Bootstrap with no bootable CD device

Bill Somerville bill at classdesign.com
Tue Nov 9 20:02:35 UTC 2004


Ben Smith wrote:
> 
> Bill,
> 
> Unfortunately glbf doesn't support network booting at the moment.  It
> may in the future, once some of the other design goals have been achieved.
> 
> If you can get Fedora's boot.iso image onto a fat/32 partition on the
> hard drive, the current version of glbf will let you boot from that
> image, and initiate a network install using the Fedora installer.  I
> think this would be the easiest thing to do.  The HOWTO document
> explains the process.  Basically, you would rename the boot.iso image to
> glbf.iso and place it in the root (topmost) directory of the partition.
> 
> Unfortunately, though, I have never done an install specifically this
> way.  My only concern would be whether the important bits from the
> boot.iso image are copied to memory so that the image can be overwritten
> during the install.  Perhaps someone with knowledge of the Fedora
> installer could answer that question.  If not, you would have to create
> a separate partition to contain the boot.iso image, and make sure not to
> format it during the install.

OK I've got that working. Needed a small VFAT partition but that's no
problem and I think it's fairly installer proof as it tends to leave non
Linux partitions alone by default.

Now if only I could get the NFS share to be visible :-( A different
problem, something amiss with PCMCIA NIC's and the installer.

> 
> If that option is not feasible, and you do not find another solution,
> the next version of glbf will likely support booting from USB memory
> sticks.  There is a Fedora install image for those that would let you
> bootstrap to a network install if necessary.

Yes I saw the FC2 support for that, no help to me though as the laptop
doesn't have USB.

> 
> -Ben
> Dees Consulting
> www.deesconsulting.com
> 

Thanks
Bill Somerville




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