On Fri, 2004-01-02 at 19:04, Peter Teuben wrote: > > On 2 Jan 2004, Emiliano Brunettti wrote: > > > Hi everybody, > > > > after testing FC1 on my desktop, i would like to install it also on my > > laptop. However, there is a problem (not strictly related to FC1, but i > > hope somebody can help). > > > > I cannot boot from floppy disk, since i probably lost my external floppy > > disk :( > > > > Can't boot from pcmcia cd-rom, and bios doesn't allow boot from usb > > device. > > > > Is there a way to boot from hard drive and perform a normal fc1 install? > > I think there should be a way, perhaps create a boot kernel image with > > pcmcia support and boot normally from hard drive, but i need some hints > > to do it. > > > > Can somebody help, please? And, please, forgive me if this is a trivial > > question. > > > > Thanks a lot > > > > If you really have *no* other boot device left, but the hard drive, > there is nothing left but using the hard drive! > > It would not be impossible to think of a procedure with virtual hardware > (like bochs) to start off a linux, modify the bootsector to boot to an > install partition, which then starts reading media from the hard drive. But > that presumes an older version of linux already on it (perhaps bochs runs on > windows too...). Certainly not something for the faint of heart. Well, this is not a problem. I already have a linux system up and running on that laptop - sorry about that, i forgot to write this in my previous email. What i want to do is a fresh new install, but i realized i have no other boot devices but my hdd. > So, i'm afraid your only solution left after that is to take the drive out, > and hook it up via an external HD adaptor to another laptop or deskstop. > Perform the install on it, and make sure it will write a lilo or grub that > will be consistent with the configuration in the laptop. I've actually done > this on occasion, so it does work. THe 3.5<->5.25 IDE adapters can be > mailordered for well under $10, i think i found mine for $3.50 or so. A > google search should get you there. Otherwise, if you have the hardware, some > firewire or usb2 housings may work, but they are more expensive ($50-100). Well, i don't know whether this could work. I mean, my only boot device is a legacy floppy disk (that i lost!) and that laptop can't boot either from PCMCIA or USB. I also tried to get a bios upgrade in order to boot from usb device, but couldn't find. So i thought of a new entry in grub with some sort of specific 'install' kernel image to be able to boot and fire up PCMCIA cd-rom or hdd and the installer program. But i don't know if this can be done. Any ideas? Thanks a lot for your answer. E.
