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Not able to use the Ubuntu Restore DVD that came with my mini 9
Hello,
I had some problems with my ubuntu due to 3rd party software I've installed from other repositories, and was trying to restore from the ubuntu DVD that came with my mini 9. I have one iomega external Usb disk bought from Dell along with the mini.
When I boot the mini 9 I press 0 and select to boot from the USB CD/DVD drive. It does boot and go into the "Dell System Restore DVD" screen. After pressing enter and typing 'proceed' it loads a few things, shows the ubuntu loading screen with the bouncing bar for a while, then goes into a blank screen. At that point it just sits there (tried several times, left it overnight to see if it worked, nothig seems to work there).
Any ideas or suggestions would be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Fernando
DELL-Jesse L
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January 6th, 2009 09:00
ffreitas,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
The Mini 9 does not have the PC System Restore function because the Solid State Drive (SSD) is too small for a recovery partition. You must do a complete reinstall of Ubuntu.
ffreitas
5 Posts
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January 6th, 2009 13:00
Jesse,
I am sorry, but that does not make the slightest sense. My mini 9 SSD is 32 GB in size, I'd expect that to be enough given that the pre-installed Ubuntu occupied less than 3 GB when I got the mini. Also, what is the point of shipping a "system restore" DVD if that will not work in the computer?
When you said "doing a full reinstall of Ubuntu", where can I find the instructions to do so? From which media should I do so?
Cheers,
-Fernando
Stinger63
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January 10th, 2009 19:00
Jesse,
I have the same issue that Fernando has. I tried the same thing and got the same results. I was ready to throw the thing out the window!! I got on another PC since mine had become nothing more than an electric paper weight and downloaded an ISO of 8.04.1 since DELL had removed the ISO of the 8.04 version from their website for unknown reasons. Since I had trouble with the CDROM I bought to accompany my MINI... I had to find a application that would let me transfer the ISO to a flash drive. (Funny how a 2GB flashdrive can hold the entire content of Ubuntu and the SSD that is in the Mini can't... BAH!!!!) Anyway I was able to boot to the Flash Drive and install that version..... Problem with that is there is not a wireless driver in the appllication so I can access the Internet!!!!
My biggest thing is this.... If Dell is going to sell me a product then they should stand behind it.... It's bad enough I have to talk to someone in a different country about my Dell... but then to be told if the PC has Ubuntu on it that they cannot help me and those folks only work Monday thru Friday!!!! I better get a call back from someone that lives in the US or I am going to be Mondo .... I have 7 Dells in my house... I came to them because of the service and the reliability... every year I get more disappointed and what I get faced with when I call them... It's like Compaq secretly bought them out and not manage them..... they are really starting to bigtime and they need to turn it around before they are the next Compaq...HP... even Gateway is better right now.... I bought one of those because of the price last year and haven't had ONE PROBLEM WITH IT!!! The last two dell laptops I bought have been major pains in the backside and have not worked when I got them... one was through QVC... and they were still screwing me around... it took over 5 months to get it fixed.
All this has happened today... I am now installed 8.10 and it had better work or this is the last Dell I am buying... you can take that to the bank... because you won't be taking anymore of my money....
Respectfully ( sort of )
Stinger63
ffreitas
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January 12th, 2009 19:00
Just tried to install the XP SP 3 that came with my brother's Mini 9 on my own just to see what happens, and got an blue screen at the very beggining. I can enter the Dell Support tools (pre-boot) and running tests several times haven't had a single error on them....
Will download a Vanilla Ubuntu DVD and try as well. I would prefer to be able to reinstall Dell's own flavor of Ubuntu due to drivers and the like... Jesse, will you be able to help us solve our issues or should we try the phone support?
Cheers,
-Fernando
Stinger63
2 Posts
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January 13th, 2009 21:00
Fernando,
I installed version 8.10 and it is working just fine. I had to do some stuff to make the microphone and speakers work since thew Dell disabled them or didn
t recongnize them... but since I did everything has worked just great.
What I finally had to do was to download an Image or ISO of the install progam CD and then using a different program installed that ISO Image onto a Flash Drive. Once I had that I booted up the pc from the flash drive and the install went smoothly and I haven't had any problems since... except for the keyboard on my Mini is warped like something had been setting on it for a long time... something heavy...
Later,
Stinger
audio_inside
4 Posts
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March 11th, 2009 14:00
Uh, what other stuff did you do? And where did you find the disk image?
-Steve