Fedora Users — Re: Installing without a CD drive

Colin Paul Adams wrote:

"Ian" == Ian Pilcher <i.pilcher@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:


    Ian> Colin Paul Adams wrote:
    >> Could someone list the procedure to do this (I have the iso
    >> images on disc)? It's not in the Installation guide.

    Ian> Do you already have Linux installed?  If so, you can do a
    Ian> hard disk installation without even creating a boot floppy.

    Ian> The main thing that you will need is a spare partition to
    Ian> hold the ISO images.  This partition (obviously) needs to be
    Ian> formatted with a file- system that the Fedora kernel can
    Ian> read; ext2/3 and FAT32 will certainly work.

    Ian> Assuming that you've got such a partition, and you've moved
    Ian> the ISO files to it, the next step is to extract the
    Ian> installation kernel and initrd from the first ISO and copy
    Ian> them to your /boot directory.

    Ian>   * mount -o ro,loop ISO_FILE MOUNT_POINT * mkdir
    Ian> /boot/fc5inst * cp MOUNT_POINT/isolinux/{vmlinuz,initrd.img}
    Ian> /boot/fc5inst/ * umount MOUNT_POINT

    Ian> Now edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and create a new entry called
    Ian> "INSTALL Fedora Core 5".  It should be relatively
    Ian> straightforward to figure out the root device and the path to
    Ian> the kernel and initrd.  (If it isn't, you may want to use the
    Ian> boot floppy image that's located somewhere in the first ISO.)
    Ian> The only kernel parameters required are hardware- specific
    Ian> stuff.

    Ian> Now you can reboot your system and select a hard drive
    Ian> installation.  Point the installer to the partition and
    Ian> directory in which you've placed the ISO images and proceed
    Ian> as normal.  You will get a pop-up warning when the installer
    Ian> searches for existing installations; it will try to mount the
    Ian> partition which contains the ISO images and complain when the
    Ian> mount fails (because it's already mounted).

    Ian> Hope this helps.

Well, it works up to a point, but then there doesn't appear to be an
upgrade option.

How do I do an upgrade?

You should automatically get an upgrade option if the installer findsyour existign installation (I think it looks for /etc/fedora-release).If you're not getting the option, there's probably a problem seeing yourexisting partitions. Do you need any specific drivers for your existingsetup? What is the partitioning arrangement?


Paul.