Re: Installing Debian from Red Hat (without a CD or floppy drive)
on Mon, May 26, 2003 at 03:09:56PM -0700, Steve Grabowsku (debian_milter_937484@yahoo.com) wrote:
> I have a machine that I want to install Debian on, as well as other
> Linux/BSD systems. I have no floppy or CD drive. I have no other
> x86 machines. I do not have Windows.
That was close to my situation when installing my second Debian system
-- onto a box which was running RH 6.2 at the time.
> Using the network, I am able to install Red Hat 9 on it. I want to use
> this to install and boot from the other OSes.
>
> I have the suspicion that with the use of GRUB and/or LILO, I can
> configure things the way I want, but I am not entirely sure of this.
You can add appropriate stanzas to either GRUB or LILO to boot the new
system rather than your existing RH one.
> I'd install the Debian kernel somewhere, maybe download some crucial
> packages to some mount, and boot into the minimal Debian and then use some
> neet packaging system to get the rest. But I'm not sure of the details.
> Could someone point out where I should go to find them?
You can actually get most of this done *without* rebooting your Debian
system -- that is, you can do a largely complete install from a "chroot
jail" under your existing RH system.
> And, just so I'm starting things out properly, how should I have the
> Red Hat install program format my disk?
You're going to need one or more partitions to dedicate to the Debian
install. If possible, buy a new drive and put the install onto it as
this simplifies things. Otherwise, you're going to need to steal space
from the existing RH distro. Once you've got Debian on the box, you can
start blowing away RH partitions. 96 - 500 MB should be sufficient to
get started, depending on how many packages you want to put on the
system initially.
Otherwise, see:
Chroot install:
http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/DebianChrootInstall
Partitioning:
http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/NixPartitioning
Peace.
--
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