installation through Fedora
Marko Vojinovic
vvmarko at gmail.com
Fri Nov 27 00:19:57 UTC 2009
On Thursday 26 November 2009 19:45:16 Jerry Ro wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 2:08 PM, Mick M. <off_by_1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > I want to install Windows XP on a computer that currently
> > > has only fedora installed. It does not have a CD-ROM (not
> > > working) and I cannot boot from disk on key, though I can
> > > access a disk on key on fedora. I have no internet
> > > connection on that computer, but I can still copy files from
> > > another computer through the disk on key.
> >
> > Put the drive into another computer - install - swap it back.
> >
> My other computer is a laptop, so I can't plug in the drive into it...
> I don't have other computers.
Please avoid top-posting on this list. You might want to read the wikipedia
article and list guidelines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Top-posting
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
As for your question, the easiest method is to use a friend's computer to do
the installation, or borrow a working CD drive. That would save you from much
pain, if possible.
If not, there are several things you should consider prior to trying anything
out:
1) Running XP inside a virtual machine, instead on native hardware. The upside
is that you can use both OSes simultaneously and there is no hassle with
repartitioning the drive and booting. The downside is that you probably need
at least 2GB of RAM for this to be smooth enough, 1GB to be just possible. And
no serious 3D graphics support under XP --- no games and such.
2) Back up all your data. Dual boot setup is always a risky procedure,
especially if done the wrong way around (the right way is XP first, Fedora
second).
3) If your hardware is old, and I have a feeling that it is, your BIOS might
not support booting beyond the 1024th cylinder on the hard drive. This means
that you need to squeeze both the XP's C: partition and Fedora's /boot
partition in this space. This might not be doable without a complete wipe and
repartitioning of the drive.
4) XP installation will not ask you where you want to put the bootloader ---
it will go on and overwrite the MBR and GRUB on it. After XP install, Fedora
will become inaccessible until you set up GRUB again from a repair CD or
something. This is the reason why the install order is "XP first, Fedora
second". And given that you do not have a CD drive, this can be a big problem.
5) Repartitioning the live and mounted drive is impossible if you are not
running LVM on it. If you are, somebody else might instruct you how to free up
space for XP, as I am not familiar with LVM.
Now, given all that, the installation is pretty much impossible without a
working CD drive. Or at least a working floppy drive, if you are adventurous
enough. You need to be able to boot the machine off *something* *other* than
hard drive in order to perform an OS install on it. Also, you'll most probably
going to need a CD drive later in regular work, so it would be a good idea to
buy it.
Or buy more memory and go virtual.
Or try out the famous IFBP (the "Insane Floppy Bootstrap Procedure"), if you
can boot off a floppy drive. The IFBP goes roughly as follows:
* backup all data using the usb key to the laptop (the hard drive is going to
be wiped out)
* find several usable floppy disks
* while still in Fedora, download images of Win98 bootdisk and DamnSmallLinux
(or equivalents), and copy them all to floppies; double-check and tripple-check
that they work ok
* boot the machine off the Win98 bootdisk; use fdisk to delete current
partition table; create partition to be used for XP later on; leave space for
Fedora; format the partition as fat32
* boot off the DamnSmallLinux floppy; hopefully it has support for USB
* copy the XP installation on the newly-created partition using the USB drive
* boot off the Win98 bootdisk, go to the appropriate directory and start XP
installation (by typing "setup" in the dos prompt, I guess); this should
install XP on the drive
* boot the XP; transfer the Fedora install image to the hard drive using USB
drive
* download and install VirtualBox to XP
* create small Linux virtual guest in VirtualBox; point it to use physical
hard drive for its partitions
* install minimal Fedora as a virtual guest on the rest of the hard drive; try
to put GRUB in the MBR, if possible --- if not, put it on the first sector of
the /boot partition
* boot DamnSmallLinux off a floppy, reinstall GRUB to MBR, configure it to
chainload XP
* boot XP to see if it still works
* boot Fedora to see if it works at all
* adapt Fedora to run on native hardware; clean up the VirtualBox mess
* return the data from the backup
Now, if this procedure fails at any step (and I can bet it will), your
computer is hosed up, and don't expect anyone to help you pick up the pieces.
All in all, I would really consider buying a DVD drive, or going virtual with
XP, or just using Fedora as is (ditch the whole idea of XP). The IFBP method
given above should just discourage you from trying out anything so insane,
except maybe as a proof of concept that it can be done.
HTH, :-)
Marko
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