I have bought a cheap laptop (17" acer) with windows vista preinstalled.

I wanted to try Linpus lite so I could set up this machine for my Mum and Dad to use, so it must be simple.

I've downloaded Linpus Lite Livecd onto a CD, and can boot from it into Linpus.

However when I try to follow the advice to install Linpus onto my hard drive (I've shrunk the windows partitions to leave some free space), I keep getting "unable to write to the device" (using /dev/hda).

I've tried "fdisk" from a terminal windows, and the "make_disk.sh" command as suggested by the readme for Linpus.

Is this the windows vista boot region that is stopped me from doing this?

Can anyone recommend a way to either
1) install Linpus as a dual boot?
2) install Linpus as a replacement OS?

Thanks and regards,
Bryan.

After some investigation it appears I need to install to /dev/sda on this machine. So I just need to plump up the courage to try an install to what I think is the spare space....(p.s. I have a recovery CD and a backup).

Well I'm totally underwhelmed at the response from this forum...

Anyway the lastest problem I have with Linpus is that after I install it to /dev/sda5 then when I boot the m/c I get...

....
waiting for PCMCIA devices
Fatal error occurred - linpus data not found.
You are maybe using an unsupported boot device (e.g. SCSI).
Workaround: Copy yhe dir Linpus from your boot device to a IDE/SATA disk,
e.g. /mnt/hda1 or c:/

If I boot using a SuperGrub cd then pick my
/boot/grub/grub.conf
it boots ok.

After doing this a few times it even stops doing this!

Maybe I should install MAC 8....

Sorry if you didnt get at much response as you wanted, so here's mine.
I also want to try Linpus - on my HP2133.

I downloaded the iso file for 9.4 (a very long download due to the very slow link) and burnt it to dvd,

I tried booting two different machines from the DVD. The first, an IBM Thinkpad T41 did not like it at all - due I think to video driver problems.
However, no matter becasue it was not that, that I wanted it for anyway.
I tried the HP 2133 netbook and presto, it boots ok from an external dvd drive!
Two options: Live CD mode, and Installation

The live CD works great! I'd seen it on the Acer netbook but clearly that version is not the standard one as this setup has many more applications etc installed and also looks a little different.

I liked it so much that I wanted to install it properly using the other boot option!

I tried that but it failed at the select a partition stage - it just reboots and then back to square one.

I tried the instructions here http://www.pilotennetz.de/computing/...stall/#english
but fdisk doesnt seem to ba ble to fibde the hard disk

So I'm stuck. Help anyone?

For something easy to use and setup, try Ubuntu.

Yes and it does work too - but
Netbook remix sucks and the screen is really too small the full GUI
Linpus boots ok (not even any need for xforcevesa) looks great on a small screen.
If I could just install to HD.............

Perhaps you could install the LXLauncher (http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php/LXLauncher) interface on to Ubuntu to give it a more Linpus Linux Lite feel (it's based on the EeePC interface, but the two seem similar to me)? I've no experience with Linpus, so can't help much there, I'm afraid.

I found that after I installed another new hard drive into my Acer laptop, then I could install Linpus and boot from that.

You have to take care with the hda/sda partitions labels.

At the moment I just change the boot order to get my Linpus OS.

I'm still stuck trying to set up wireless, due to lack of time and inclination.

Hope this helps you.

regards, Bryan.

pwc101 - I had a look at LXLauncher but it does not appear to be as ready or as nice to look at as Linpus
Since linpus is based on Fedora/Redhat I would expect it to be a pretty good basis for a netbook or even a simple PC for (say) the elderly.

Anyway, a bit of an update: Perhaps the problem is a BryanW suggests becuase I did finally install Linpus to another laptop.
Rather than stopping and restarting at the select partition stage, this one found the partitions and continued to the end!
Looks pretty good and although I hardly did anything it looks like it found the nvidia graphics card and the wirless!

A bit basic for a full sized laptop, but still not a bad step forward

Now, if only i could find out how to install on my HP2133. Perhaps I need to do something to my partitions. Or maybe there is some compatibility problem with the hard disc..........

Why not just install Fedora? Which is what Linpus is based on.

Debian works perfectly on my Eee 701.

I like the linpus easy mode desktop. It's much easier to have those nice big buttons and categories on a small screen than using a normal kde or gdm desktop

anyway it looks like my problem is that my disk is sda instead of hda, and so the installer cannot see it.
Is there anything i can do to fix that?
I don't really know how these live installs work