[oclug] Linux Installation without cd-rom

[Robert Charbonneau]

On March 18, 2002 10:42 pm, you wrote:
> >I bought a 10 pack of CDR's today, so my prof could copy rh7.2 for me.
> >Small World.
>
> Isn't there any other way of installing linux once I get an ISO image
> downloaded? (This is just a theoretical question. I already have linux.).
>
> Let's say we downloaded the iso, linux1.iso, linux2.iso and linux3.iso
> images into C:\temp\ and D:\temp, both FAT partitions. This would be hda1
> and hda2 when seen from linux.
> 1) I would first need to download a small (micro) version of linux or a
> rescue diskette or something, that would fit on a floppy.  I am not sure if
> this is possible. Definitely should be.
> 2) Boot micro-linux using the floppy.
> 3) mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos
> 4) mount -t iso9600 /mnt/dos/tmp/linux1.iso /mnt/cdrom1
> 5) mount -t iso9600 /mnt/dos/tmp/linux2.iso /mnt/cdrom2
> 6) mount -t iso9600 /mnt/dos/tmp/linux3.iso /mnt/cdrom3. (There may be disk
> space limitation for a FAT partition in doing this, so we might have to put
> linux3.iso on hda2, and do
> mount -t msdos /dev/hda2 /mnt/win and mount -t iso9600
> /mnt/win/tmp/linux3.iso /mnt/cdrom3.)
> 7) ?? I am not sure what to do here. But somewho run the installer for the
> distro, but each distro would have its own installer and
>
> I don't know if we could run the installer, which is the main question that
> I ask in this email.
> Mathew
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________

If you download an entire distro and put it on a Linux readable partition you 
can install from the HD.  I'm almost entirely sure you can't do this .iso 
images (at least with RH or MDK) on the hd.  You can however take these 
images, mount them on another machine and NFS or HTTP install.

You should note that RedHat gives  you the option of installing from the hard 
drive, so if you mirror a RH distribution in all it's splendor you can go 
ahead an install to another drive in the box.  For example:

C:\RedHat\ == /dev/hda

Write image to floppy from C:\RedHat\images\boot.img (or some such dir in 
there).

Then boot up, tell it the distro is in /dev/hda, and select the RedHat dir, 
you should be able to install from one HD to the other.

-- 
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"I could really use to lose my Catholic conscience,
 Cause I'm getting sick of feeling guilty all the time."
	- Great Big Sea, _Consequence_Free_

Robert Charbonneau
etriaph at kdesktop.org
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