[ltp] Help Needed

[skipper]

Hi Richard,

I suppose I expected that as my Linspire/Debian had identified my USB CD 
Drive if I stuck the Linspire 5 install disk in it would just boot up 
and I could either repair or reinstall. I have given up that idea.

The basic resources I have are Xircom RealPort2 10/100 NIC - which is 
not picked up when I run redetect or diagnose which are the other two 
options in my grub menu.lst to boot the Linspire O/S - the GUI no longer 
loads.

Question: How do I get Debian whatever to find it it? Then I could do a 
network install at this internet cafe! In fact I have an 8 port hub and 
another laptop which I can plug in - it's just getting my system from 
the root prompt to get (1) the NIC card identified and (2) how do I 
browse the network to access the other laptop to do the install - I have 
Midnight Commander and Mozilla.

Another Question. If I do a network install and choose to wipe 
everything off, will I not loose the network connection? I know it's a 
dumb question - but it makes me a little smarter!

I had thought to create a folder "install" and copy everything from 
either the Linspire or UBUNTU install CD via my 1 gig stick and try to 
get grub to boot from there. I'm reading the grub docs on this point. 
This seems to be a simple solution though I've not got anywhere with 
this approach at this time.

I have the 1 gig pen drive - which enables me to transfer files between 
my A21E and any CD using another laptop to transfer between the two and 
of course the USB CD. Though I have connect it a few times to get the 
system to read the files on a CD.

I can either try a repair to get Linspire 5 up and running or do a new 
install of UBUNTU. A repair would keep what I have in the way of 
programmes and I know where I am with the Linspire 5 - going to UBUNTU 
would be new - I'm open minded at this time!

Thanks for help so far - best help I've had in a month - trust me!

Regards,

David

Richard Neill wrote:
> Dear David,
>
> I think you're slightly confused about auto-running CDs.
>
> > Plainly even with the latest bios update on the A21E it does not
> > recognise USB devices to boot from. My LInspire CD will run
> > automatically from my USB CD on a Windows machine but not my Linux.
>
> When you say "auto-run", do you mean
>
> a)An operating system is already running. When you insert the CDROM, 
> it opens a file browser (eg konqueor, or internet explorer)
>
> or
>
> b)When you restart the machine, the BIOS will boot from the USB-CD 
> device.
>
> If (b), then it means that the BIOS on your A21e does not support 
> booting from the usb-cdrom.
>
> If (a), then you should simply be able to mount the CD device manually.
> (Run the dmesg command to see what's happening, and then use the mount 
> command).
>
> --------
>
> Am I correct in thinking that you just want to find some way to 
> install Ubuntu Linux on your (CD-ROM less) A21e?
>
> If so, what resources do you have at your disposal? Do you have 
> another computer, running either Windows or Linux? If so, you could 
> try doing a network install. This should work - I used a similar 
> method to install on my X20.
>
> http://hugi.to/blog/archive/2006/12/23/ubuntu-pxe-install-via-windows
> http://wiki.koeln.ccc.de/index.php/Ubuntu_PXE_Install
> http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installation_on_ThinkPads_without_CD-ROM_drive
>
> Alternatively, you could try to rescue your Linspire system. It's 
> almost certainly not as badly broken as you think.
>  sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
> followed by a reboot (or restart kdm/gdm) should solve your GUI problem.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Richard
>
>
>
> skipper wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I have a strange problem - which I have tried to solve - so here 
>> goes. I had a working 600E with Linspire 5.0.59 which had a Debian 
>> core version 2.6.10 - latest version of Linspire v6 has UBUNTU. My 
>> 600E had a motherboard failure.
>>
>> I also have an A21E - it has no CD Drive - it has a battery as I use 
>> the A21E to navigate my boat. It seemed to me a "simple" matter of 
>> sticking the 600E's hard disk in the A21E. It worked ok - but 
>> Linspire had a few problems with mouse (ps/2 serial and usb) which 
>> failed to work and an inability to connect to my nic - there are 
>> display issues when Linspire's GUI loaded psychedelic. No matter how 
>> many times I ran redetect or diagnose - in fact Linspire's GUI 
>> eventually vanished and I have access via the prompt as root and 
>> Midnight Commander to get around.
>>
>> I am faced with doing a reinstall - either Linspire or UBUNTU. I have 
>> created a UBUNTU bootable 1 gig pen drive - I have also a usb CD 
>> drive. Alas GRUB will not boot either one and CDs don't auto-run on 
>> my Linspire/Debian system as in Windows. I have also tried copying 
>> the contents of my Linspire CD onto the pen drive and dumping that on 
>> the dard disk but as of this time I've had no success in getting grub 
>> to boot anything up. Must be possible.
>>
>> Plainly even with the latest bios update on the A21E it does not 
>> recognise USB devices to boot from. My LInspire CD will run 
>> automatically from my USB CD on a Windows machine but not my Linux. 
>> There must be a way to start an install either from files copied to 
>> the hard disk or via my USB CD. I just can't figure out the "howto." 
>> I don't mind installing UBUNTU over what I have as I have saved all 
>> the data or any other Distro that works on the A21E.
>>
>> Practical thoughts would be useful because I have tried the Linspire 
>> UBUNTU Foruns and LinuxQuestions.org - I wonder why I left OS/2 - oh 
>> well.......................
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> David
>> PS Hello Ted Frater - Kathryn and I are on a boat in Cyprus.
>>
>>