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On Monday 02 February 2004 22:25, Emiliano Brunetti wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-02-02 at 13:14, Jason Stubbs wrote:
> > On Monday 02 February 2004 20:27, Emiliano Brunetti wrote:
> > > 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. ;)
> > >
> > > 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.
> >
> > 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 recently tried to do this too. I copied livecd.cloop to a harddrive and then
used floppy disks and loadlin to get into started. initrd, however, only
checks on cdrom devices to find the livecd.cloop file to mount it.
The latest livecd that I have a is from back in May '03 so this info may be
wrong, but all you should need on your harddrive is isolinux/gentoo (the
kernel) and isolinux/initrd. Then with the cd loaded, boot and get to a grub
command line and type: kernel (hdx,x)/<path>/gentoo dopcmcia, initrd
(hdx,x)/<path>/initrd, boot. (The actual grub command for initrd may be
wrong)
> 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...
If you can boot of the usb disc, then there should be no problems at all. If
you can't it still should be possible if grub can access it. You could start
from your current linux and extract whatever stage you want to the clean usb
disk, and then continue on through the handbook until you get to installing
the bootloader. At that stage, you could exit out of the chroot and add it to
your current linux's grub. Then boot into the new one in passing the single
kernel option, make sure the partition is mounted read-only, clear your
internal hard-drive and copy over your fresh installation. then chroot into
your copied installation and finish the bootloader section of the handbook.
> > > Moreover, i need to be sure that i can boot properly and run the
> > > installation until the end.
> >
> > 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.
What I meant when I said to move the previous linux out of the way was simply
to move the directories out of the way, such as /bin /etc /usr... if, for any
reason, you need to reboot just delete whatever new directories have been
made and move the original linux back into place. you just need to make sure
that you keep your /boot directory for grub.
Regards,
Jason Stubbs
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Linux pcg-fr33 2.6.2-rc2-mm1 #1 Sun Feb 1 18:36:41 JST 2004 i686 mobile AMD
Athlon(tm) XP 1800+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
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