Hello

I I have a shiny new laptop with windows 8 on it which I have tried to tame with "classic shell" but I still hate it. I want to try Zorin.

I down loaded Zorin 6.3 64 bit ran MD5sum and burnt the ISO using Cyber2Go at 2x and verified it. The disc runs fine on my husbands windows 7 machine.

I did some research and concluded we needed to switch off secure boot and set the boot sequence to do DVD first.

We did this and restarted with the Zorin disc in, the disc drive made a few noises and windows 8 opened.

We tried shutting off then starting again, still windows.

I read somewhere in the Zorin forum that windows 8 hypersleeps???? So we removed the battery for a few minutes and then tried again. Still windows.

I looked at another forum I visit (the Elder Geeks) and they suggested disabling “fast startup” in the power settings, so I did that. It still boots into windows 8.

How on earth do you make it run a live disc??????

The machine is a Compaq Presario CQ58 Intel Celeron B830 BIOS:Insyde F.37
Windows 8 is build 9200

Suggestions please this is driving me nuts!

Margaret (Still sane but on the edge)

Did you check whats the first boot priority - CD or Hard Disk?. It seems to me the first boot priority is set to hdd. Either set 1st boot to CD in BIOS, or press F2/F8/F12 (depends on your laptop) and select CD/DVD to boot from Live CD.

Hello Mddesai

I have changed the boot to CD/DVD and the disc runs at start up it just does not do anything, windows 8 loads regardless.

Try burning the .iso to disk with something else, ImgBurn, for example.
http://www.imgburn.com/

Try this site

http://zorin-os.com/free7.html

Maybe, I would suggest to burn a 64 bit slooow(4X).

The $.99 store has a two DVD disc.

hth

Hello Brian the disc works fine in windows 7 so I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

Hello WHK I burnt it at X2 so that should be OK. I chose 6.3 as it has long term support I thought 7 was for more experienced punters.

I have just looked at this link from the Zorin forum http://orrinfox.deviantart.com/art/Ubun ... -347639202
I think I chose the wrong laptop.

Margaret (Very fed up)

Hi Xstitcher I dont know if Zorin OS has support for UEFI at this point as you would know is based on Ubuntu 12.04.
Perhaps for now you can download an Ubuntu base OS that is using a more recent kernel, like Kubuntu 13.04 -------------> link here http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-13.04
OR you can try a different OS that has nothing to do with Ubuntu or Debian for that matter

OpenSUSE 12.3 -------------> Link here http://www.opensuse.org/en/

If you choose OpenSUSE choose the one with KDE desktop environment. Gnome is currently under heavy development and it is not ready just yet.

You can test and install either of these which they do support the new changes then you can test Zorin OS once their next version is release.

Good luck to you.

Helo Tron

I gave up in irritation and my husband got Zorin to boot using the instructions from the http://orrinfox.deviantart.com/art/Ubun ... -347639202 link. It sort of works but can't find any networks. It would appear whatever you do with this particular laptop it will load Windows 8 unless forced by pressing f9 at boot to do something else. I am not at all happy about this. Others have suggested Zorin 7 and Ubuntu secure mix. I now have a pile of DVDs that are wrong. We are on a metered broadband so I can't try every distribution. I picked Ubuntu as it is supposedly newbie friendly.
If I try OpeSUSE will that still need to be f9'ed to open? Or as we have shut all Secure boot and FastStartup things off will it work in a sensible manner.
I would consider returning the laptop as unfit for purpose but is there any point if all the new ones like this now.

Margaret (totally puzzled)

I am afraid that to boot OpenSUSE you still will have to do the F9 trick. And you will still have to figure out the network wireless. Which I assume it has to do with a proprietary driver that is not included in the ISO file but you can find the driver after you have installed the new OS.

Once you have successfully boot a Linux OS in your computer you could connect to the internet by plunging the internet wire directly to the computer and download that way any upgrade available for your computer.

If you go with a Ubuntu base OS go with Kubuntu 13.04 because its graphical interface will be more familiar to you than the strait Ubuntu but this is of course a matter of what you prefer.

Perhaps once you have done the installation in your hard drive you wont have to press f9 each time you switch the computer ON but I will let somebody with more experience comment on that.

Live CD's tend to be flaky to some extent. My experience is that after installing a new distro, I must first do an update and upgrade before things start being recognised. (update and upgrade for .deb apt-get based distros like Ubuntu and Debian)


Some machines are very fussy as well. I have an older netbook that can't handle a graphical installer of any kind. Some newer machines will need the latest kernel to work properly. And any machine that came with Windows 8 is most likely designed to resist any attempt to install or run an alternative OS. (Microsoft initially tried to get hardware vendors to make it impossible, but people kicked up too much fuss )


Sometimes you will just have to take a leap of faith and install even if the live CD version seems to be having issues.

Hello Tron

Thank you for clarifying the F9 thing. We will try to install the disc and see what happens.

Hello Glue

We clearly have to give it a go and stop being to timid.

Cheers Margaret (the nervous)

Hello today's report is mixed.

The good news is Zorin is working as a dual boot on the windows 7 machine and seems fine.

The bad new is my VERY patient husband tried to use the windows 8 machine but it even drove him to distraction in the end. It saw networks if it was "in the mood" and had fallen out with our printer and refused to see it at all. He eventually reloaded windows 8 for a new start. Would it see our networks? NO. So that is that, back in the box and a refund. Windows 8 officially done in this house.

Cheers Margaret using Zorin!!!!!!!

Congratulations on both counts. I'm not a Zorin user but have tried it and can see its appeal. I tried the free/beta version of windows 8 about 18 months ago on VirtualBox. It seemed to me to be specifically designed for notebooks, Ipad type things. It was very different from previous versions of windows I have used and from what I read about it, a lot of people aren't too happy with it.

Hope you enjoy Zorin and come back with any questions.