Downloaded PC LinuxOS Openbox to cd. How do I load it/replace my current OS?

[newbit]

I don't have the passwords for admin or sudo, bought laptop used w/mostly Mint 9 on it.....and it won't go away! Can't load pgms or the Openbox from my cd. Get msgs like:
 Error mounting: mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sr0,   missing codepage or helper program, or other error    In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail  or so                  And cannot do anything with terminal. Wait, I did get this far in terminal:
dell@dell-laptop /media/livecd 2011081123:57 $ _    Also, I can see that Openbox has boot, isolinux, and livecd.sqfs, but all I can do is see that. Cannot open it or access it.  I feel like a kid who cannot open a present. Aaahhh! I really want to get up and running already. Need to replace this mess w/a full distro, your Openbox. Any and all help would be extremely appreciated.    

[BJF]

Newbit:

What should happen (repeat: should), is that you pop your shiney new Live CD into the optical drive, and reboot. Where-upon the machine restarts and the Live One will load up independent of the installed OS, chug through to the keyboard choice window (choose default US) and should finish up at a desktop. There you choose to install, probably using the second choice allowing PCLINUXOS to inhabit the whole machine, and choose to make the first drive partition / at the next menu. This installs OpenBox on the machine and overwrites whatever was on it before. See how you go.

[newbit]

Thanks BJF. I tried that several times. It skips right to the dell user/password screen in Mint. No such luck I'm afraid. Is there a way to purchase a reliable disk w/the complete Openbox in place.....and Full Monty which I can install on my foxconn mini that came w/WIN? Thanx in advance!

[Old-Polack]

Thanks BJF. I tried that several times. It skips right to the dell user/password screen in Mint. No such luck I'm afraid. Is there a way to purchase a reliable disk w/the complete Openbox in place.....and Full Monty which I can install on my foxconn mini that came w/WIN? Thanx in advance!

You need to go into BIOS and set the boot order to cdrom before hard drive.

[melodie]

Thanks BJF. I tried that several times. It skips right to the dell user/password screen in Mint. No such luck I'm afraid. Is there a way to purchase a reliable disk w/the complete Openbox in place.....and Full Monty which I can install on my foxconn mini that came w/WIN? Thanx in advance!

You need to go into BIOS and set the boot order to cdrom before hard drive.

And here is an image of a BIOS and how it could look like (some BIOS show tabs, other show categories such as the "boot" catagory one under the other).

http://wiki.pclinuxos-fr.org/lib/exe/detail.php?id=pclinuxos&media=bios.png

To get to the BIOS, look at the first boot messages : it says very briefly "press F1" or "press F2" sometimes "press suppr" to access to the BIOS. Sometimes also in the BIOS the only possible way to choose your boot device is to enable the "temporary boot choice" in the advanced section.

Regards,
Mélodie

[newbit]

Merci Melodie and Old-Polack. It sort of worked. I chged it to cd drive first and it did it. I was stumped at what to choose among the list of options and it quickly chose one for me (the first screen w/the choices for using or downloading the cd/PC Linux OS). Next  I was stopped by  not knowing what to enter in: Localhost Login:_ , then Username:_ , then Password:_   ...What is that all about???  After trying anything then finding out I could not turn it off, I got  .../user/bin/perl: error while running shared libraries.  It all ended with the error msg running while blinking the PCLinuxOS logo screen w/the bull. Nothing stopped it. Not even a red cape and me yelling "Olay!"....finally I pulled the battery and re-started, managing to get cd door open then...and here I am!  Phew!  So now what do I do? I am determined to get PCLinux Openbox on here. You are a great bunch of people and I want to be an active PCLOS member.  I got this download from a german mirror, it is the .iso version, not the md5sum one, if that helps.

[melodie]

Hi newbit,

The md5sum file is meant to check the integrity of your download. Would you read a few pages at the knowledge base ? (Our wiki).

http://www.pclinuxoshelp.com/index.php/Main_Page

Look especially at that part:

Table of contents

...

Md5sum checking • Burning PCLinuxOS disc • Live CD faq • Installing PCLinuxOS • Things to do after installation •

Once you will have read through this part, come back for all questions left. At least the wiki should clear out a few things for you. If there are words you don't understand, ask also.

Is the ISO supposed to be in German ?

Regards,
Mélodie

[djohnston]

I was stumped at what to choose among the list of options and it quickly chose one for me (the first screen w/the choices for using or downloading the cd/PC Linux OS).

As soon as you see that boot screen, press the down arrow key on your keyboard. That will stop the countdown timer and you can take your time in reading the entries on the screen. You can move through the entries with the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. Pressing [Enter] will select the highlighted entry.

Next  I was stopped by  not knowing what to enter in: Localhost Login:_ , then Username:_ , then Password:_   ...What is that all about???

Sounds to me like the X server isn't starting on the live CD. Try booting with the Video Safe Mode option on the boot screen. Once you've booted and logged in, find the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Start that, then go to Hardware > Browse and configure hardware. In the Detected hardware section, click the arrow to the left of Videocard and post what kind of video card that laptop has.

[newbit]

Thanks melodie, doing  my homework now. I believe I'll just buy the full monty cd and maybe the openbox. The torrent download seems long and not sure yet how to get it once dwnld. I already dwnloaded ktorrent. I'm getting there.

[djohnston]

I believe I'll just buy the full monty cd and maybe the openbox.

newbit,

You don't need to buy anything, except blank CDs and DVDs. To download the Openbox edition, go here. Scroll to the bottom of the page. There's a full version and a mini version.

Here is the Full Monty 2011.09 torrent file. You'll need a torrent client to download it. Or, you can download the iso directly from a PCLinuxOS mirror site.

[newbit]

 If I had the money, I'd get another laptop and use this one for shooting practice. It's really my fault though. I purch it from someone else and cannot find them to find out what the administrative password is. Cannot chge it in security section of Boot and cannot even download syanaptic package mgr or any administrative task w/o the password. Any way around that? I am afraid of wiping out the old Isadora bc may not be able to ever regain access again.  Got two other ? but this one overrides all else. How do I replace that unknown password?   

[Archie]

I used to have a desktop that I forgot the password to the BIOS. I remember all I did was removed the battery and put it back on and I think the BIOS was reset ... BIOS security password removed.

[newbit]

I'm back, hmmm. That's an idea. I'll give it a try now. Thanks!