On Mon, 2004-02-02 at 13:14, Jason Stubbs wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On Monday 02 February 2004 20:27, Emiliano Brunetti wrote: > > Hi everybody, > > > > i'd like to install gentoo on my laptop. However, boot method is a real > > problem. I am new to gentoo, not so new to linux. > > > > Unfortunately i only have a non bootable pcmcia cd-rom, so booting > > livecd is not an option. I don't even have an external floppy disk, it > > was stolen. ;) > > > > So i wonder what is the best way to get gentoo on my laptop. > > > > I already have a linux system up and running, and i can tweak grub in > > order to boot with specific boot images and then read iso images from an > > external usb disc. It worked pretty well. I don't know how to configure > > grub to make it look like i am booting from livecd or even from minimal > > stage 1 cd. Tried some entries but it didn't work. Searched with google > > and didn't find much on the topic. > > > > Moreover, i need to be sure that i can boot properly and run the > > installation until the end. Should anything fail, i'd be without a > > running linux on my laptop and so it would be really hard to install > > something over again, as i have no boot device and i always need to > > configure grub to do this job. > > > > Can somebody on this list point me to some useful information or even > > tell me how this could be done? > > If you mount the Gentoo CD from your existing Linux and copy the kernel and > initrd you want, you can add those to whatever bootloader you are currently > using. The included initrd will search all cdroms for the compressed > loopback, so if the cdrom is detected you should have no problems. I think > you need to pass "dopcmcia" in the kernel options for pcmcia detection.
Actually this is what i tried. I loop mounted gentoo cd and tried to see what kernel and initrd i could use to boot. But boot failed and i was with a useless shell prompt. Do you know exactly what files are to be copied? I'd rather go for a usb disc based installation. Is this possible? Can gentoo loop mount a iso image in installation? I think it does... > As for being able to restart if anything goes wrong... If you are happy to use > your existing partitions, you can move the existing linux out once you have > booted and just keep the bootloader stuff where it is. If you run into any > problems, you should be able to boot off the cd again. If you give up > altogether, you can move your existing linux back to its original locations. Well, i understand. Thanks a lot. However i can't resize partitions and make room for gentoo...parted doesn't work properly. Any more hint? :) Thanks again. E. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
