Disk Druid - Fedora flame #1

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005, Jeff Vian wrote:

> On Sat, 2005-01-22 at 21:48 +0000, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>> Les Mikesell wrote:
>>
>>> If you have another Linux machine on the network you can speed
>>> up installs and avoid CD issues by doing an NFS install.  Just
>>> download the iso images to a directory on a Linux box that is
>>> exported via NFS and burn only the first disk.  Then enter
>>> 'linux askmethod' at the boot prompt, pick NFS as the install
>>> method and fill in the details for the NFS export.  The installer
>>> will do all the magic of mounting the images for you.  It is faster
>>> than CDs and you don't have to hang around to swap disks.
>>
>> As a matter of interest I tried this ("linux askmethod")
>> but it didn't appear to have any effect.
>> When I reached the choice of method NFS was listed
>> (this is what I wanted to try)
>> but I was unable to choose it -
>> if I did, it simply returned at once to the same choices.
>> (All that I was able to choose was Local CD or Hard disk.)
>>
>> I assume the reason is that I had no IP connection at that moment.
>> In fact I have only one PMCIA slot,
>> and that was occupied by the CD reader.
>>
>> Is it in fact possible to install over the net in this case?
>>
>
> It is physically impossible to do an NFS (or any other kind of network)
> install unless you have a network connection available at boot time.
>
> If you only have one pcmcia slot and are using it for the cdrom then I
> guess not.

This thread has evolved a bunch since I stopped following it closely, but 
if I follow what's going on, I think there are two alternatives.  Both 
involve repartitioning the disk in a separate step.

(1) You can do a hard disk install.  You need to partition the disk so 
there is a partition you won't reformat (e.g. a separate /home).  Then 
copy the ISOs to a directory there and boot off the CD.  (I vaguely 
remember that this was discussed but I don't recall why you couldn't do 
it.)

(2) I read somewhere that you could create a partition on the disk and 
install the boot.iso image.  You could then boot from that hard disk 
partition with the network card plugged in and do a network install.  Now, 
I don't know the details of making it work, but maybe soemone else on the 
list does?

If both of these alternatives have been considered and rejected, then 
sorry to interrupt.
-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs