Need help putting linux on Acer Aspire ONE

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specialblend

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I bought a cheap acer aspire one netbook and it does not have a disk drive. I have never been able to run linux off of my flash drive it is a 4 GB stick. Do you think its because of the version i am trying to install 11.10 ubuntu or what? Has anybody else had a problem getting linux to install off a flash drive?
 


You have to download the ISO...burn it to the usb stick with a dvd ISO program so that its bootable.

Restart your computer, hit f2 to enter boot options and move the usb up. Runs perfectly on my aspire one.

Sent from my HTC EVO using Tapatalk
 
I have an Aspire One too! High five! :)

Ok, so to install Linux on your laptop, you have to download the iso of your choice of distribution. An example iso (this iso is for Ubuntu 11.10): http://releases.ubuntu.com/oneiric/ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso

Next, download a tool that will make a bootable Linux flash drive for you. For Windows, Universal USB Installer is very good and simple: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.8.8.exe

Then you have to boot into your flash drive. You can go into the bios and change the boot order so that the bios attempts to boot into the flash drive first. Press F2 repeatedly while the laptop is starting up. I think the boot order is in the second to the last tab.

When you finally boot into your flash drive, just follow the installers instructions and when you're done you should have a working Linux installation! Good luck!
 
One of the fun things you can do is to load different linux distros on to little flashdrives and then boot up off each one just to see what each distro will do. I've done that with my little Acer Aspire One and now I've just this week loaded Ubuntu Netbook 10.10 as my only onboard operating system.
 
What you need is Unetbootin. It will convert any Iso you have into a loadable USB.

Once you get your USB to boot - you need to enable that in the bios ( you press a special key at startup).

So you can take the normal Ubuntu netbook remix, download the .iso, then use this: http://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/ to put it onto USB. takes all the worries of usb booting issues.

I personally use this all the time.
 
For those limited systems better try lightweight distros. Like zenix, peppermint, puppy, etc. Hope helps
 
He should have no problem running most distributions on a AAO, I currently have one running CentOS, but useed it previously to run Xubuntu, Ubuntu and Puppy without problems. the major limiting factor in these systems are their GPUs as long as you don't plan to do anything graphically intensive then you should be ok.

As for booting the OS off a flash drive you could use UNetBootin to create a bootable version of a Distribution's ISO (I would recommend a Live CD). Once you have a working bootable Flash the nest step would be to permanently reorder your boot process so that your bios loads the OS off the flash befor searching for one on a HDD.
 
I bought a cheap acer aspire one netbook and it does not have a disk drive. I have never been able to run linux off of my flash drive it is a 4 GB stick. Do you think its because of the version i am trying to install 11.10 ubuntu or what? Has anybody else had a problem getting linux to install off a flash drive?

Seeing that your netbook doesn't have a disk drive, you would either need to:

1. Create a flash based on a Live CD/DVD. this allows you to utilize the OS but any changes you make will not be saved.

2. Install the OS unto the Flash. by doing this you are essentially transforming the flash into the net book's Disk Drive. this option allows you to save changes made but requires a relatively large flash if you plan to use it extensively. A relatively cheap alternative to this would be to get a High capacity SD card (16gb should be enough) and installing the OS onto that.
 
Seeing that your netbook doesn't have a disk drive, you would either need to:

1. Create a flash based on a Live CD/DVD. this allows you to utilize the OS but any changes you make will not be saved.

2. Install the OS unto the Flash. by doing this you are essentially transforming the flash into the net book's Disk Drive. this option allows you to save changes made but requires a relatively large flash if you plan to use it extensively. A relatively cheap alternative to this would be to get a High capacity SD card (16gb should be enough) and installing the OS onto that.

Hi,

If I do an install from a Live CD to a USB stick, does that effect the booting of Windows in any way?
Is anything written to the hard drive of the system?

Thanks.

cwood
 
Thanks. I ended up doing an install to the Usn from the fedora live Cd I made. I removed my hard drive first to make sure I didn't screw up windows.

Cwood
 
First of all you should to download it's setup in ISO file then burn it in USB stick so that it become bootable then restart you computer press f2 to enter boot options and then give priority to USB.
 
My direct install to the 16 GB USB stick has been working fine now for a few months. I jus wonder how long the stick will remain writable.
Again I made a Live Fedora CD and then installed to the stick from that. I've added quite a few apps since then - KDevlop, emacs,wireless for a few.
 
Sorry for bumping this thread, but I was wondering if it was possible to do a fresh install of Linux with a flashdrive. Windows Xp is expiring soon, and I'm looking to completely wipe the current OS. Thank you in advance for any help!
 
install it with usb. Use the Bodhi linux distribution. Its very light and lightning fast.
 


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