Installing gentoo without bootable CD

redguy · n00b Joined: 27 Nov 2002 Posts: 1

Hello,

I need to install gentoo on a old machine that has CD-ROM drive, but is not capable of booting from it. How can I boot from floppy and then continue instalation from CD?

thanks for any help...
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Bob Koutsky

simon · Apprentice Joined: 26 Apr 2002 Posts: 225 Location: Vienna

You can find some alternatives in the The Gentoo Linux alternative installation method HOWTO.

eryvile · Apprentice Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 234 Location: europe

The Smart Boot Manager has always helped me to get a cd boot on such an old computer.

ravenq · Apprentice Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 161

I've found VMWare to be useful as it can emulate the CD drive and boot from it, however if the computer is quite old this probably wont help much as it will be waaaaaaaaay to slow.
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The Game is Nothing,
the Playing of it Everything.

gibson3659 · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 22

Copy the isolinux directory to the harddrive and use grub/lilo/isolinux to boot the kernel and set parameters. The scripts should locate the cd and boot as expected.

I found a explaination on how to do this somewhere in the forums/faq after I figured it out, but I can't seem to find it now.