[Gllug] Laptop Install

[Xander D Harkness]

Aaron Southwell wrote:

>I have a Gateway laptop that won't boot from CD.
>
>What is the best way to install an alternate version of Linux (Debian?).  I 
>presently use Mandrake 9.
>
>Is there a simple way to start the install from linux?  Or do I need to create 
>a floppy and hot swap?  I would rather not have to reinstall dos and its cd 
>drivers.
>
>  
>
With Red  Hat 9 you can easily create a couple of floppies and install 
from the cd after a boot from floppy.  You can do a large number of 
different types of installs on most distros; however for simplicity I 
would get the images from the images directory and build floppies using dd:

dd if=inputfile of=outputdevice

so you end up with dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0

the other file for a cd boot is drvblock.img

You could instead use drvnet.img if you are on a network and install 
without downloading and burning ISOs and stick 
http://openapps.harkness.co.uk/linux/redhat/9/install in as the URL and 
it will do the whole install from the net.  If you set up your own local 
mirror then subsequent installs becomes much easier.  I have them 
running from a kickstart file at home.

 It does take a while ;-)

Kind regards
Xander



-- 
"Theres no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there arent enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged



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