Walter Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi, basically I am writing because I simply want to install Hurd from > scratch. I was wondering if anyone out there could help me. Bottom line > is if I need to install Linux I will, but I have put aside an x86 > machine explicitly to run Hurd and don't feel like installing anything > else. Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank > you.
Well, if you asked that in six months, we'd probably have a different answer for you. Right now, the easiest way is to install Linux first, perhaps on a partition later to become a swap partition. However, you might be able to do something like the following: 1. Put the Hurd tarball and initial installation files on an NFS-exported disk visible to the new machine. 2. Make a set of Debian install floppies. (That's just two, not the whole base distro) 3. Boot the install floppies. 4. NFS mount the Hurd files 5. Follow the easy guide from your (very basic) Linux system More generally, you might be able to get by with any of the single-floppy Linux distributions (see freshmeat.net). The Debian install floppies can probably do what you want, and if it doesn't work, you can just toss a base system (6-8 floppies?) onto the machine. No, I haven't tried the above. The real fun comes after the Hurd gets started. Good luck, Andrew Archibald
