HD Install without a CD?
Forum: HD Install
Topic: HD Install without a CD?
started by: slurp
Posted by slurp on Oct. 17 2004,00:35
Hi,I've an old laptop (no OS installed) & would like to run DSL.
Is there an easy way of getting DSL onto the machine with out a CD drive?
I've got a network card and was wondering if it was possible to remote mount a drive to make the install.
many thanks,
colin
Posted by Max on Oct. 17 2004,01:32
I had the same problem on an old ThinkPad. Search the forum for "tomsrtboot"In a nutshell, procedure is to use Tom's Root Boot diskette to boot, set up partitions, get on the net (I had to try 3 different NIC cards before I found one that Tom's supported) and download the base ISO and the DSL floppy boot image. Then you end up mounting the ISO (so it emulates the CDROM you don't have). And do an install from there.
Someone had a script to do this (it was in the post), but I ended up printing out the script and just did it by hand using the script as a guide.
Posted by slurp on Oct. 17 2004,18:37
Thanks for the tip... I fell short with my unsupported network network card (16 Bit PC Card) or rather I've not got my head round using the Add-Ons for PCMCIA:o(
best regards,
colin
Posted by AwPhuch on Oct. 21 2004,16:05
Can you find a PCMCIA cdrom?I had to install Win98SE on my compaq LTE 5300 using a Addonics PCMCIA cdrom, then copy the /KNOPPIX and /boot dir over into the Windows partition and do a poormans DSL install
If you can boot into an OS with some sort of network support (dhcp or whatnot) and can get the /KNOPPIX dir and /boot dir over to a fat32 partition on the laptop the 0.8.0 bootfloppy will autodetect it and will run DSL, then if you wish you can do a fullbore HD install, otherwise you have to use a bootfloppy to start it
Brian
AwPhuch
Posted by Adriano on Oct. 29 2004,13:54
What you can do is try de laplink conection....
Posted by AwPhuch on Oct. 29 2004,14:11
Do you have a floppy drive??I know its alot of work but I have done it on 9 machines and it works ever time
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/install_from_floppy.html >
Brian
AwPhuch
Posted by Delboy on Nov. 01 2004,13:59
What I did on my ancient Digital Hinote without CDrom but with floppy drive:Reformat hard disc completely using DOS system floppy - ie. only command.com system and basic dos files are left: no OS. Split the single partition with 'Fips' (Vector Linux site download) into desired (Linux) partition 2. size and remaining dos system partition 1. Delete partition 2. using fdisk or cfdisk to leave 'free space'.
Use linux cfdisk utility on floppy to convert and split free space into hda2 linux partition and hda3 swap space (I followed Vector Linux instructions for this).
Download and burn DSL iso somewhere fast elsewhere (work).
Boot up an external CDrom drive connected through the parallel port (using a supplied boot floppy if necessary) to access the burnt ISO files and copy into top of dos partition hda1. Make DSL boot floppy from boot.img file using 'rawrite' utility and boot into live DSL. Reboots after that, with floppy, replicates a live CD boot more or less - HD install after that if you like - easy. Subsequent DSL updates only require the same cdrom drive updating of the knoppix files on hda1. Hope this helps.
Posted by greenlead on Nov. 07 2004,05:41
| Quote (AwPhuch @ Oct. 29 2004,10:11) |
| Do you have a floppy drive?? I know its alot of work but I have done it on 9 machines and it works ever time < http://damnsmalllinux.org/install_from_floppy.html > Brian AwPhuch |
I am trying to resurrect a church friend's HP Omnibook 5500 CT. It has no CD drive. I have tried using the above instructions for floppy install.
I ran the boot disk, and DSL began starting up, but stated that it couldn't find the hda1 filesystem; it gave me a very limited command line.
I had transferred the boot.img and boot.cat files from the ISO file that I downloaded, as they apparently got lost when I transferred them through the rar process. Could this be the problem?
I will type the text on the screen the best that I can:
| Code Sample |
Accessing image at /dev/hda1.../modules/cloop.o: init_module: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including inva lid IO or IRQ parameters Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. Press the reset button to quit. (...) |
Posted by gatekeeper on Nov. 07 2004,16:02
I don't recommend this but it did work for me, I have an older IBM thinkpad 560 with no cd rom drive or floppy drive (both were external when this was sold. good job IBM). Anyway I removed the hard drive from the laptop/ installed an IDE cable adapter and connected it to a desktop computer running an Athlon duron 1100mhz cpu with 128 megs Sdram. I burned the download image to a cd rom disk and installed it to the hard drive. Then I removed the hard drive and re-installed it to the thinkpad. The only problem is that it does not display the screen in full size. IBM came out with bios updates but they were only for the 560E and 560X models and they warn you not to use then for other models. So that is where it stands right now, maybe I'll run a different version of linux that may solve the issue. Goodluck
Posted by RobDollar on Nov. 09 2004,04:34
Info on a DSL boot without a CDROMHi I'm a complete linux newbie, with a PII 233 and 128 mb ram, Windows 98, and a broken CD burner. I thought that I'd make this post just incase anyone is in a similar situation and wants to try out DSL/linux.
Quite simply, I extracted the .ISO file to my root directory (c:\) using Isobuster. Then I wrote the floppy boot .img to a floppy (A GOOD FLOPPY, anything with bad sectors is not worth it) using RawWriteWin. Basically all you need to do now is reboot with the floppy, hit F2, (I chose to do a "dsl vga=normal" boot) and everything should run like clockwork, touch wood.
Isobuster and RawWrite are very simple to use programs, which i found very easily by google search.
Please note this following suggestion I have not tried, please research this before you do it!!!!
If you wish to do a HD install (which I havent done yet) then I think you get a windows boot disk, boot off it, run Fdisk and create a partition about, lets say 400mb, and call it d:, move your DSL .iso files to that partition, boot with the floppy, the input the install to harddrive command in the terminal, making the installation to the C:\ drive. Like I said, I don't know much about this, and I'm not sure if DSL will allow a dual boot, ie Window / DSL at startup.
Hope this helps any people completely new to linux like myself, and if anyone thinks this info could be harmful, please remove it or inform me or the Admin.
-Rob
Posted by greenlead on Nov. 09 2004,20:00
Ok, I did the floppy install again, but this time with 0.6.3. It seems to boot up OK.
Posted by greenlead on Nov. 10 2004,05:26
BTW: what is the easiest way to make DSL 0.6.3 boot up just off of the HD. Right now, I have copied all of the CD files to the HD, but I am still booting off of the floppy. I would like to make it the only OS on the system, and also maintain all of the settings between sessions. BTW: the laptop appears to have a Pentium 133 chip in it, and ~16 megs of RAM. I made a swap partition with a size of 128 MB, and (after each program loads for the first time), it runs faster than fast!
Posted by AwPhuch on Nov. 10 2004,15:03
How big is the HD?Im working on a new walkthru for the 0.8.*+ versions of DSL (its a bit different from the 0.7.*- versions
You can find it < HERE >
Brian
AwPhuch