[SOLVED] Installing to Laptop with no OS

My friend has a HP Laptop that Windows Vista crashed on, when you boot up, it says there's no operating system. I told him I might be able to put a Linux OS on it, and he'd still be able to use it. Zorin is the only one I've found that actually gets to the install part, but, when I click the install button, I get a message about there being no root.

I'm using a USB stick because it has no cd/dvd drive. Also, when the load screen comes up, asking me what I want to do, I have to hit the tab key and enter: "no nomodeset" in order to view the desktop (Nvidia graphics). Even then it's all flickery and crazy acting, until the bar at the bottom disappears, then it acts right.

Is there anything I can do, or should I just not waste anymore time?

Regards,
Nepo

Nevermind, good people, it turns out that the HD is beyond repair.

Hi,

just use the USB stick until such times that you replace the disk, I am not sure if it will need the HDD for temp files though, it is totally trashed??.

Regards Wolfman

Turns out, it's not the drive itself, just the laptop can't read it, I used Parted Magic on it, and the drive doesn't even show up. So, I pulled it out and used an adapter to hook it up to my other PC and can read it fine.

Thanks for the input though

Regards,
Nepo

I know this post is marked as "Solved", but, I'm trying a work around, which I will share if it pans out. I have Zorin 6 installed to the hard drive now, but I'm having Nvidia conflicts (go figure). What I'd like to know, how can I dump the Nvidia drivers and use the xvesa drivers, those worked in Parted Magic, whereas xorg wouldn't. I think I have the driver names right.

I'm going to contiunue working on it, but will check back on here for any advice...

Regards,
Nepo

Thanks, Swarf, this code did the trick:

Code:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia

However, I can't connect to the internet, ethernet or wireless. Also, there's a black bar just above the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. If you click the GnoMenu button, you can't see the search field, power on/off options (and whatever else is in that area, I'm still new, lol) But, you can still use the options there, by guessing the right area to put your mouse.

Regards,
Nepo

PS, I think we're making some very good progress, considering this is a crashed system that can't read it's own hard drive

Hi Nepo,

you may have to take a look at this guide, start with option 3 in the "Broken Files" section:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2247

Regards Wolfman

Alright, I tried the method you suggested, Wolfman, and ended up getting a messed up screen Even though I never connected to my network, I thought it might have re-installed the drivers I had dumped before, but, when I told it to purge, I got a Nvidia not found error, or something like that.

Since I installed the OS to the HP laptop (which is the one that belongs to my friend) using my Win7 laptop, it's AMD through and through (ie. AMD Radeon Graphics) it dawned on me that maybe I should be doing this with my Vista PC, which also has Nvidia graphics. I went back to square one, and did a re-install, with no updates (yet). I installed the Nvidia driver, post release, because the "recommended" driver gave the same issues as stated earlier: little black bar above the menu.

Even though after the driver gets installed I can't see anything on my Vista PC, everything looks good on my friends HP, except I can't connect to my network. I'm going to do another install tomorrow, update it this time, download & install the driver, use Synaptic and then, see what happens.

I'll post back after all this is done.

Regards,
Nepo

Up and Running!! No "Broken Packages" & "System Up to Date"

Now all I have to do is wait for the HD enclosure to get here from Amazon, and my friend has a fully functional laptop

There's still a few small issues:
1) Laptop kicks on and off 3 times before booting (I don't think this has anything to do with the OS, but, what do I know)
2) Sometimes there are icons on the desktop, Computer, Home folder, and Trash, sometimes not (when not, you can't drag anything to the desktop)
3) GRUB still shows up, even though there is not another OS installed (on the Vista PC, it goes straight into Zorin)

Other than that, thanks for the input Swarf & Wolf, you guys helped me heaps!

Regards,
Nepo

Hi Nepo,

your icons shouldn't randomly appear and should be on the desktop all the time, boot into recovery menu and run "fsck", then click on "Network" and lastly on "dpkg" and see if those errors go away!!.

Regards Wolfman

As for the grub menu, if you do not want it to appear, do the following:

Open Terminal and enter: -

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Once the file is open CAREFULLY change the following 2 lines.

Remove the "#" from the below line
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT="0" to GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT="0"

Change
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 to GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

Now save the file and close Gedit.

To have these changes work you need to regenerate Grub2

In terminal type

Code:

sudo update-grub

Now when you reboot there will be no Grub2 menu. It will be hidden and you can make it appear if you press shift at boot.

Already did that Wolfman, you gave me a link a few post back. It seems to be working fine now, I've rebooted several times with no issues.

And also thanks to you, madvinegar, got it bypassing the grub screen.

Regards,
Nepo