Cant re-install Linpus Lite on Acer Aspire One

[memorex11218]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to achieve a dual boot system with the Linpus Linux that came with the laptop originally for the awesome boot time, all drivers support and general web browsing. I also need to run WindowsXP for work/school.

Every time I try to install Linpus around 32% I get an error:

"Error, The program cannot continue. Press OK to exit the program."

I press OK, installation ends. If I continue to boot from SSD, i get repeating 99. Same occurs with different versions of linpus (I have 2 the one you can download and the one for the acer)

The liveCD works for both Ubuntu (where I use Gparted) and Linpus.

I would like to first install Linpus, then use Gparted on Ubuntu LiveCD to shrink it since it only installs to a whole SSD, and then install Windows.

I also have already tried reformatting many times with gparted and then installing, trying to install on ntfs, fat32, ext2, ext 3 and all other variants. Still error at 32%.

Can someone please help me with the error in Linpus install.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and welcome!
It sounds to me like the Linpus CD has become defective or scratched. Can you burn another copy and try that?

[Jonathan183]

Are you sure that the install can only be done to the whole hard drive ... dual boot is usually easier to setup by installing Windows first.

Is there an option on the Acer CD to restore the OS rather than to install ?

Are there any partitions still on the hard drive from when it was originally installed

What partition structure are you using to install too ... can you post fdisk -l output ...

[memorex11218]

The CD is physically good , first time I'm using it. Its the recovery CD that came with the laptop. I even tried to install from USB (which was an option on the cd), and still the same error. There is no restore the os option. Currently I only have one partition and using it to install Linpus (basically since Linpus crashes every time, there is no point reinstalling XP) I'll just get Linpus first (it only gives the option for the entire disk anyway) then shrink the partition and start Windows install. I think you are right about the CD being a bit off, this time after a fresh install of Ubuntu Netbook Remix it crashed at 58%. To be sure, I'm downloading another CD off TPB, and trying the install again.

EDIT: Whoa crash before install even started this time (using same original CD):

bzip2: I/O or other error, bailing out possible reason follows.
bzip2: Input/Output error
input file= /mnt/rd-base.img.bz2, output file = (stdout)
bunzip2 error, maybe memory not enough?
I'll open a shell for you.
sh-2.05b#

[MikeTbob]

Be sure and burn the cd at low speed, the slower the better.

[memorex11218]

Now I remembered why I hate Linux. I downloaded the file and I cant do anything with it. Its an image.gz file.The instructions say to do this:

Write the file to your device

zcat aa1_usb_recovery_image.gz >> /dev/sdb

where sdb is my flash drive where I want to write the image to.

every time I do this I get:
bash: /dev/sdb: Permission denied

EDIT: never mind, just re-downloaded a proper ISO. However, I would like to know why it gives me the permission denied stuff.

[Jonathan183]

Write the file to your device

zcat aa1_usb_recovery_image.gz >> /dev/sdb

where sdb is my flash drive where I want to write the image to.

every time I do this I get:
bash: /dev/sdb: Permission denied

EDIT: never mind, just re-downloaded a proper ISO. However, I would like to know why it gives me the permission denied stuff.

You don't have the correct permittions to write to the drive ... add sudo to the beginning of the command will probably cure the issue for you.

The permissions are set to prevent a normal user accidentally trashing the system or overwriting another users data. They are a good thing, one of the strengths of Linux ... if Windows used permissions properly and didn't setup everone as administrators by default there would be fewer issues with malware.

[memorex11218]

Okay, finally I got the Linpus running. Had to create a USB from my main pc to do it. Shrunk the partition and installed windows xp. Since windows screwed up my mbr, I followed this to get Grub back. Btw, I used an Ubuntu LiveCD.

sudo grub

> root (hd0,0)

> setup (hd0)

> exit

Now when I boot, I don't go anywhere. Just a black screen with the cursor disappearing after 1 sec. I can boot to Linpus or XP via only the SuperGRUB cd ver 9783. I cant find the "fix mbr" choise. (I cant access the SuperGrub download page for unknown reasons on my main pc.) When I take the SuperGrub cd out then I can't boot into anything again. How do I fix GRUB?

[Jonathan183]

boot from the live cd, open a terminal and enter sudo

fdisk -l

the -l has a small L rather than a one.
Lets say you have linux installed on sda2 then you would type

sudo grub
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

The restart the system. sda1=(hd0,0), sda2=(hd0,1), sdb1=(hd1,0), sdb2=(hd1,1) etc.Windows will usually use the first partition of the first hard drive (sda1). If you need further help then post the output of fdisk command here.

[memorex11218]

Sorry, but the last post was no help. That's the exact thing I did and it gave me the same result. Also, I found the fix grub option on the supergrub cd and still same problem.