Installing linpus on the XP model

OK, I've been working this out on paper before attempting it and I am realizing that this is a major pain in the butt.
If I am understanding correctly, if a dual boot of XP and Acer edition Linpus were even possible, one would have to:

-back up the hidden XP recovery partition (eg http://aspireone150.wikispaces.com/2.+Recovery+Partition)
-install Acer Linpus from the DVD or ISO (which will destroy the "hidden" XP recovery partition and the partition with working XP)
-enter Acer Linpus, open a terminal window, shrink that Linpus partition, and create a new partition that can take XP

-prepare a USB key or external USB CD/DVD drive with the backup of hidden XP recovery partition or an image of OEM XP install disc
-install XP to that new partition from USB key or external USB drive (somehow)

-enter XP or Linpus and create another partition of size 15 GB
-copy the backup of hidden XP recovery partition

If this were possible, the result would be 3 partitions, (XP, Linpus, XP recovery partition). But is this possible?

And even if you could install XP from the backup of the recovery partition you made, I have done a full recovery on my AA1 machine and it forces you to format the whole hard drive (everything but the recovery partition) and so you would lose the Linpus installation anyway.

Users can easily set up a dual boot of XP with Ubuntu, Gentoo, or any Linux distro...but a dual boot of XP and Acer Linpus is either not possible or would take hours to do even if someone could actually figure out how to do it. But any other Linux distro is not going to work as well with the machine as Acer Linpus

I wanted to use Acer Linpus most of the time and Windows XP some of the time because it's lightweight and fully optimized for this machine and allows for proper functioning of all the hardware. But I am realizing that I can only find out what Acer Linpus is like if I install it by itself and not a dual boot with XP...unless it is actually possible and convenient to boot Linpus from a USB key while keeping the XP partitions of the 120GB HDD intact.

All the other distros have some sort of limitation with this machine :cry: :

Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) on the Acer Aspire One https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
Not Functional:
* Hibernate on A110L
* Card Reader power saving
* wifi power saving
* wifi kill switch
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Acer_Aspire_One_A110L
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianAcerOne
http://en.opensuse.org/OpenSUSE_on_the_Aspire_One

 

I'm still working on it, but you know what? I'm going to say to hell with the recovery partition since it makes things slightly easier, but if you're afraid, you can always backup the entire original XP and recovery partition somewhere and just reload the image when things go awry. Come to think of it, if you backup the XP partition alone, the recovery is useless.

My current plan is to reload Linpus, clearing the entire drive, then installing XP with these steps:
-Install Linpus DVD, which clears everything
-Load GParted Live and repartition the drive
-Install XP (not sure if this is even necessary, but I think it is to rewrite the MBR for XP)
-Reload my XP partition image over the XP install
-Load SuperGrub Live to repair the MBR
-Rejoice

This is taking with information read from:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/other- ... ux-xp.html
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... 26hs%3DkH3

 

Hi to everyone , i am at a stage of frustration
I purchased a linpus model (120gb) and have re formatted and partitioned the HD to the following

64GB Windows XP Pro -NTFS-(installed and working ok)
25GB Backup/Recovery -FAT32
23GB Linux-ext3
1GB Linux-swap

I have installed a full boot menu for all off the above and all are clearly ok
on trying to load linpus recovery disk it tells me it can only install to the full capacity of the hard drive without allowing me to place it into the ready made formated partition and gives me know over options - anyone have suggestions

 

I have 4GB flashdisk, single partition fat32 file system. Detected as /dev/sdc by Fedora 8, convert it to ext2:

Code:

$ su
# mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdc1
# e2label /dev/sdc1 linpus

Extracting hdc.tar.gz (forgot the exact name) from Linpus recovery disk to my flashdisk.

Code:

# cd /media/linpus
# tar -xvjf /home/user/hdc.tar.gz
# mkdir dev proc sys

 

Installing grub to USB flash:

Code:

# grub
> root (hd2, 0)
> find /boot/grub/stage1
> setup (hd2)

Boot AA1 using Linpus on USB flash. Success loading kernel and initrd but failed mounting ext2 root, kernel panic!
Extract Linpus initrd:

Code:

# mkdir /tmp/initrd
# cd /tmp/initrd
# gzip -dc /media/linpus/boot/initrd-splash.img > initrd

 

Mounting Linpus initrd to find something:

Code:

# cd /tmp/initrd
# mkdir /mnt/initrd
# mount -o loop initrd /mnt/initrd

Maybe need usb_storage kernel module inside initrd and boot script modification to make Linpus boot from USB.

 

Sorry for my multi post comment, actually it's hurt to write something using Opera Mini on my phone But I hope someone else have a good idea base on my work. Be careful, you need linux knowledge base for above steps. Wrong command can be wipe your whole disk!

 

Can someone give me a working AA1 bzimage and initrd? You can find it inside /boot directory. Thanks.

 

No one? Wrong place talking about Linux hacking here! Bye...

 

Hi all,
I have to agree with what everyone else wrote above. This was/is a huge pain in the arse! But... my obsessive compulsive disorder came through in the end and I was able to get this done. It involved a ridiculous number of backup images, using a usb version of the ubuntu live cd (to repair the mbr and install grub onto the Linpus partition), and using the Ubuntu usb to create a viable swap partition and resize the linpus partition.

I ended up using Macrium Reflect Free Edition thinking that it might be able to circumvent one of DriveImage XML's limitations, namely restoring an image to a smaller partition. But... turns out that Macrium is also unable to do this. Basically, even though actual disk space used is less than 3gb, if the original partition was larger (say 120gb), you would not be able to restore the image onto a 8gb drive.

So, I'm just about done with this process, but I still want to try DriveImage after all and see how it goes. I think DriveImage is probably a better bet since it is 100% free and supports BartPE. My concern is the size of the image (I'll check that later today).

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Lastly, does anyone have a site where I could upload the image to share? The size, at least using Macrium, is 1.2gb using maximum compression. Maybe setting up a torrent might work too, though I'm not sure how to go about doing that. I'm open to your suggestions!

I hope to have the image ready to go sometime tonight after work. If I don't get it done, you might be waiting a few more days as I have minor surgery tomorrow and it's unlikely I'll work on this until the sedatives wear off!

 

I wish I had the space to offer you - I'd really like to get hold of a copy of a Linpus install.

--
RockDoctor

 

Try this link:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/9109370/72d6 ... s_107.html

You might need to use 7-zip to extract it.

 

Is that just an image of Linpus, or does it have XP as well?

 

This is an ISO image from the Linpus Recovery DVD.

 

Aww, damn, you got my hopes up.

 

Hi all, new poster and new Aspire One owner here. I too, like the others, have the XP model and would love to be able to dual boot to a linpus linux partition for a fast boot up when I only want to surf the net etc.

I hope I'm not pointing out something stupid here, but on Acer's site, there is a link to an FTP server that says it is the Aspire one linux source code.

ftp://csdftp.acer.com.tw
username: Guest and no password.

The directory structure has the following
/
/Aspire_One_Linpus_Linux
/Aspire_One_Source
/Aspire_One_Srpms

Anyone have any idea if the files provided on this server would help us reach our goal?

 

Linpus Live USB, it's so fast
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=2741

 

Good alternative, but I think is more useful to boot from the hard disk drive

 

Does anyone know if you can boot off either of the SD slots?

 

Finally, I got a comment about my works

@friendwilder
I need AOA150 disk controller module and inject it to my modified initrd.

@ericww
It's possible but need a boot disk to load a modified initrd since the SD card not detected as a boot disk by BIOS. Maybe I will add this feature to my next version Linpus Live USB