Dual Boot Windows/Linpus using Backup Image (Download Here)

Can anyone help me out please? I really want Windows XP and Linpus on my new Acer

 

Is your Linpus on partition 5, as that's what the Grub list file is expecting with (hd0,5) in your file.
Check using gparted and change accordingly. I think mine was on partition 3 from memory. 1 was XP, 2 swap file and 3 Linpus (or should that be 0, 1 and 2? Can't remeber now.)
But look with Gparted and change it to whatever it says.
Good Luck

 

I finally got it to work using the wingrub insructions located here:
[urlhttp://lifeisasketch.com/node/6/[/url]

Thanks!

 

OK this makes no sense to me, but when I get the boot menu, it lists XP and grub, but the keyboard doesn't work. Anyone seen this?

It does work before that menu and works fine afterwards, just not while that menu is up.

EDIT: I reverted the BIOS to 3305 and it works fine. 3307a was causing the issue.

 

I posted elsewhere as well, but once you understand the issues it is very easy to build a dual-boot AA1. Mine runs beautifully! Check my blog on http://leonuys.wordpress.com/2008/11/17 ... dual-boot/

Cheers!

 

Good article Leon. I did manage to get it working by reverting the Bios to 3.305. Now to install Ubunto on the 3rd partition :twisted:

 

I have a Linux AAO150 and managed to do a clean install of WinXP on it. After that I used a stick with Xubuntu 8.10 to make the partions and it looks like eric has posted on page 3. Has someone already found a solution for this?

EDIT: did the wingrub thing. Don't know why it didn't work, but it works now.

 

What a diaster! Blue screen of death, can't access recovery. I bit off more then I could chew.

EDIT: Got the restore disks from Acer, eventually got it working!!!

 

How do you do that? I would like to do the same. But I can't get it working. When I download an iso and use unetbootin, kernels appear to be missing and using the u3 costumizer won't work either.

If I boot in xubuntu and open Gparted, it automaitcally mounts the disk, so the check fails. If I unmount it, it imediately mounts again. So if you can help me, thanks a lot!

 

Finally got it to work!!!

I am talking to you from a place of purity, a place where everything is free, a place where enough is enough & too much is unnecessary -- Linpus Linux -- a place I've always wanted to go but didn't know how to get there (ok I might be a little TOO excited). On this AA1 it seems only natural that Windows be treated as the "necessarily evil" it is, or that at least this Linpus SHOULD be checked out. So far got Skype working & converted my keyboard to Dvorak. I'm trying to get a icon for Skype to appear in "Connect" but the directions I've read assume I know something about what I'm trying to do. I have so much to learn & I love it! Thanks for all the input. Here is what I did:

GParted live disk off my external DVD loaded into RAM I shrunk the main drive, "C" aka "Acer", i.e. the partition with Windows.
Rebotot to XP, then I used Macrium Reflect to put that Linpus clean install into the UNPARTITIONED area. I made a "logical" drive for the AA1 Linpus fresh install. DON'T replace boot info!

I went & got WinGrub

I copied 4 files (previously posted to this forum) to a folder called Grub in C:
bzImage
grub.conf
initrd-splash.img
splash.xmp.gz

and rename grub.conf to menu.lst

Go to Wingrub --->Tools ---> Install grub. Choose boot fron boot.ini then install grub.
Next thing is go to Tools--->Partition list to see the name of Linux partition (in my case that is (hd0,5))
then edit menu.lst file to point splashimage, rootnoverify and sda (partition name +1)

Restart computer, choose Grub & there was Linpus! File Manager in Linpus states that I only have 1.5 GB free of 3.9 GB on My Disk. The fix is to boot up Gparted again & grow the partition. Reboot, Linpus is now reading the correct HDD space, all is well!

 

Is there any way I could boot the linpus from my usb instead of installing it on the Aspire One

 

I got this to work, now how do I undo it?

Here's my dilemma/question.
I used these instructions and everything worked fine.
Since getting my Acer 2 weeks ago, I've installed and uninstalled tons of programs.
Now, my XP boot times are much higher.
I'd like to recover my Acer to factory settings and start all over, this time, not testing tons of software, so I can have a fresh install of XP.
I tried running the recovery, but at some point, the recovery program needs to restart and then I just get the XP or Grub option with a count down.
Whether I select XP or wait for it to count down, it loads XP it goes back to my desktop. no recovery.
I'm assuming that the changed boot.ini file is the cause, but I don't know how to reverse it.

BTW - I've deleted the linux partitions. My Acer currently has (C ACER 144GB and of course the PQSERVICE partition.
Also, after this didn't work, I removed any reference to "Grub" in the boot.ini file.
Now it starts XP w/ no dual boot prompt, but still no recovery.

