HD Install :: HD Install without a CD?



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
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.
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.

(...)
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
Info on a DSL boot without a CDROM

Hi 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
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