I received my Librem 14 some weeks ago, I’m not a very tech savy guy, and I need help setting it up. I’m not expecting a user friendly start, but i don’t want to spend days learning online.
When I received it, i turned it on, it loaded, then the first message I got was I needed to update some software, I tried, it said missing dependencies, and I don’t know how I ended up with my computer shut down and now it always open with factory reset options and weird stuff like that.
I want to pay someone to jump on a call with me and help me turn on my laptop and leave it functioning properly.
I cannot help you. But I do feel you! I got mine yesterday and it’s been constant forum posts, emails, and web searches. I’m happy to say, though, that my questions have been answered and all my issues have been getting resolved one by one as they arise (I had the same dependencies issue and the boot issue). The support from the staff and the users has been top notch. I’ve appreciated the willingness of the skilled to assist the well intentioned, but inexperienced like myself.
It shouldn’t take you days to get set up. And even if someone helps you set it up, you will need to maintain it and keep it updated, which is essentially the same kind of knowledge. So it’s not a bad idea to start getting your feet wet as soon as you can.
I also think it’s better in terms of security to get support in a public forum to ensure that the advice is peer reviewed and relatively accurate. Ya just never know… ya know?
I’ll tell you what. I’m willing to lend a hand for free - right here on the forum. Maybe some others can jump in. Reply to this message or PM me with some windows of time that work for you later in the day/evening (North American time zones). You just need a second device or computer to use to connect to the forum.
We can walk through the process together, from the very first screen you see when powering on your system. It should only take an hour or two (if that). We can coordinate so that our replies are only minutes apart, instead of days or hours. It’s not as complicated as it seems. Really!
It might not be the best solution normally, but since you have absolutely nothing installed on it yet, I guess it would be the easiest way to just re-install the operating system. It might sound like a lot of work, but it’s actually not. If you don’t want to do it this way, ignore the rest of this post
This is assuming you have a windows pc and a pendrive installed in your pc:
Open etcher, click “flash from file”, and select the pureos file you just downloaded
Click “select target”, and select the usb/pendrive you want to put the disk on. after that click “Flash!”
Put the usb stick in a usb port on your librem 14, and press the esc key when booting it up.
In the menu that popped up, select the usb stick to boot from it.
From there the steps speak for themselves. You’ll be greeted by a welcome page, you select the language for your operating system and the layout of the keyboard you use. Then you’re greeted by the desktop and select “Install PureOS”.
You then select the language
then your region and timezone (and if applicable apparently keyboard layout again).
Then you can click “erase disk” to have the partitioning done for you automatically, and enter encryption password.
click next and enter your user data, click next again and review all the settings if you want. Finally, click next and “Install now”.
Shouldn’t take too long to do either I hope it’s useful.
I’m very impressed by the willingness to help in this forum, I have never seen this anywhere else. I already got help from a very good memeber of the forum.
I’m here because I want to see the open source world grow, I wish the learning curve wasn’t that hard, but I will learn. Thank you!
I hope it’s useful.