Thanks.

 

I did the tnkgrl inspired mod adding an 80GB ZIF HDD to my AA1 and upgraded the RAM to 1.5GB - I partitioned the disk into six and installed Linpus, Ubuntu EEE Remix, XP Pro and Mandriva One 2009 with a shared swap file and a common 30GB FAT32 directory. All was fine until the Linpus installation broke (no network or file manager, second time, don't know why) at which point I abandoned Linpus as the factory restore will only do the whole disk which I didn't desperately want to do after all that effort. After several unsatisfactory experiments with Fedora (couldn't get on with the standard install, couldn't get the destop right, no Atheros) and SUSE 11 (didn't do it at all for the AA1, wrong display adaptor, no Atheros, horrible tellytubby KDE desktop, couldn't be bothered to fiddle with it) I was cheered to see this article and can report that Linpus is now back on the first partition after very little effort.
The menu.lst entry thoughtfully included was pasted into the relevant grub and it all fired straight up into the Linpus setup. All I've got to do now is to patch it up fully and tweak it up a bit and make a backup image using the Macrium utility.
By the way Mandriva One 2009 worked everything out of the box (including the Huawei E160 3G modem in Network Manager) except the wireless LAN LED and the software speaker switch and can be highly recommended.
Thanks

 

Thanks for the Mandriva suggestion, Sherbert. I've always liked that distro. In fact, it was the first I tried back in 2000. I'm not sure why, but I never went back to it. I think I just prefer Debian based distros for the package manager I guess. Anyway, sounds like a good project!

 

I'd Just like to thank all those that have posted suggestions and fixes.

I'm now in a strange but working position of having XP PRO , Linpus and Mandriva 2009, all working.
The strange thing is that I could not get bootpart to work with linpus and ended up using wingrub, however bootpart was fine for the Mandriva install ??
In effect I've three boot managers being used; windows own via Boot.ini, with entries for both bootpart for mandriva and wingrub for Linpus.

If anyone is intrested I'll post the config files and where they should go, let me know (PM)

Thanks again especially to Mercado79 for the original post and image.

Simply_Graham

 

good thread, got mine running linpus/xp via grub, it did not want to work straight away cause the instructions here say hd 0.0 but infact if you have the recovery partition, C (were the grub files are located) = hd 0,1
good work guys

 

Thanks to everyone for helping out on setting up dual/triple boot! I had a few problems, but the Live USB for Ubuntu actually fixed most of them (though I had to run it several times). So if you run into partioning problems, or even bootloading problems, you might be better off adding ubuntu as well since it will likely fix some issues for you.

Also, I was just wondering does anyone know if restoring your disk or partitioning multiple times degrades the life of the disk significantly? Thanks!

 

I could never get the system to dualboot via Bootpart and went with GRUB instead. If I were to do this again (on a friend's AAO, for instance) here's how I'd do it:

-Set up the partitions as desired
-Install some random flavor of linux (that uses GRUB) to the destination partition intended for Linpus. I used Fedora, since it will autodetect other OSes with the proper partitions. Ubuntu might work equally well, but IIRC, its FSTAB is funky (that may have changed).
-Boot into the newly installed partition and make a note of the fstab and grub.conf settings. Remember/Print/Copy/E-mail to yourself, whatever works for you.
-Boot into Windows and restore the linpus image over the Fedora (or whatever) partition.
-via Ext2IFS, edit grub.conf & fstab to match what you had before

Drive life is mainly a factor of "how long it's spinning" even if it's doing nothing else but sitting there powered on. How heavy you use it can increase or decrease that to some extent. Partitioning is pretty much effortless for the drive. Restore operations take a bit of work, but they're not particularly mechanically stressful.

You'd have to be wiping and restoring the drive all day every day for quite a while to significantly dent the drive's useful life.

 

If you have or can get ahold of a USB CD-ROM drive & an XP or Windows 2000 install CD (a REAL install CD, not a random manufacturer's "restore discs." You don't need a key for it, it just needs to be bootable). Boot into recovery console and run fixmbr.

Reboot into setup and start the install process and delete your old XP partition and create a new one to filll the drive. Once it formats you can interrupt it by rebooting and running the restore.

If it still doesn't work, you'll need to acquire an copy of XP Home OEM (that's the version that will work with the keycode on your sticker on the bottom of the laptop) and download the drivers manually from Acer and reinstall the long way.

Or you can pay whatever acer charges for a recovery disc and wait for it to get mailed to you. (just looked it up, yikes, $19.90 plus $10 S&H in the U.S. anyway . . . $30 seems a bit excessive)

 

fastrx8,
If I understand your problem this should work for you:
http://www.ipconfig.co.nz/blog/index.cf ... D-recovery
Good luck