Acer aspire one reload dvd with usb
 

Hullo - I'm brand new to to Linux and have been playing with my new Acer Aspire One (loaded with Linpus Linux Lite) and managed to stop it loading up properly. It boots up but does not display the Desktop properly(blank page) but shows some icons in bottom right of screen like Wi-Fi connection/power etc, a drop down search bar top right (options being desktop or Internet). I cannot use the HOME icon to get to working desktop with applications as it displays a pop up dialogue box saying 'Could not run command: xfdesktop2 --gohome: Failed to execute child process "xfdesktop2" no such file or directory). I created a Live USB flash from the Recovery DVD on my desktop but that fails to run when booted up from the USB drive. When I do it simply states:

Intel_rng: FWH not detected
finding Live CD...
finding Live USB done, it is ...
Unziping rd-base. img.bz2 ...
bzip2: can't open input file /mnt/rd-base.img.bz2: no such file or directory
bunzip2 error, maybe memory not enough?
I'll open a shell for you.
sh-2.05b# sd2:0:0:0: [sdb] assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
_

Using Corsair Flash Voyager 4Gb

Any advice apart from stop playing with what you don't understand !

Thanks,

I also messed up my acer one. I made a bootable usb stick following the instructions on the recovery dvd and it worked fine. Apparently something went wrong for yours. Either clean the usb stick and try again, try another usb stick or use the dvd itself with a usb optical drive. Good luck!

Thanks 'CMK77' I will try another attempt.

Cheers and I'll let you know if it worked.

Install Ubuntu, and check Ubuntu netbook remix, it WILL impress you , trust me. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne

Welcome to the worlds best community :)

I don't have a One, so specific help is unavailable from here. But i've toyed a bit with an eeePC, and perhaps there are similarities?

Getting the eee to boot off of an usb-stick requires me to press ESC during restart and select the stick. The stick must be prepared using ASUS' prepping-program supplied on CD.

How did you prepare your USB-stick? I ask because it seems the usb-stick-housed boot-routine can't find rd-base.img.bzip2, indicating some sort of mishap around the usb-stick-filesystem structure or mounting.

I'd redo the usb-stick-creation, adhering closely to the manual. Perhaps the stick needs to be preformatted to FAT32? Larger than 4GB?

With the eee, actually I didn't need to prepare any usb-sticks at all, because returning it to factory simply requires hitting F9 on reboot to trigger built-in recovery procedure. I don't know if this is specific for the 701SD, but it sure is clever! Have you looked through your manual for something similar? I did NOT expect this to be possible, but there it was, taking me by surprise :) Absolute-beginner-proof return-to-factory in 5 minutes flat!

On the subject of "stop playing with what you don't understand!" - no, please continue... But expect to be challenged :) And do visit www.tldp.org, where howtos and guides are waiting for you to read and learn from!

And no, don't install Ubuntu or anything yet! Wait until you've found out that you want more than Linpus offers. Because there IS more to be found. Your One is a fullblown PC, it's thus capable of executing anything designed for x86-CPU's. But not now! Wait, experiment with the One and Linpus, getting a good feel for how it works and what it offers. Then, when you find that there are apps you want to get at, but can't with Linpus, think about moving on. If you don't miss anything on your One - be happy :)

Thanks to all for the replies. I have tried redoing the USB drive again but to no avail exactly the same result as my initial report. I also tried out the instructions for fully downloading the ISO from the net and burning it to the Flash drive but it too came up with the same result. I will go out and purchase a different Flash Drive and try that out this weekend. The 'F9' key does not seem to function the same as on the EEPC Notebook (to get the Notebook to reboot itself and restore to factory settings), but you never know there may be a way round on the ACER yet to be found also. I have been looking at an Optical drive to use the DVD recovery disc, but the LG one in PC World and a Samsung in a local PC shop, could not categorically state that it work work with the ACER so sussing out what may work without wasting my money.

Tempted to try Ubuntu Net remix also but will wait and try it out later on. Anyway I have Ubuntu dual booted with XP on my desktop taken from the CD that came from linux Format Magazine but have had little or no time to sit down and use it properly yet.

will report back when any progress made, otherwise thanks very much - much food for thought to go away and try other ways round.

P.S. Will Flashing the BIOS likley to have any impact ?

No. I Feared that F9 - or any other key-combo - wouldn't provide onboard recovery for your One. This appears to be a 701SD Special Feature, since the recovery partition takes up precious space on the SSD. With previous models of eee, no room for this was available.

If you have a Desktop running Ubuntu, you've got yourself a great platform to go and experiment on. Just take note that the Ubuntu crowd takes a funny (IMHO) approach on the superuser thing.

Actually... Perhaps you can use this idea: I regularly do trial-installs of this and that, but to avoid the dualboot/diskswapping scenario, I've started using VirtualBox.
VirtualBox is a program you install and run on your PC, providing you with as many 'virtual PCs' as you have room and memory for.
These virtual machines live inside your memory and have their disks in a few files on your harddisk. Neat, because they are guaranteed to not escape their sandboxes and do damage on your machine. Perfect for testing purposes! You can even back up the files and restore entire PCs in a snap. Or bring them with you on a DVD or usb-stick.
Or what about running more than one pc simultaneously? Right there on your desktop, in separate windows...
You don't even have to burn DVDs from iso's to try out new stuff. VirtualBox will happily mount an iso-file as 'virtual DVD' and boot the corresponding virtual PC off of it. To top this off, the virtual DVD will run at 200+ speed factor and have zero seek times.
Neat, eh? And VirtualBox is free for noncommercial use.

The bios-update-thing? Dunno. Guess it's a matter of personal taste. I'm a bit conservative here, so i'd wait till the dust settles, reading reviews to see if any major caveats have emerged. If not, then upgrade. YMMV

I just used one of these USB to IDE/SATA converters, and connected it to a standard internal CDROM/DVD Drive. My Acer Aspire One was able to boot from it just fine. $15.00 for this adapter which is far more versatile than a plain old external DVD Drive, and a lot cheaper.. Perfect solution for me.

http://www.inland-products.com/singl...&partnum=08412


Check my signature for more AAO links.

Farslayer/Mafiltonborg/CMK77:

Many thanks to all of you. Went out and bought a different FlashDrive USB and it worked as suggested. Used the Desktop to load the Recovery DVD and created a USB Boot again. Put it in the ACER Aspire One, booted from the USB and it recovered 100% back to default/factory settings like new. Very relieved now and only spent £12.00 on the new USB and not the vast amounts it can cost for an External CD Drive.

Worked: Sandisk Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 Flash Drive 4GB £12.22 from Staples

Not worked: Corsair Flash Voyager 4GB

The Cruzer Micro came with something called U3 loaded software which is not compatible with LINUX so can be deleted/switched off on it to save space.

A great Forum with sound advice and plenty of ideas - thanks very much. I hope to come back with some Techie questions as I start playing again.

Have a great weekend.