At 05:58 PM 5/21/2004, you wrote:
Okay, I figured out why there's no such thing as a boot floppy in FC2, and I have a better idea of how I could get around installing via CD-ROM now. Some good advice here:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-May/msg03916.html
I'm still kind of afraid to install grub on my home XP machine, though, given the reports of trouble with it:
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=115980
mis@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 05/21/2004 04:34:15 PM:
> > Hi all. I have a couple of questions related to Fedora Core 2 installs. > > First, I have a box with no CD-ROM drive that's running FC1. I'd > like to upgrade it to FC2. I read somewhere that there's a way to > run the install if I copy the ISOs to the machine's hard drive, but > I couldn't find any documentation on how that would work exactly. > (The machine does have a diskette drive, so I could boot from > diskette if need be.) > > Second, I have a machine at home that I want to dual-boot XP and > FC2. I installed FC2 on it last night, but I didn't install grub, > because the installer reported a problem with my boot sector, and I > didn't want to risk screwing it up. I thought I would be prompted > to create a boot disk at the end of the install, as has been common > with previous versions of RedHat/Fedora, but I wasn't. Either that, > or I zoned and just clicked past it. Either way, can I boot from CD > 1 or the rescue CD and create a boot disk after the fact? > > In general, I haven't found a good guide for Fedora installation. I > just ordered Fedora Unleashed from Amazon, and I'm hoping that has > some useful information, but if anyone knows of a good > install/upgrade guide for Fedora out there on the net someplace, > please let me know where it is!
Alas, his comments were hopeful, but not successful.
I am not a low-level programmer, but in the long-lost days with other hardware, I was. I know it was possible to bootstrap a bi-quinary computer using multiple punched-cards, where the first card had enough logic to continue the loading process with other cards. And these cards each had only 10 computer instructions on them. I find it difficult to believe that some smart hacker (in the good sense) can't devise a way to bootstrap FC2 network installation, and subsequent larger systems, using multiple floppies. Even that other operating system (from the Seattle area) has (or had) a bootstrap with 5 or so diskettes.
One of the attractions of Linux has been its ability to run on old hardware. It would be sad to see that abandoned.
Oh well.
David
