Installing Mandrake over a Network

[heathp]

The Mandrake CD's have the "option" to install over a network but offer little instruction. It requires a boot disk????? Why?? Is there a way around this?? How do you install Linux Mandrake on a lap top that has no floppy nor CD-ROM??? Yes, no floppy drive. One of the users I support managed to break the floppy drive and then lightning took out the docking station that contained the CD ROM. It is now too expensive to fix the aging P2 lap top but it would make a great dual boot system. I've copied the CD's to the hard drive via NICs but I'm forced to make a boot floopy to begin the install. I've even shared out my CD ROM on the host and tried to install over the network but without a boot floppy I can't get the install to initiate. Any advice or wakeup call is welcomed ;D.

[Spot]

The Mandrake CD's have the "option" to install over a network but offer little instruction. It requires a boot disk????? Why?? Is there a way around this?? How do you install Linux Mandrake on a lap top that has no floppy nor CD-ROM??? Yes, no floppy drive. One of the users I support managed to break the floppy drive and then lightning took out the docking station that contained the CD ROM. It is now too expensive to fix the aging P2 lap top but it would make a great dual boot system. I've copied the CD's to the hard drive via NICs but I'm forced to make a boot floopy to begin the install. I've even shared out my CD ROM on the host and tried to install over the network but without a boot floppy I can't get the install to initiate. Any advice or wakeup call is welcomed ;D.

There could be a way around it if there's currently a dos partition on the machine. There's a dos linux loader (loadlin) that should be able to get you started at least. I don't know enough about loadlin or hacking code to be able to help you there, but I'm pretty sure some healthy searching would provide you a solution to replace the boot floppy with a hdd alternative.
From there you'd need the NIC drivers from the network boot floppy, and your supported NIC installed on the machine. You'll have to give it an IP, hostmask, and provide some gateway info(if necessary), or you'll have a DHCP option.
Once you've got all that set, you can setup FTP on another machine on your network, pointing to your cd rom, and install from there. It will take a little longer, but does work really well. I've installed Redhat via FTP several times now. Fortunately for me, I had a working floppy drive to get the install initiated.
I'd really be interested in what you come up with for the initiliazation problem if you do indeed get a solution.
Good luck!

[heathp]

Thanks for the advice....I haven't found a good alternative but here is a very interesting link to the LTSP(Linux Terminal Server Project). This is a diskless system.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=17723
http://www.ltsp.org/index.php

I'm still looking...I'll get back to you when I find

[heathp]

Spot,

I found ae easy solution for my delima.....a USB CD-ROM drive.

[Spot]

HAHA!!
Cheater!
lol..whatever works =)
Must have been simpler than trying to install debian on an old laptop via a pcmcia NIC =/

[patiklipenguen]

I also tried for installing on the network using ftp server but there was a little time problem cause my another machine has win2000 pro as an OS and it was trying to mount my ntfs partiton to itself but lasted and lasted......Do you know any way for short time which will last to install mandrake linux from the network?

[Spot]

I also tried for installing on the network using ftp server but there was a little time problem cause my another machine has win2000 pro as an OS and it was trying to mount my ntfs partiton to itself but lasted and lasted......Do you know any way for short time which will last to install mandrake linux from the network?

You will need to set the ftp server's timeout settings as high as they can go(20 minutes is good), or diable that feature completely for the install. You'll also prolly want to set it up to allow multiple logins on the same acct.

[patiklipenguen]

I have also disabled it. I think it wasn't the problem.....Linux installing program didn't connect to my ftp server...It was just trying to mount my ntfs partition firstly..I waited two or three hours......But It didn't finished. I used the way for connection static ip instructions.....Do you think it is about my ethernet connection....Hub is 10/100 also ethernet adapter is 10/100....There were bytes transferring between computers so fast.....Should i try doing this process linux to linux installing program?I am confused about that....I couldn't install the linux OS yet.....Help me.....How can i do that in one hour?

[Spot]

I have also disabled it. I think it wasn't the problem.....Linux installing program didn't connect to my ftp server...It was just trying to mount my ntfs partition firstly..I waited two or three hours......But It didn't finished.

You're lucky it didn't hose your NTFS table. As far as I know, installing from a network file system is only available with NFS shares...that's not NTFS. To install via FTP, you'll have to tell the installer that you want to do so when prompted. Choose FTP, not NFS. After that, let it know what IP information it needs for your network and then it should start.

I used the way for connection static ip instructions.....Do you think it is about my ethernet connection....Hub is 10/100 also ethernet adapter is 10/100....There were bytes transferring between computers so fast.....

I've done plenty of FTP installs on 10 base T networks that went just fine...usually about an hour or so for a minimal install on a 486. It's almost more dependant on machine speed than network performance.