Is it possible to perform an FC 3 install without a CD ?

[Phil Schaffner]

On Sun, 2005-06-05 at 13:41 +0200, Fabrice Beauvir wrote:
> hi all,
>  I am unable to install FC3 without a CD/DVD drive.
> 
> I 'd created 2 floppy , one for boot install , one containing net drivers.
> I 'd setup an HTTP dir named "Fedora" containing:
>   - base from cd1
>  -  RPMS from 3 cds
>  - disk1 containing cd1, disk2 containing2 cd2, disk2 containing2 cd2 
> (as indicated in red hat install manual)
> 
> I boot, and ask for an HTTP install.
> It retrieve base/stage2.img and  I  got this  :" FC installation tree in 
> that directory does not seem to mach your boot media"
> 
> 
> I notice (using crt-alt-3  screen) that anaconda try to acces to a CD 
> drive ("Unable to iddentify CD-ROM format')
> 
> So I haven't any net acces (in order to get RPM from mirrors) and no CD 
> drive in my pc .
> 
> Were I am wrong ?

The following approach from the CentOS list might help...

On Mon, 2005-06-06 at 09:17 +0300, Sukru TIKVES wrote: 
> Previously (many years ago) I had to do the same thing with Slackware
> since I did not have an optical drive then.
> 
> The process is like this:
> 
> - Make a FAT partition
> - Copy all the installation files (all disks) to the FAT partition
> - You'll need a Kernel, a INITRD image and LOADLIN program
> -- Kernel and INITRD is in cd:/images/pxeboot
> -- You can find loadlin from the web
> - Boot DOS (probably via a floppy)
> - Use loadlin.exe to boot the linux kernel
> 
> If I remember correctly the command line was like this:
> 
> C:> LOADLIN.EXE VMLINUZ load_ramdisk=1 initrd=initrd.img RO
> 
> But please check the loadlin documentation. I have not done this for
> years and I am not sure if it works with CentOS.
> 
> -- sukru
> 
> Takashi Nakamura wrote:
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >My computer has only primaly IDE but not secondaly.
> >I connected  a hard drive as Master and DVD-R as Slave on IDE.
> >BIOS doesn't recognize IDE devices, but Windows XP that boots up from SATA
> >hard drive can recognize
> >DVD-R and can read files on the CentOS Installer Disk 1 of 4.
> >Is it possible to start Centos4 Installer from WindowsXP?
> >If possible, which file on Disk 1 should I click?
> >Even if they are possible, can CentOS boot up from IDE Master hard drive? I
> >think probably not.
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >Takashi Nakamura
> 
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