networking. When I installed it on my T60, I was able to select between ethernet and wifi, and when I chose wifi I then selected my local wifi access point and entered the password, which successfully established my internet connection. But on this machine, when it gets to the networking configuration stage, something goes wrong. It sort of jumps right into trying to establish a connection with the dhcp host and then fails. I never have a choice between ethernet and wireless, and I never get the chance to enter my wireless credentials. There’s nothing wrong with the hardware as I’m able to use wifi when running the OS that’s currently installed.
EDIT: Actually, what seems to be happening is that it’s not detecting my wireless card at all. It goes right into trying to configure “enp0s25”, which is the ethernet id, but of course that’s unconnected. This doesn’t make sense to me. The currently running OS is plain vanilla Ubuntu 16.04 and the wireless works fine, so why should the 16.04 mini.iso not have the appropriate drivers?
EDIT 2: Yep, that’s precisely the issue. I just tried disabling the ethernet interface in the bios, in case the installer was somehow automatically defaulting to that option, but now it just says it doesn’t detect any network interface at all.
Does the server.iso include the option for Ubuntu-Mate minimal installation?
Nope. With the server iso you use manual package selection and go from there.
As for you wireless drivers I don't know how they would be configured. You may want to start a separate thread on this issue and pull in the right crowd. Is network manager already install with your package selection?
It was when I installed it on the T60. This is all very odd. I'm looking through /lib/firmware on my T60 installation and it looks as if the right drivers are there for my T450s wireless card (there's a whole host of iwlwifi-7265 drivers), so I can't understand why it's not being detected.