Steven C. Liu wrote:
Paul also wrote:
"If you can put the DVD ISO on a separate partition (not LVM, not your
root partition), you should be able to do a hard disk install:
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora-install-guide-en/fc4/sn-installing-from-harddrive.html";
Ok, I went to that link and it doesn't actually tell me *how* to get to
that point. I can yank my large external USB drive from my server and
attach it to the box I want to upgrade. Now what? Do I run 'autorun'?
How do I fire up anaconda? Sorry if I need so much handholding...
As you have an already-installed FC2 system (presumably using grub),
this won't be too hard.
Let's assume that your USB drive partition containing the DVD is mounted
and the ISO can be found at: /mnt/usbdrive/FC4-i386-DVD.iso
The best solution would be to extract the boot.iso file from the DVD ISO
and then burn that to a CD and boot from it:
# mkdir /mnt/iso
# mount -r -o loop /mnt/usbdrive/FC4-i386-DVD.iso /mnt/iso
# cp /mnt/iso/images/boot.iso /root
# umount /mnt/iso
You could at this point burn the /root/boot.iso and use that to boot the
installer.
If you don't have a CD writer, not to worry. You can boot the installer
from your hard disk:
# mount -r -o loop /root/boot.iso /mnt/iso
# cp /mnt/iso/isolinux/vmlinuz /boot/vmlinuz.fc4
# cp /mnt/iso/isolinux/initrd.img /boot/initrd.img.fc4
Then copy one of your existing kernel entries in /etc/grub.conf (a set
of lines starting "title", "root", "kernel", "initrd").
Change the title line:
title Fedora Core 4 Installer
Leave the "root" line as it is.
Change the kernel line to:
kernel /vmlinuz.fc4 ramdisk_size=8192
If your existing kernel line referred to a kernel with a directory name
starting with /boot, change it to:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.fc4 ramdisk_size=8192
Change the initrd line to:
initrd /initrd.img.fc4
If your existing initrd line referred to an initrd with a directory name
starting with /boot, change it to:
initrd /boot/initrd.img.fc4
You should now be able to boot the FC4 installer from your hard disk by
selecting "Fedora Core 4 Installer" from the grub menu.
I think in FC3 that the installer would not load the USB modules (and
hence be able to see a USB drive) unless booted in "expert" mode. I
don't know if this is still the case in FC4. If it is, append " expert"
to the end of the kernel line in grub.
Also, I am wondering what are the benefits to my exercise? I think my
FC2 systems do just fine. Why go to FC4? (Actually, I want to do this
because I consider this to be fun!)
FC2 is end-of-lined. No more updates, including security updates (though
some may be available from Fedora Legacy for a while). If the machine is
a desktop, FC4 is much better IMHO.
Paul.
