Re: Potato install fails to load ROOT image
On Wed, Sep 13, 2000 at 04:41:33PM -0400, Stuart Ballard wrote:
> Sorry to reply to myself, but I've come to the conclusion after further
> testing that my floppy drive is 100% busted and I'm not going to be able
> to do anything useful off it. I also can't (practically) replace it. I
> do have a fully functioning RedHat 5.2 installation on the machine and a
> fast network connection, but it's one big partition plus swap. Is there
> any way I can get debian onto this puppy?
I had problems with my floppy drive... cleaning it worked fine for
me.
Look below for more tips...
> I'm thinking of things along the lines of
> # cd /
> # mkdir redhat
> # mv * redhat
> # /redhat/usr/bin/tar zxvf redhat/base_2.2.tar.gz
First, note that this won't work. You will move the libraries off the
root directory so the system won't find them and it will simply crash.
You won't be able to run tar or anything other.
>
> But then...
> - How do I get a kernel?
> - How do I make the system bootable (is LILO in the default install?)
> [Possible answer: mv /redhat/boot /boot, and just boot off the old
> kernel - how much else would have to be preserved, though?]
> - How do I get into the installation system? (presumably base_2.2
> doesn't extract to a fully functional distribution, or we wouldn't have
> an installation program at all...)
>
> Note that due to the aforementioned fast network connection, there is no
> problem getting stuff onto this machine, and it already has linux on an
> ext2 filesystem, so it should be among the easier cases of this kind of
> installation. On the other hand, the absence of a working floppy is
> going to make life hard.
Do other machines on the network have linux installed?
First, compile a kernel in them so you have a properly one to go with
debian.
Then, INSTALL the debian base system in any other machine that has a
good floppy drive. After the base system has been properly installed
and configured, tar it and then untar it in the laptop machine in the
root directory.
Once you have done this, the system will be able to boot up after you
install LILO.
I managed to acquire something like this to get debian installed in a
raid device.
Hope this helps.
PD: It could be interesting that debian could be
network-cross-installed, I mean, remotely installed or installed from
any other linux system.
>
> One *possible* workaround would be that, since the floppy drive is more
> "temperamental" than 100% broken, I might be able to get the rescue
> floppy, at least, to boot. If I can do this, I can of course enter
> "rescue" mode and mount my existing / partition as root, but (at least
> according to the installation guide) you can't install from a partition
> onto the same partition.
>
> What I'm trying to say is, "Er, help?"
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Stuart.
>
> PS please keep -user (or myself personally) cc:d, I'm not subscribed to
> -boot
>
>
> --
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--
Juli-Manel Merino Vidal
Email: jmmv@mail.com
Homepage: http://jmmv.cjb.net
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