to flash or not to flash , that is the question!

hi, poured through hundreads of posts but still struggling! model. aao zg5 ( aoa110-aw) linpus...... symptoms:.. turn on, get power lite and hd lite . then system hangs after blue aspire one screen, a couple of seconds later hd lite stops flashing and left with black screen (still see backlight) and mouse pointer , and the only way i can turn it off is by removing battery.!..can access terminal and f12...... question..... is bios flash correct way forward?! any help would be greatly appreciated....thanks in advance!!.......
paul

 

I don't think it's a BIOS problem - more like a corrupt desktop environment file. So, before doing anything rash (like flashing the BIOS), grab one of the many live CDs out there, write it to a bootable flash drive using unetbootin, (unetbootin is available for both Linux and WIndows) and try to boot your AA1 with it.

If you can boot from the flash drive, it's definitely a corrupt file and not a BIOS problem. At this point, back up any personal data from the SSD to a flash drive or external hard drive. Not knowing which file needs fixing, and with Linpus on the ZG5 being so out of date, I strongly recommend installing an up-to-date distro (like whatever you put on the bootable flash drive. If you really want to reinstall Linpus, let me know and I'll post a link to the restore image. I'm partial to Fedora, but you might find Mint or one of the -buntu's more to your liking.

 

hi!
thanks for the reply!.....still no joy with aao!! i have tried your suggestion ie, upgrade distro, tried ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04 and mint!!! they all work fine while using "live" from usb stick but if i try to install any of them, system hangs. install does not get very far, does not get to format/ partition screen,.... do i need to sort the partition manually?.....can i use ubuntu 10.10 "live from usb" to solve/identify problem?.....any advice greatly appreciated.! thanks in advance.....paul

 

I still think it might be the bootloader, so I'm going to suggest trying to replace it. For what I'm proposing here you'll need a Fedora live USB. The reason? Fedora and Linpus use the same bootloader; Ubuntu 10.10 uses a different bootloader. Here's the plan:
1. Create the Fedora live USB drive using unetbootin
2. Boot the AA1 with the Fedora live USB
3. Open a terminal window (Main Menu -> System Tools)
For steps 4-8, type whatever is between the quotes (but without the quotes), then hit the <enter> key
4. "su - "
5. "grub"
6. "root (hd0,0)"
7. "setup (hd0,0)"
8. "quit"
9. Reboot the AA1 (hopefully from the SSD, not the USB stick)

 

hi!......no joy with aao as yet!.....installed fedora 13 live and inputted code!....everything seemed fine, no error messages!! on reboot (no stick) original problem still occurs (hanging on boot).. tried to install fedora 13, got to point when asked to choose where to install fedora, it listed two drives, the ssd and the stick (stick already had checkbox ticked and i could not un tick it) so i ticked ssd and then system hangs!! i am not sure if i have enough memory for fedora 13 (8gig), im downloading fedora 12 and ill try again! thanks in advance....paul

 

rockdoctor!....fedora 12 loaded first time, ive even installed flash player!!...thanks for pointing me in right direction, much obliged!! just one more question, i get message i have 512 updates!! is it recommended that i click install now?...thanks in advance!....paul

 

I'd definitely do the updates. I generally don't do them all at once when there are a large number of packages to update - any kind of computer hiccup can leave a real mess. I select about 40 packages or so at a time. There are often dependencies pulled in, so the actual number may be more, and if it looks like too many (a totally subjective judgment), I trim my selection.