OT - Re: fedora network boot without boot floppy

[Rick Stevens]

Ted Potter wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-05-02 at 11:52, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>>David Morgan wrote:
>>
>>>Can an ftp network install from a server be triggered without a special 
>>>network-install boot floppy or CD?
>>>
>>>Last week I wanted to install Fedora 3 on a spare older machine but had 
>>>trouble getting it to boot from CD. So rule out the CD. Plan B was a 
>>>network install. If installation CDs are copied onto a different linux 
>>>box, the target machine uses ftp to get access and the installation 
>>>proceeds.
>>>
>>>The key to doing it is booting the target machine from a special floppy 
>>>which gives it a network driver and ftp client, and launches the 
>>>anaconda installer by somehow loading it from the server box. But I 
>>>found that as of Fedora 2, this stuff got too big and no such floppy is 
>>>available anymore. So I did the network install using RedHat 9 instead, 
>>>which is now on the box, running fine.
>>>
>>>My question is, if I still wanted to get from RedHat 9 to Fedora 3 by an 
>>>"upgrade" installation, could I do it? I would copy the Fedora 3 disks 
>>>onto the ftp server machine. Now (unlike last week) RedHat9 provides me 
>>>the needed ftp client platform, so I don't need any boot floppy for 
>>>that. But how would I trigger the load-and-launch of anaconda from the 
>>>server to get the installation rolling?
>>
>>We should probably clarify things a bit.  RHL5.2 through 7.1 were based
>>on 2.2 kernels.  RHL7.2 through RHL9 are based on 2.4 kernels.  FC2, FC3
>>and RHEL4 are all based on a 2.6 kernel.  The 2.6 kernel is too big to
>>fit on a floppy any longer, hence the missing boot floppy.
>>
>>Now, there still is network stuff available, but you must use a larger
>>boot media.  CD/DVD is ideal, but failing that, and if you have a
>>machine that has the ability to boot from a USB device, you can go out
>>and get an el cheapo USB pen (jump) drive--64MB is more than adequate.
>>You then copy the "images/bootdisk.img" from the CD to your pen drive
>>and boot off of it.
>>
>>If you lack the ability to boot from a pen drive, you can download
>>Smart Boot Manager from:
>>
>>	http://btmgr.webframe.org/index.php3?body=download.html
>>
>>and install that to a floppy and boot the floppy.  SBM will allow you
>>to boot from many different media that your BIOS won't and will give
>>you the ability to boot from your pen drive.  Then do the normal network
>>install.
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Mr Stevens,
> 
> Please report to Google.com headquarters immediately. There
> your brain will be scanned and made indexable by google. Our estimates
> indicate this will reduce internet traffic by as much as ten percent.

YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!  The thought police!  Help me!  HELP ME!

Heheheheheh! :-D

(after the process...)

"Uh, you want fries with that?"

> Thank you,
> 
> The Google Team
> 
> sorry for the OT but I hope someone else smiled !

(ear-to-ear grin at this end, Ted!)
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-        "And on the seventh day, He exited from append mode."       -
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