Fedora Core 2 DVD Install without boot CD Howto

[hm_murdock]

This method was cooked up by myself and MidniteCandidate. This is for anybody who has the DVD version of FC2, is doing an upgrade over a previous version of Linux, and doesn't want to bother burning the boot CD.

This howto works from the following assumptions: that you're unable to boot from DVD for some reason or another; You are already running a Red Hat system. I did this with RH9 (Shrike).

First, insert your Fedora Core 2 DVD media and mount it, then as root...

mkdir /mnt/virtcd

Now, cd to /mnt/cdrom/images. ls and you should see "boot.iso".

Now...

mount -t iso9660 -o loop ./boot.iso /mnt/virtcd

cd /mnt/virtcd/isolinux

ls and you will see vmlinuz and initrd.img. Copy both of these to your /boot directory.

Now, add the following lines to your /etc/grub.conf file...

title Fedora Install
     root (0,0)
     kernel /boot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=16550
     initrd /boot/initrd.img

Make sure to match the value of root to whatever is listed in your current working entry for Linux... if for example yours is

root (0,6)

Make sure that the root value for the "Fedora Install" is also

root (0,6)

Once this is done, reboot, but LEAVE THE FEDORA CORE 2 DVD OUT OF YOUR DRIVE! Select "Fedora Install" from Grub, and it should boot into a menu asking you to select your language and keyboard layout. When it reaches the menu asking for install method, select "Local CDROM" and now insert your FC2 DVD. It should find it and ask to do a media check. Best to let it do the check. Once that's complete, it will start anaconda from the DVD and that's that. You can now use any installation method you please. You may even format or repartition.

Cheers!

[WMD]

Kickass  :cool:

BTW, since when were DVDs ever bootable?  I have this RH 7.3 DVD (2002) that requires making a floppy boot disk.  Was that just a one-time thing?  :confused:

[worker201]

I guess it just depends on the DVD drive.  The one in my Dell Dimension 8250 boots system dvds just fine.  In fact, I think that MS Office XP might be on dvd nowadays.

Downloading and burning 1 dvd iso is a lot less hassle than 5 cds, or whatever Fedora is up to these days. Easier to ship, too!

[hm_murdock]

Aye.

Honestly, Red Hat needs to develop an installer script that can do this for you...

If I knew how to do shellscripting, I'd do it myself... if anybody knows how, please do!

When I post the full, formal howto somewhere I can include the script.

[mobrien_12]

I think I was able to boot my RH-9 DVD disk.

[insomnia]

Bad idea.
If you want to use hard-drive install, Take the first CD(four times smaller), install the minimum and apt-get everything.
No need to do a full DVD download.

[hm_murdock]

I didn't do a DVD download. Worker did. He was nice enough to send it to me, and I opted for the DVD edition. I had no idea that there was no longer a boot floppy.

Either arbitrarily or for technical reasons, FC2 doesn't have a floppy image, so, I was boned. The only option was to burn this stupid 4MB boot.iso. Nobody I know was gonna waste a CD on that. Getting ANOTHER CD image would be pushing my luck with my friends. None of them are Linux users, so they weren't gonna waste their time.

The process works, works fine, and it solves the problem.

The apt-get solution is unacceptable, as many people do not have a fast enough connection to pull that much shit down. And even then, would they know what all to get? I sure as Hell don't.

[KernelPanic]

meh, I just mounted my DVD ISO on loopback and added it to my apt sources then did a dist-upgrade. It worked real nice. Saved a DVD-R too.

[zao]

quote:Originally posted by JimmyJames: GenSTEP Founder:
Either arbitrarily or for technical reasons, FC2 doesn't have a floppy image, so, I was boned.

The size of kernel 2.6.x is too large to fit on a single floppy drive so any linux distros based on this kernel won't include it. Hope it responds to your question

[worker201]

Au contraire.  A customized bz kernel will easily fit on a floppy.  It's only when you put all that extra crap on there, like scsi support, raid support, 600 sound card drivers, 7,000 terminal drivers, and all that other useless shit that the kernel becomes too big to boot from a 3.5".

Hey, I just suddenly had a flash idea.  Nobody would be generous enough to host it, but here it is - a netbased kernel builder.  You go to the website, and you customconfigure a kernel, probably based on some php forms or something.  You only get the stuff you absolutely need to get the thing started, at which point you can install an OS or whatever.  A simple kernel and systemMap that only supported your cd player, an ide hard drive, and a keyboard would be enough to get you going, and that would easily fit on a floppy.  Of course people with bootable dvds or hot transfer rates wouldn't have to bother with this sort of thing.  But special cases and shitty computers would benefit from this.