Although I've never done it, I'm quite sure that you can create an image of the install CD on a memory stick if you have another machine available. So no need for an external dvd reader. Booting from an external device (cd / memory stick) will allow you to save documents that you want to keep.

Although I enjoyed Linpus Lite on the AAO, I have replaced it quite long ago when I did not see an expected kernel update for a vulnerability not come along.

I'm typing this on my AAO running Crunchbang Statler. Everything works with the possible exception of the HD expansion (never used it so I don't know). I also managed to get skype (downloaded from the skype website) going without problems.

Good luck

I will still have to buy a external dvd anyway to install anything on my netbook, and it being inoparational and being a complete newbie on the linux platform who is used to windows, the main objective is to get the netbook up and running and take it from there,once it is OK then I can decide what OS to put on it.

Hmm, I do not have a netbook, but one would assume that they can be booted from a USB stick, as suggested by Wim Sturkenboom. This way you would not have to spend money on an external drive. 'Unetbootin' is also available for windows:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

It will let you create a bootable USB stick and install the OS from that thumbdrive. I have done so on my notebook, although I did have trouble with this method on my desktop computer.

Let us know if know if you have some valuable data on the netbook that needs to be rescued before you do a complete reinstall.

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The AAO will boot from memory stick !

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I will give it a go first before I do anything else.

If you'd followed my link, you'd have seen there's a video explaining how to use your Linpus Lite recovery DVD to create a bootable USB memory stick for the AA1 here:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/netbooks/m...7701/#msg47701

And if you DON'T have a recovery DVD, there are links to download them there too.

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This distro is lame. At least in my country it is used only to bypass restriction for sellers that they can't sell any computer without operating system. Since this distro is very easy to install but doesn't work normally unless you're geek type person who likes challenges..also from what i have seen on comments even if it is "fixed" for daily use it still is buggy and not worth it so yea just install something else from distro world. It's shame that it's based on Fedora and makes it look bad aswell.

I've got a bootable image of the Linpus installer that you can write directly to a USB flash drive on the web at Linpus image

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I have tried to boot from the usb stick as I had copied the restore disk, but no joy I watched that video followed the steps,but all it said on my screen was it was waiting to get into the boot sequence(f12)does it make any difference that it's an 16G ssd that's installed.I really don't want to but a external disk drive and find it still does not work.

Thanks

Don't know why the image didn't work. It works for me, but that obviously is of no help to you. Note that the image needs to be transferred directly to the USB stick; one can do this (as root) from a terminal window, something like Copying the file to a formatted usb stick will not work.

Like several of the respondents above, I suggest installing a decent, modern operating system rather than reinstalling Linpus. FF4 runs fine on my ZG5 in both Fedora 15 and Ubuntu 11.04 (in both cases with LXDE). Grab a copy of unetbootin, download an iso image of a Live CD of an up-to-date distro, use unetbootin to create a bootable USB stick, and go on from there. You'll be happy you left Linpus behind.

what I meant I copied my restore disk to the stick,but I cant get into the terminal sorry my post was not directed at yours and had gone adrift.

You copied it how? Just copy-paste? This will not make it bootable. Have you tried unetbootin? It can copy iso to usb, but I don't remember if it can copy from CD too.

Loaded it from my restore disk onto to memory stick from dvd player on my desktop.

Anyway I begining to think linux is a bit to much for me, as I going to buy a laptop I think I will stick with windows at least I have half an idea about what I'm doing,and may just send my netbook back to Acer UK and get it fixed.

Thanks anyway everyone for the info given.

What does that mean?

You would have had the same problems if your AAO had be running Windows. There might be thousands of reasons to use Windows instead of Linux but this problem is not one of them.

I consider the video linked earlier quite clear; did you follow the instructions step by step (boot from the recovery CD/DVD on your other PC) and boot from USB on the AAO?
If your USB stick was succesfully created, you should be able to boot from it on any system.

PS
The money spend on sending it to Acer UK and getting it fixed will probably also buy you an external DVD reader/writer.