ACER N281G

[Bill Davidsen]

Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
> Everyone,
>
> I picked up an ACER N281G that comes packed with linpus 3.0.0.  It has a
> a network connection, usb ports, and memory card reader, but no DVD.   linpus is
> supposed to be a Fedora based os, I would like to put F16 on this to see
> if it will fly.  I have never used a memory card reader to install an
> os, nor a usb install, nor a network install.  Any recommendations as to how to do this.
>
I know more about this than I want to, so here's what I have found:

1 - some BIOS will boot an ISO image off a USB flash. This is easy, you can copy 
either a live-CD image or an install (4GB) image to you memory device with dd, 
no magic needed.

2 - you can make a bootable memory device from an ISO image using unetbootln to 
write an image to memory device, this has not failed for me with install DVD, 
one live-CD didn't boot.

3 - you can use the livecd software, which is a family of programs to write 
live-CD, bootable ISO images on memory devices, and the like. After you figure 
out which one to use for what you want to do, it will probably work.

4 - With recent distributions, I have found that putting the 4G install DVD 
memory device and trying to install to an unpartitioned drive (in my case new 
SSD drives) results in a requirement for network access, which I couldn't give. 
I wound up installing in a VM with raw disk image and copying that to the 
internal drive from a live-CD boot which did work. This is not all cut and 
dried, the BIOS involved is important, the distribution, etc.

Good luck.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot