For the USB Stick, I followed the directions included with the bundle.
The file called readusb.txt using .\dfsanwin.exe -q run aosboot.dfs <snip>
For DVD creation, I used CDBurnerXP - burn iso, pointing to ArcaOS-5.1.1-en.iso.
In the past couple of years, I've updated both main and cmos batteries, and updated to the latest bio's revision I could find on thinkpad forum.
The ubuntu and gpart was not added to confuse the issue, but simply to demonstrate yes, I can boot from the usb port, yes I can boot from dvd and yes, the drive is seen and can be read from and written to.