[olug] network installations

[Brian Roberson]

suse is pretty simple, get the bootdisk image, make a floppy and follow the
on-screen directions ;-)
I dont think it allows a dial-up (ppp ) install, but it worked flawlessly
for me over a masqeraded cable modem network... I just did it today ;-)
I am really starting to like suse alot... I may have to learn german!


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark A. Martin" <mmartin at amath.washington.edu>
To: <olug at bstc.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2000 9:39 AM
Subject: [olug] network installations


> This message is my latest reply in the "another distro" thread.  I
> changed the subject to make it more descriptive.
>
> The specific instructions for performing network installations are
> distribution dependent.  Below I describe the information I found
> related to doing this using Debian or Red Hat.  If you want to try
> another distribution, you'll have to troll around the web site for the
> distribution for documentation, like I did for Debian and Red Hat.  The
> bottom line is that Debian seems to discourage this type of
> installation.  Red Hat is more forthcoming and provides explicit
> instructions, if you exert enough energy to find them.  More detailed
> information follows.
>
> DEBIAN:
>
> I consulted the documentation on the Debian web site
> (http://www.debian.org) and "Learning Debian GNU/Linux"
> (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/debian/chapter/index.html) on the
> O'Reilly site.  Debian seems to want to keep most people from attempting
> this kind of installation.  Perhaps one of the Debian officionados in
> OLUG could help you with this.  I took a look at the Methods for
> Installing Debian Section
>
> http://www.debian.org/releases/potato/i386/ch-install-methods.en.html
>
> of the (Official) Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 for Intel x86 Manual
>
> http://www.debian.org/releases/potato/i386/install
>
> In the Introduction to Chapter 5, I found that
>
> "You can install Debian from a variety of sources, both local (CD, hard
> disk, floppies) and remote (FTP, NFS, PPP, HTTP)."
>
> but, from Section 5.3.2, that the
>
> "...only (recommended) use for PPP (meaning "FTP, HTTP, and the like")
> in the installation process is the installation of packages (rather than
> installing the base system)."
>
> although
>
> "...certain kernels may permit you to do this (use FTP, HTTP, etc.)
> earlier (in the installation process). Experts can also use these
> connections to mount disks and perform other operations to accelerate
> the process. Providing help in such cases is beyond the scope of this
> document."
>
> I couldn't find a document that had this procedure within its scope.
>
> The recommended procedure seems to be
>
> 1. Boot from a floppy.
> 2. Install the base system from CD, hard drive, floppies, or NFS.
> 3. Install packages from wherever you like.
>
> A semi-network installation would be to only download the files needed
> for steps 1 and 2, which would be considerably less that downloading the
> entire contents of the CDs.  Since initiating the installation from the
> boot floppy requires configuring the network, it seems that it should be
> fairly easy to install the base system from the Internet too.
>
> There is a related FAQ question "Can I get and install Debian directly
> from a remote Internet site?"
>
> http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-getting.html#s-remoteinstall
>
> which indicates that one way to install over the Internet is to use
> dselect and dpkg-ftp but doesn't provide explicit instructions on
> performing a fresh installation.  Perhaps dselect and dpkg-ftp are
> accessible after booting from the installation floppy but this is only
> supposition on my part.
>
> RED HAT:
>
> A network installation of Red Hat 7.0 is possible via a text mode
> installation.  Chapter 14
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/ch-install-tm.h
tml
>
> of The Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide
>
> http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/index.html
>
> describes how to do this.  A text mode installation is simply the old
> style installation that many of us used before they introduced an
> installation GUI.
>
> Here are the steps that you'll need to follow.  As with any
> installation, read *all* of the steps through *carefully* before
> starting the process.
>
> 1. Collect all of the information that you'll need about your system and
> network connection and the FTP or HTTP site that you're going to install
> from ahead of time.  The information you need is described in Chapter 13
> Preparing for a Text Mode Installation
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/ch-before-you-b
egin.html
>
> 2. Make a network installation boot floppy.  See the Official Red Hat
> Linux Installation Guide
>
> http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/install-guide/
>
> for instructions.  The information about making installation diskettes
> is located at
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/install-guide/s1-steps-in
stall-cdrom.html#S2-STEPS-MAKE-DISKS
>
> 3. Boot from the floppy and type "text" at the boot prompt.  See
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/s1-start-instal
l.html
>
> 4. Choose a language for the installation.  See
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/s1-install-choo
se-lang.html
>
> 5. Select a keyboard type.  See
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/s1-install-sel-
kybd.html
>
> 6. Select FTP or HTTP as the installation method.  See
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/s1-install-sel-
method.html
>
> 7. Enter the information about the FTP or HTTP site that you're going to
> install from.  See
>
>
http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/RHL-7-Manual/ref-guide/s1-install-netw
ork.html
>
> 8. Follow the remaining instructions from the Reference Guide.  Just
> keep following the "Next" links from the web page listed in step #7
> above for the complete instructions.
>
> As I mentioned above, you'll have to consult the web sites for any other
> distrubutions that you might want to try for their instructions.  Most
> Red-Hat-based distributions (such as Mandrake) probably allow network
> installations following similar steps to what I've described above.
> Likewise, Debian-based distributions probably have facilities similar to
> those of Debian.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Mark
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> Mark A. Martin Dept of Applied Mathematics
> http://www.amath.washington.edu/~mmartin University of Washington
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>
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