Linspire Flop!

[Oheck!]

I bought a boxed version of Linspire about 3 months ago now to install on my 64bit computer, but all attempts have failed. Could the problem have been the SATA hard drive?What a waste of good money.

[bigtomrodney]

What errors are you getting? It is possible to download Freespire at no cost, and the overwhelming majority of Linux distros are free to download.

Post back the error you get or a description of what goes wrong and we'll try to get you sorted out.

[Oheck!]

I purchased the computer which is an eMachines 160GB pc base unit supports Microsoft Vista™ Home Basic and has 512MB DDR2 memory with an Intel pentium 4 processor 631 and ATI radeon xpress 200 graphics. Specifically so that i could overwrite Windows Vista Home Basic with Linspire. But no such luck!

I made sure that the boot sequence in the BIOS was set to boot up from cd. I then entered the cd into the drive and restarted the computer. I was then given one of two options and i choose the first option to run the "Live cd" with out installing to my hard drive. The Linspire screen then appeared with a progress bar. The next thing i know is a lot of code appears on the screen. Here is the last line.

FATAL: CD search failed. Type "exit" to reboot.

The company who produces Linspire wisely omitted to put a contact e-mail address on their product. I wonder why?

Would really appreciate any and all help with this. Thanks folks!

[Oheck!]

O well don't seem as if i've got to thank anyone for not helping.

[chatan]

The company who produces Linspire wisely omitted to put a contact e-mail address on their product. I wonder why?

Sorry I can't help you with your problem, except to refer you to linspire's support site: Linspire.com - Support

Good Luck

[Oheck!]

Hi Chatan
Have been stuck with a product that will simply not install or run as 'live cd' and very little hope of seeing the problem resolved either. Will never touch anything with the Linspire/Freespire logo on ever again and will warn all my friends as well. Thanks for the link. Will let you know if i should get Linspire up and running on my pc's. Cheers!

[aikiwolfie]

What makes you assume this is a problem with Linspire? eMachines don't exactly have shiny 100% reliable record. In fact I'd personaly avoid and eMachines PC like the plauge. Nothing but trouble in my experience.

Perhaps you should have checked to see if eMachines hardware was supported before you bought Linspire. I'm fairly sure they have a HCL on their web site.

[bcspratt]

I purchased the computer which is an eMachines 160GB pc base unit supports Microsoft Vista™ Home Basic and has 512MB DDR2 memory with an Intel pentium 4 processor 631 and ATI radeon xpress 200 graphics. Specifically so that i could overwrite Windows Vista Home Basic with Linspire. But no such luck!

I made sure that the boot sequence in the BIOS was set to boot up from cd. I then entered the cd into the drive and restarted the computer. I was then given one of two options and i choose the first option to run the "Live cd" with out installing to my hard drive. The Linspire screen then appeared with a progress bar. The next thing i know is a lot of code appears on the screen. Here is the last line.

FATAL: CD search failed. Type "exit" to reboot.

The company who produces Linspire wisely omitted to put a contact e-mail address on their product. I wonder why?

Would really appreciate any and all help with this. Thanks folks!

***************************
In case yoy are very new to Linux, it is normal to see thousands of lines of code as the kernel loads. The kernel has a lot to do and it is included for informational purposes.
I have used Linspire/Linux for 5 years and it has worked very well for me on numerous different PCs (I repair PCs). I assume that you have Linspire version 5. You may have a bad CD or perhaps your PC is not well supported either under Linux in general or Linspire in specific. I would suggest that you download and burn a Knoppix (or Ubuntu or other) live CD, to see if another disk or distribution will work. If it does, then you may have a bad CD. If it does not, then you may have obscure / unsupported hardware.
I have also seen (fairly frequently) a CD-ROM have trouble reading a CD that could be read with a newer (or better) CD-ROM. This problem is usually due to the CD-ROM being "old" or when the CD-ROM was a cheap brand (emachines had a bad reputation for that).
Lastly, I have found some LCD monitors are not easily recognized during bootup. Unfortunately Linspire does not have a "boot options" command line but Knoppix does. I suggest that you try a Knoppix live CD and add the command "fb800x600" or "fb1024x768" as a boot parameter. This forces the "frame buffer" into an 800 by 600 display mode (a safe display mode). let me know if that helps.

God bless

[chatan]

Unfortunately Linspire does not have a "boot options" command line but Knoppix does. I suggest that you try a Knoppix live CD and add the command "fb800x600" or "fb1024x768" as a boot parameter.

To get boot options for Linspire:

• When grub first appears hit "e"
• Select the kernel and hit 'e'
• Add the desired boot option to the end of the line and then hit 'enter'
• Hit 'b' and your computer should boot with the option.

That is from LinspireGuide - Boot
Hopefully I'm not off base.
Cheers

[Oheck!]

I bought a cheap as chips computer with which to try out a Linux distro out on "Linspire". I have contacted Linspire Inc who informed me that the version of Linspire Five-0 i purchased does not support installation on a SATA hard drive. My only argument is, why wasn't this made clear prior to purchase?