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pwaring
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 99
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 Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:28 pm Post subject: Installing Gentoo without a CD or floppy drive |
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I've found a potential server that I'd like to buy to run Gentoo on, but it doesn't have an optical drive or a floppy drive - only a hard disk and a network interface. What would be the easiest way of getting Gentoo installed, assuming that I don't want to add any extra hardware to this machine? I've thought about just removing the hard disk, placing it in another machine and installing Gentoo there, then moving the hard disk back into the server, but would this work? I've done it before with Debian and a compact flash card (with an adapter to make it appear as a standard IDE disk), but my concern is that I'll be installing Gentoo on /dev/hdb when I'm using the host machine but it will actually show up as /dev/hda on the server. Can I easily fiddle with grub and /etc/fstab afterwards to pick up the installation on /dev/hda?
The other option I can think of is somehow initiating the installation process over the network, but I've no idea how to go about that and I don't know if the network card will support it.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  |
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GoofballJM1
Guru
Joined: 22 Mar 2004
Posts: 392
Location: Denver, CO USA
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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Well, depending on the type of the server's hardware configuration (whether you have an onboard IDE controller on it), you could just temporarily hook up a CD drive to the machine to get you up and running. Once you are done with the install, unhook the CD drive. That's not too painful is it?
There used to be documentation on installing over a network connection without CD drives, but I think it has been removed. I will post it as soon as I find it.
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"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." - Albert Einstein |
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runningwithscissors
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Joined: 21 Apr 2006
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Location: the third world
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GoofballJM1
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Joined: 22 Mar 2004
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Location: Denver, CO USA
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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That's the Howto I was looking for!
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"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." - Albert Einstein |
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pwaring
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 99
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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| GoofballJM1 wrote: | | (whether you have an onboard IDE controller on it) |
I've no idea if that's the case, I'm really not a hardware person. I'm happy swapping hard disks because I can see where they go by just removing one of the existing ones, but I'd have very little idea what to do with a CD drive.
| runningwithscissors wrote: | | How about booting off a USB stick? |
That probably sounds like the best option, although I can't see anything in the alternative install guide about booting from USB and I'm not sure if the motherboard supports it (it's a ASRock Socket 754 Motherboard 760GX apparently).
| Quote: | | Or you could install via a PXE boot: |
That looks rather complicated, and again I'm not sure if this is supported by the motherboard. |
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neysx
Retired Dev
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 795
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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| pwaring wrote: | | runningwithscissors wrote: | | How about booting off a USB stick? |
That probably sounds like the best option, although I can't see anything in the alternative install guide about booting from USB and I'm not sure if the motherboard supports it (it's a ASRock Socket 754 Motherboard 760GX apparently). |
Check your bios settings. If it does boot from USB, have a look at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml
Hth |
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pwaring
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 99
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| Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I can't check the BIOS settings easily, I haven't actually bought the server yet (and I won't unless I can get Linux - and preferably Gentoo - installed on it ). I will see if I can find anything about the motherboard though. |
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k0001
n00b
Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Posts: 38
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:20 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I've thought about just removing the hard disk, placing it in another machine and installing Gentoo there, then moving the hard disk back into the server, but would this work? |
of course that will work.... i have done that a couple of times.... using my i686 to install gentoo on another harddisk for a i586.... you just have to use the proper stage arch, and set the correct CHOST and CFLAGS ... |
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pwaring
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| Well it doesn't look like the motherboard supports booting from USB devices, so I will probably have to swap the disks and just be careful about any references to /dev/hdb. Thanks for the help everyone. |
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dey
n00b
Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 3
Location: france
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| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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hi
i've got almost same trouble
i have a laptop with no more working combo-drive..
tried to boot from USB flash key - doesnt work (despite that in BIOS i have an option to boot from 'removeable media')
and i have win xp installed.
is there a possibility to install in such config?
i mean i can not remove my hdd and install gentoo on it in another machine, i cant boot from USB flash, it doesnt matter to try USB cd-drive (i think, anyway i have no any)..
no possibility to install a linux loader from windows and then install from ntfs or fat partition (or from a network)?
thank you =)
p.s. i can try network installation, but i have no any linux machine accessible.. |
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MrPaulAR
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Joined: 25 Jan 2003
Posts: 69
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| Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 2:09 am Post subject: |
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| dey wrote: |
tried to boot from USB flash key - doesnt work (despite that in BIOS i have an option to boot from 'removeable media') and i have win xp installed.
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Here is a guide for booting Knoppix off a thumbdrive. All tools are Win32 compatible so you don't need a linux box to setup everything.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/knoppix.html
Here is a walkthrough to boot DSL from a thumb drive. Will save you some download time but you won't get a gui.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/dsl.html
Once you boot off of one of these just go to a command prompt and start at the chroot portion. You can either get the stageX tarball prior and save it to your usb stick or DL it after you boot with wget or the tool of your choice.
Good luck to ya. |
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dey
n00b
Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 3
Location: france
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| Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:58 am Post subject: |
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hi!
thats great, seems that my pc is however able to boot from a usb key, thanx a lot =)
i've installed syslinux with gentoo minimal cd on my flash. it starts to boot and than halts after 'checking 'hlt' - OK' something like that. i'll dig thats up.
essential is that it boots =)
thank you once again
p.s. i have no 1gb key so im lookin for a way to try knoppix =)
[solved] works with acpi=off key
Last edited by dey on Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dey
n00b
Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 3
Location: france
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| Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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hi
me back =)
now i have another trouble
while the boot after all devices scanning i see a message:
| Code: |
activating udev
making tmpfs for /newroot
attempting to mount CD:- /dev/hda
attempting to mount CD:- /dev/hda1
attempting to mount CD:- /dev/hda2
no bootable medium found. waiting for new devices
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then 2 times again messages 'attempting'..
then:
| Code: | couldn't find cd to boot. something else needed!
mount: mounting /newroot/dev on /dev failed: no such file or directory |
then it can not load a keymap (with message - 'no such file')
and finally
| Code: | determining root device...
the root block device is unspecified or not detected |
instead of bash i have a busybox
in /dev/ i have only 'console', 'null' and 'tty1'
'df' command shows nothing (no one device)
what can be wrong?
thank you =) |
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Installing Gentoo
