Installing Gentoo 2004.2 on machine without CD-ROM

BlackCat73

Hi,

I have a spare machine that I picked up from flea market. Decent machine, it has floppy and a NIC but no CD-ROM. At the moment I have RedHat 9 on it, installed using FTP but I want to wipe it off and install Gentoo on it.

The question is, how do I do it without CD-ROM? Getting a CD-ROM is cannot be at this moment simply because it's small form machine from Gateway (E-1400) as a result the drive slot is smaller than average CD-ROM slot. I already burned the ISO of 2004.2 LiveCD.

I installed RedHat using boot floppy then ftp it across from my main box (I have an ADSL modem/switch/router), can't I do it the same way with Gentoo? If I can, how to do it? I have been to Gentoo main webiste for instructions but I couldn't find any.

Help is very much appreciated.

Thanks heaps.

johngalt · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:08 am Post subject:

See the alternative Installation guide referred to on the first couple of pages of the handbook:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml
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BlackCat73 · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:53 am Post subject:

Hi Johngalt,

I saw that documentation already, I can't use Booting the LiveCD with Smart BootManager since that requires a CD-ROM. Knoppix Installation requires a functional CD-ROM too. PXE requires to continue installation using CD-ROM.

I don't want to use my existing RedHat partition, I want to write it off.

johngalt · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:59 am Post subject:

being a techie that I am, the easiest method for me would be to install a CD ROM drive temporarily in the machine.

As I am guessing that this is not an option for you either, I am not sure where to go next, but I am sure that someone somewhere has run into the same thing as well.

Could you get booted up off of a floppy and mount the CD ISO image and use that to continue to boot (not mounting a CD ROM platter but actually mounting the ISO itself off the HD / external HD?
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BlackCat73 · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:06 am Post subject:

I believe I would not be the only person who need to install Gentoo on a CD-ROM-less machine. In windows I have no issue to loading up ISO into a virtual drive, but I'm not in windows am I? :wink:

I don't have external HD or external CD-ROM the only I have in that box is a 10GB HD, NIC and a floppy.

johngalt · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:07 am Post subject:

nevertheless, I read somewhere (pretty sure it was here in either a forum topic dealing with alternate install methods) that you could mount a copy of the ISO directly....
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rinacabj · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:37 am Post subject:

a slackware boot disk sounds like your best bet

i've had to do installs that way on machines that were scsi only and scsi not supported by gentoo's livecd. i'll be glad to give step by step if needed.

johngalt · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:49 am Post subject:

please do. I for one would like to know the info, and maybe the admins can make it a sticky under a heading of alternate boot options (specifically non CD ROM boot / install).
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BlackCat73 · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:55 am Post subject:

Hi Rinacabj,

I have RedHat bootdisk, can I use that instead? or it must be a slackware? I can do FTP installation after that? A step-by-step would be much appreciated, but if it is too much effort for you, don't worry about it then.

Maybe this is something that Gentoo can improve on, to be able to boot from a floppy and then do an FTP installation.

Drooling Iguana · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:07 pm Post subject:

Even if the drive slot isn't big enough to hold a CD-ROM, you can still hook one up. You just won't have anywhere to put it and will have to leave the case open while it installs. Not necessarily the easiest way to go about it, but it should still work.

rinacabj · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 11:34 pm Post subject:

Slackware's FTP has disk images that you'll have to write to floppies from a computer that currently has a working OS. You'll need a bootdisk:

byzantine · n00b Joined: 12 Sep 2004 Posts: 1

In a similar situation myself. 2 old systems with CDROMS but BIOS that do not support bootable CD. And Smart Boot Manager from the Alternative Install instructions is not working for me.

On another thread here I found refference to these floppy based Linux boot options.
http://lwn.net/Distributions/#floppy
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

BlackCat73 · Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:09 pm Post subject:

Well, sorry to disappoint people who are watching this thread for a solution. I have given up on the box, it's too hard to do it without CD-ROM. Especially when you build stuff and then it locks itself out, you need the CD-ROM to boot into livecd so you can access your HD.

I end up getting another box, this time with CD-ROM.

IamtheOne · Apprentice Joined: 27 Sep 2002 Posts: 158 Location: Iowa

Hi, you guys look like you need some help. This is a list of the things you need to install from a floppy.

1. Hard drive access (like scsi drivers, etc)
2. Network/Internet access
3. wget,tar,chroot,mk*fs,mount, and maybe fdisk (* is whatever filesystyem you intend to use)

Ok, first get the system booted. Then get the harddrive formated how you like. Aka use fdisk to partition and mkreiserfs or whatever to make a filesystem. mount the root filesystem, then use wget to get the latest stage tarball like: