any ideas

[incideagent]

I have a Sony PCG-748 labtop and it has no cdrom. It has Windows 2000 Pro on it, but i want to install a linux distro on it. Since there is no cd-rom i have no way to boot it. I dont want to spend the money for a external cdrom unless absolutly neccessary, any ideas about how to go about installing a linux distro, ftp, http, anything. i have researched into the kickstart server for red hat but had no luck with it. I have a linksys 16-bit Etherfast 10/100 intergrated pcmcia card, and broadband. And something near a 3gb hard drive, the system i belive has 64 megs of ram, and a 233 pentuim mmx processor. I would like to reformat it to also get the partions right for linux. Any help would be grateful.
-incideagent

[steve.milner]

For a Redhat 9 install without a cdrom download this

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/

(large pdf) and read chapters:

1.4.3 Making an installation boot diskette - To allow you to boot without cdrom.

3.6 Installing from a Hard Drive

or for network install

3.7 Preparing for a Network install
3.8 Installing via NFS
3.9 Installing via FTP
3.10 Installing via HTTP

Hope this gets you going.

Steve

[cheyenne1212]

Yeah I can't give you the exact details on how to install, but I know you create a boot diskette, and then halfway through the process you tell the installer that you want to install from a network directory, then you just specify the address, and it will install from there. Thats how some bigger companinies install Windows. instead of having to pop a cd into everycomputer, you just start a automated network install.

[incideagent]

k thanx

[Nokia]

make sure you really want it though, because if you format your HDD and install Linux and then say for some reason you cant connect to the internet and linux hasent got all the required drivers for you laptop your going to be pretty stuck without a cd rom, so your prob going to end up wanting to put windows back on and your going to struggle putting windows back on, unless you can do the network install mentioned earlier, personaly I would invest in a cd rom just incase!

[cheyenne1212]

Yeah, he could always just get a cd-rom that can slide in and out, but say if he puts windows XP, or 2000 pro on his computer again, its not hard to do a network install. All he has to do is have a networked computer on the network with a shared folder that has the OS CD copied onto it.

[nihil]

A very slow solution? but he should be able to get away with just another PC and a null modem cable?

Cheers