was able to boot/install ubuntu, but not freespire.

amcnguy · 07-02-2008, 07:30 PM

Hi,I'm another newbie. I have a new clone pc,w/a dual core Amd cpu,with 1 gig Ram, WD-160 gig sata HD.
I also wanted to explore Linux. So,I burned a Ubuntu 8.04 Iso,& was successful. I installed it on this pc.
I did Order & receive 2 Linux OS's online,Freespire-2008,& Ubuntu-2008. These are Official Linux Disks.
The Ubuntu Disk works fine,But I cannot for the life of me Install Freespire,or even run Freespire from the disk. I did try booting freespire with our other XP-Desktop, and the factory Linux freespire disk works fine.
I have the boot order,set in bios setup @ 1- Cd-Drive,2-Hard Drive,then 3- Floppy,on both pc's
Should I try Downloading & Burning another Freespire disk?
My problem seems to be specific to only 1 of my 2 pc's.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Honeysuckle · 07-02-2008, 08:25 PM

I had trouble booting several distros on my newer computer. I think the trouble with mine was the sata cd drive - but it could have been other things that the kernels/different distros weren't able to automatically deal with.

I'm assuming your boot cd is ok because it boots on your other machine and is a factory disk. Do you get any error message? How far along the boot process do you get? If you paid for your disk, are you entitled to support? If so, contact the Freespire people and ask.

When you boot, there is a pause at a command prompt and you are able to enter boot parameters to tell the computer to bypass things that are problematic. These are called boot "cheat codes". See here (there may be some info on Freespire's site, I don't know, I don't use it): http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes From my reading, common ones that are used are acpi=off, nodma, noapic, but you need to google for your hardware to see what's worked for others, or just try different ones and see how you go.

amcnguy · 07-02-2008, 11:46 PM

Hello again,I am now finding that the Freespire Start Screen will come up. It will give me Choices:Full install,run from cd,etc. Then after @ 3 min,I'll get codes such as: Hda: Timeout waiting for DMA.
Hda: Drive not ready for command.
After that I get a blank screen w/a blinking curser.

I did go into the Bios/Setup,looking to make sure HD-Direct memory access was enabled. But the bios/setup did not have that option.

I will keep plugging away at it. Thank You All for your help so far!