# [SOLVED] New Acer Laptop with Linux not working



## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

Hey guys, I got a new Acer Gateway Laptop. It has Linux Linpus 9.2 I think. I booted it for the first time today (and I'm totally new to Linux). As soon as I boot I got millions of error messages saying


```
EXT2-fs (sda1): error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced:
```
After the error messages stopped, I waited for a while and finally I got:


```
[B][root at localhost / ]# [/B]
```
I know I'm supposed to type "startx" or "X" now but I get the command not found error.

Hardware configurations of the laptop:

Intel PDC B960 Processor
500GB HDD
2GB DDR3 Memory
DVD-Super Multi DL drive

What should I do? How do I get rid of the error messages and boot into the Desktop/GUI?


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## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*



Akshay Dwivedi said:


> I got a new Acer Gateway Laptop ...
> 
> As soon as I boot I got millions of error messages ...
> 
> What should I do?


 

Return it and tell them to replace it with one that's working right.


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## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

Okay, but once I get this message:



```
[root at localhost / ]#
```
What should I type to enter the desktop/GUI mode?


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## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

Ok so I've put Ubuntu on download. Should I contact the seller anyway or will installing Ubuntu fix the problem? The errors that show up go away after a while and I get:

[root at localhost / ]#


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

If it is a new purchase (not a used machine), then I'd take it or send it back for warranty repair. If it's a used computer that you've purchased from someone, then you don't have many options. Ubuntu should work fine on that laptop providing you're using the newest release.


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

If its new then you first need to contact the manufacturer and see what warrantry you have.

According to Distrowatch Linpus 9.2 was released 2004 so is this a new laptop
or just "new to you" ?

DistroWatch.com: Linpus Linux

In any case a deleted inodes means that some area of the hard disk cannot be read properly so this may have a bad hard drive


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## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

I downloaded the latest Ubuntu and configured my USB to run it (I set persistence to 0MB). Should I try installing Ubuntu onto my laptop and see if that solves the problem? 

I ordered the laptop a week ago from an online website that has a 30 day replacement guarantee and a 2 year warranty. I got it just yesterday. Will installing Ubuntu void my warranty? Btw, the reason I couldn't boot into my desktop was that the laptop has the CUI version of Linux Linpus. 

So as of now I have two options-

1. Leave the laptop alone and contact the sellers
2. Try installing Ubuntu and see if the problem is solved. If not, then contact the sellers

Please advice me on what to do.


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## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

Many people have even been disappointed with the full-fledged version of Linpus Linux, much less the stripped down, bare-bones CLI (character user interface) version. That's usually used as a simple "boot OS", to show that the computer does indeed work. It's not really good for much else.

Installing Ubuntu would definitely make it more useful. But sometimes, rounding up and installing all the correct drivers can be difficult.


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## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

But will installing void my warranty? I contacted Acer and they're saying that the support they provide is only for Windows Laptop, although the website from where I purchased the laptop says that it comes with a 2 year warranty. 

This is where I ordered it from : Acer Gateway NE56R Laptop (2nd Gen PDC/ 2GB/ 500GB/ Linux) (NX.Y1USI.010) - Acer: Flipkart.com


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## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

Guys I took a gamble and installed Ubuntu and now I'm not getting any errors on start-up. Can I now be a 100% sure that my hard drive is not corrupt or should I still call tech support?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

A couple of things which may help you The Beginner’s Guide to Linux Disk Utilities
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Smartmontools


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*



Akshay Dwivedi said:


> Guys I took a gamble and installed Ubuntu and now I'm not getting any errors on start-up. Can I now be a 100% sure that my hard drive is not corrupt or should I still call tech support?


Contact the website where you bought it from, it does have a bad hard drive.
Not sure if you have invalidated your warrantry though now, as there is no way to return it to original factory conditions with a bad hard drive.

If the warrantry is void then you can reinstall Ubuntu, but this time at the format screen run the badblocks option, this will mark all the bad sectors but can take much longer to install, typically 2 hours upwards to run a bad blocks check depending on size and speed of the hard drive and amount of bad sectors.


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## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

But if the hard drive is corrupt, why am I no longer getting the error messages at startup? Also, I think the warranty is valid for the hardware no matter what OS you install right? I contacted Acer and that guy says that it's valid only if I have Windows in my laptop. I don't understand why they are selling Linux laptops if the warranty isn't valid?


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*



Akshay Dwivedi said:


> But if the hard drive is corrupt, why am I no longer getting the error messages at startup? Also, I think the warranty is valid for the hardware no matter what OS you install right? I contacted Acer and that guy says that it's valid only if I have Windows in my laptop. I don't understand why they are selling Linux laptops if the warranty isn't valid?




Sorry , I mis-read your last post.
No errors at start up is a good thing, your drive may be ok.
What you need to do is check every block on the hard drive to be sure. Block size is generally set at 1k so you can use the dd command: 

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null bs=1k

This will read every single block on the hard drive of all partitions, and will send the output to /dev/null. Note this is not erasing the drive just reading every single block, block size is set to 1k so this could take a long time on your 500G HD.
Any bad areas or blocks and the drive will not read them, and the command will halt with an error message.


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## Akshay Dwivedi (Sep 26, 2010)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

Where do I type this command? Sorry I'm new to Linux...


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: New Acer Laptop with Linux not working*

At the start menu (usually top left) enter terminal into the search bar and click on terminal icon. Then enter the command, you can copy and paste if you want:


sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null bs=1k


Also if you search on YouTube using Ubuntu terminal should yeild about 81,000 results, some more useful than others.


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