Thursday, August 6, 2009

a Dell Inspiron 1100 resurrected with Ubuntu

This link was a key to the success so far.

Ubuntu, a Dell Inspiron 1100 and a blank screen after install | rikertothebridge

The laptop had problems with a flaky CD ROM, a failing hard drive warning, an old BIOS (A06 instead of current A32).

More to follow on some of the issues faced and solved so far...

BIOS update for A32 needed a windows disk, which I had already started to wipe with an Ubuntu install. I tried a bunch of CD bootable techniques, but with the flaky CDROM, I couldn't decide if it was bad burned disks, or laptop not able to read fully. I found a way to make a bootable USB, which is way nicer since the USB can be rewritten.

http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm

I got to reuse an old 16MB flash card and a usb card reader, way cool that that worked.

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