Installing without a CD drive

[Paul Howarth]

Colin Paul Adams wrote:
>>>>>> "Ian" == Ian Pilcher <i.pilcher at comcast.net> writes:
> 
>     Ian> Colin Paul Adams wrote:
>     >> Could someone list the procedure to do this (I have the iso
>     >> images on disc)? It's not in the Installation guide.
> 
>     Ian> Do you already have Linux installed?  If so, you can do a
>     Ian> hard disk installation without even creating a boot floppy.
> 
>     Ian> The main thing that you will need is a spare partition to
>     Ian> hold the ISO images.  This partition (obviously) needs to be
>     Ian> formatted with a file- system that the Fedora kernel can
>     Ian> read; ext2/3 and FAT32 will certainly work.
> 
>     Ian> Assuming that you've got such a partition, and you've moved
>     Ian> the ISO files to it, the next step is to extract the
>     Ian> installation kernel and initrd from the first ISO and copy
>     Ian> them to your /boot directory.
> 
>     Ian>   * mount -o ro,loop ISO_FILE MOUNT_POINT * mkdir
>     Ian> /boot/fc5inst * cp MOUNT_POINT/isolinux/{vmlinuz,initrd.img}
>     Ian> /boot/fc5inst/ * umount MOUNT_POINT
> 
>     Ian> Now edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and create a new entry called
>     Ian> "INSTALL Fedora Core 5".  It should be relatively
>     Ian> straightforward to figure out the root device and the path to
>     Ian> the kernel and initrd.  (If it isn't, you may want to use the
>     Ian> boot floppy image that's located somewhere in the first ISO.)
>     Ian> The only kernel parameters required are hardware- specific
>     Ian> stuff.
> 
>     Ian> Now you can reboot your system and select a hard drive
>     Ian> installation.  Point the installer to the partition and
>     Ian> directory in which you've placed the ISO images and proceed
>     Ian> as normal.  You will get a pop-up warning when the installer
>     Ian> searches for existing installations; it will try to mount the
>     Ian> partition which contains the ISO images and complain when the
>     Ian> mount fails (because it's already mounted).
> 
>     Ian> Hope this helps.
> 
> Well, it works up to a point, but then there doesn't appear to be an
> upgrade option.
> 
> How do I do an upgrade?

You should automatically get an upgrade option if the installer finds 
your existign installation (I think it looks for /etc/fedora-release). 
If you're not getting the option, there's probably a problem seeing your 
existing partitions. Do you need any specific drivers for your existing 
setup? What is the partitioning arrangement?

Paul.