Linspire installation woes |
Been thinking about trying out Linspire? Boxes of this variation on Linux are starting to appear at various computer stores. I run SuSE 9.x on one (dedicated) machine. I spent a couple hours trying to get MythTV running on the machine a few months back and threw in the towell when I ran into problems. So I wondered, would it be easier with Linspire? Anyway, if I do go to Linspire on another machine, I might want to try a dual boot and this Linspire forums post offers some tips courtesy of John:
Use Partition Magic in XP and make the partitions on your new harddrive.
Put the Linspire cd in the tray
Make a restart
Choose advanced installation and click on the partition you want to install Linspire.
Follow the instructions on the screen and Linspire begins to install. Linspire will take care of the boot menu. Whitin 10 minutes the install should be completed.
So when you start your system, you can choose which OS you want to start. By default it will be Linspire, but you have a few seconds time to choose Windows if you want.
I noticed that Linspire isn’t free, or at least it doesn’t seem to be. I thought all flavors of Linux were free, unless you get them in a retail store boxed with support? Another forum post says to watch for special deals to get it free and another suggests to go the BitTorrent route. The Linspire support area even says to try that:
If you are a new user to Linspire and have no current memberships, you can download LinspireLive! Five-0 by using BitTorrent. You can access the BitTorrent link by clicking here.
So, I did just that, downloaded Linspire via BitTorrent. More help regarding the BitTorrent is offered by Linspire here.
Before unpacking and burning the ISO image, it’s important to verify the checksum (download).
An ISO file is sort of like a zip file and cannot simply be copied to a CD, it needs to have the files expanded. Here are instructions for how to burn a CD from an ISO file. A good freeware, no frills, program for burning a CD from an ISO is called Deep Burner.
Linspire cannot be installed to the hard drive from this install, but it can boot from it and run, so it’s a good way to first check out driver compatibility without (buying and choosing) a dual boot scenario.
After writing the above, I have since tried installing the LinspireLive CD on three different computers. It would hang at various parts in the process and never finish. I tried with both my own burned ISO and with the store bought version of Linspire. No luck. I then tried installing on my Sony VAIO laptop and after multiple attempts I was able to get Linspire installed and running. Very slowwww and no internet connectivity. Needless to say I’m unimpressed with Linspire so far. I’ll keep trying.
A friend of mine recommended Ubuntu, which also has a Live CD ISO burner scenario. Knoppix is probably the most popular run-from-disc Linux variant. At least the one I’ve heard about the most, anyway.
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I tried the Linspire five-o Live cd on my Compaq presario 2100. It worked perfectly except for the sound But didnt do anything techy to fix it though..
Comment by Wilhelm — September 12, 2005 @ 12:24 pm PST
[…] I’ve been reading a lot about the Linux variant Ubuntu lately and actually burned an ISO of their live CD, but it choked like Linspire did (my Linspire installation woes) on my LinkSys PCMIA card. It loaded fine when using a straight ethernet connection. I’ve heard of LinkSys conflicts with many linux distros. My friend FranciscoIV wrote of his Unbuntu experience recently: I am giving this laptop to my daughter, who has an iPod and I was able to just do a seach on iPod in the package manager and found all the software needed to hook it up!!! The manager downloads all the software, including needed dependencies, and installs it all in a snap. Oh, and Windows users, there doesn’t ever seem to be a need to reboot!!! All the new software shows up in the applications menu!!! […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Francisco checks out Ubuntu — November 4, 2005 @ 10:39 am PST
[…] Several attempts to get Ubuntu installed weren’t that successful (hardware driver problems), although I did get the live version CD running with not all hardware working. I don’t to take an entire day running down drivers and patches just to get the OS working. Linspire wasn’t much better on my laptop. Got Red Hat and SuSE both running without problems but abandoned both rather quickly. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » $159 or $269 for lowend Linspire powered machine at Fry’s — March 10, 2006 @ 2:25 pm PST
[…] One of my favorite things about Linux is the Live CD option where you can test the OS without the need to change your existing OS or setup and install. For commercial Linux offerings see this post: SuSE Linux installed in dual boot, plays nicer with Windows than Red Hat? The more unique hardware you have, the more difficult it can be to get some flavors of Linux running. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Your favorite Linux Live CD? — September 11, 2006 @ 2:45 pm PST
I never have any trouble with Linspire, LiveCD worked perfect. I love the way you can style it (KDE). If you want something completely free I recommend FreeSpire. It’s almost exactly the same and even has a few more features then Linspire. Both are very good operating systems and work very well on slower machines. I ran it on an old Compaq Presario 5000 with 700mhz and 512MB Ram, It ran perfectly. It NEVER locked up as Windows did. Perfect operating system!
~Tyler
Comment by Tyler — March 3, 2007 @ 6:50 pm PST