Re: laptop without floppy, cd nor dvd
On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 10:43:42PM +0200, Juhana Vartiainen wrote:
> Thank You Joris, but could you be a LITTLE more specific - how does one prepare
> the "server" side (i.e. my debian desktop on the LAN), and how does one take
> contact from the booting client laptop -- what do U mean by pexe iirc?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Juhana
PXE is a specification about booting via the network. PXELINUX is a
tool, part of the syslinux package, which offers PXE compatible machines
their bootloading-image.
Knoppix was suggested because Klaus Knopper already did the work to set
that up, and then you arrive in Knoppix, which is debian based. He has a
very ugly little installer script which works great if you don't need (or
care) to set aside a hibernation partition, and then it would be on hard
disk... my advice is, read the installer script, partition things
yourself, then follow its guideline for dropping the parts in.
Approximate steps: Create a little network-of-two which contains only
two machines - a desktop you'll be using briefly, and your
ethernotebook.
Boot the desktop from knoppix. Let it serve dhcp. (haven't tried this
yet but) claims to be able to serv Knoppix to others which request it.
Boot your notebook in "ethernet boot" mode, and it will make a PXE
compatible request. Knoppix will offer it a boot image. tada, you
*should* arrive in Knoppix on the notebook. Of course this may be
enough, but, you should be able to use this environment to run the
quickie installer script, or walk through it.
End result will be a very modern Debian, which of course you would
maintain via the network. And *do not* forget to install the
bootloader on your hard disk's master boot record, or it'll have all
the bits, but still not be bootable.
I hope that's thorough enough.
* Heather Stern * star@ many places...
* Starshine Technical Services -*- 800 938 4078
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