OK, New to the forum, but used linux distro's alot over the years and can use basic commands, install apache and samba and such...

My problem begins with a linpus lite distro on an emachines box with no CDROM or USB stick recognition from boot sector.

I am hoping to replace the devil that is linpus (I'm scared of doing anything) Lite with a decent linux distro like fedora or redhat.

So my initial problem is the repo for install yum updates for the linpus distro has gone and cannot run yum updates for anything. which leads me to my next problem, I want to be able to install apache and samba and use the machine for a home server to access my files over my internal network as well as vpn'ig in to get access to my files on the move.

after using our good friend google and coming up with nothing, I have had to join and ask for the help of some whizz kids. this is after tearing my hair out, chewing my fingers down to the nubs and nearly murdering my missus whilst I've tried so hard to remove GOD DAMNED LINPUS LITE.

So to sum up:
Need to remove linpus lite with no possible boot from usb or cdrom and then replace with a better linux distro, which may be helped by replacing the repo from which I 'yum update'

Thanks in advance if you can help me out here.

Some distributions will allow you to do a netinstall so you don't need a CD/DVD/flash drive. Never done it myself so I can't be specific. If you want to use Red Hat, you need to get a paid subscription or you will not get any updates after the 30 day trial. Fedora has very short support time and has frequent new releases.

I've never used Linpus so don't know what the bootloader is. If it has Grub, you can download an iso file of Linux, extract it and copy it to the root of the filesystem and manually create an entry in the Grub menu file to boot it and install to another partition. If the Linpus install takes up the entire drive, you would need to shrink the partition and create another on which to install the new OS. More details would be needed before giving specifics.

To GODvirus

Having a CD/DVD drive or USB stick would make the process easier. Since you don't have either one here are two options.

If your emachine has a floppy drive you can create a PXE boot disk image and boot off from a networked computer. You will need to setup a TFTP server on the other computer where the image file(s) are stored. Youtube has videos on setting up a TFTP server on both windows and linux.

If your emachine doesn't have a floppy drive, then your only option is to determine if linpus lite uses grub2. Grub2 allows booting off a iso image. Best of luck

linpus light is built on fedora 8 ( fedora is now at 20)

so it is using grub 0.9
the old legacy version

you have tried hitting the < f12 >( it also might be < f8 >) button during the VERY early stage of booting
that should bring up the bios editor

then set cd/dvd or usb as the first option