> Now, if only I could figure out exactly which files / directories
> Linux 5.0 install requires, I'll be all set!
This is information that is built into the very nicely written installation
program that Red Hat has developed. I didn't catch the beginning of this
thread, so forgive me if I'm re-stating something, or taking this thread
somewhere it shouldn't go. But it sounds to me like you're trying to
re-invent the wheel, here!
If you're installing Red Hat (or several other Linux distributions, for that
matter) on a machine that has a hard disk with a FAT filesystem on it, you can
do a very convenient "hard drive installation." It is much, much faster than
transferring to floppies--believe me, I've done it both ways (back in the
Slackware days :) ). Besides that, even when you figure out what RPMS are
required for minimal installation, you're going to have a really tough time
turning a partition into a working Linux filesystem. The days building your
installation from scratch are long over. Red Hat 5.0 solves it all (again,
I'm assuming that your scenario is similar to mine have been.)
But here's the last concern that I have for you. That is the copying of RPMS
to the "IBM" formatted disk. I assume that when you say "IBM" formatted, you
mean that it has a DOS or FAT16 fileystem on the floppy. If that is the case,
then you're filenames are restricted to a measley 8.3 dimension. One
exception to this may be if it is a Win95 disk with VFAT filename extensions.
But either way, you'll probably end up "mangling" the filenames of the RPMS.
RPM, the package manager does not care what the RPM file is called when you
install it; it installs just the same--the actual package name is embedded
within the RPM file. But during an installation, it matter what the filenames
are.
I'll give you an example. A friend of mine tried to burn a recordable CD-ROM
with an older Red Had distribution. He did it off of a network, and not by
directly copying a Red Hat CD. Now it doesn't matter, necessarily that he
didn't copy directly from a Red Hat CD. But it does matter that the CD
burning software was making an ISO filesystem on the CD that did not support
long
filenames. So, consequently the installation would not work. However, the CD
was a great archive of the RPMS, even with the mangled filenames.
I may have drawn the wrong conclusion from the CD incident. I don't mean to
pound into your head that your way won't work. I'm just saying, it sounds
like a place that I've been more than once. And if that is the case, I'm here
to say that there is a better way! Find a way to use the Red Hat installation
program...
> I am mostly an WinNT /
> PC guru, and very new to Linux.
Now that may be a problem, if you are going to try to do a hard drive
installation on a drive where your RPMS are stored on an NTFS filesystem
(redundant terminology, I know). I don't know the latest on filesystem
support. But last I knew, NTFS was not a good to work with. But all is well
if you're using FAT or VFAT on the partition where the RPMS are located.
> I used to run RedHat 4.2.1, but nuked
> it due to a bad drive. Now am trying to install 5.0... Got /i386/...
> files but install keeps failing.
Knowing how the install fails would provide evidence in support of or in
opposition to the hyphotheses
that I just proposed about your inevitable installation troubles.
> Am I doing something wrong? I also downloaded entire SPRMS
> subdirectory, all 316Megs :-O...
Whoa! I really, REALLY doubt that you'll need any source code to get your
system up and running.
I doubt you'll ever need the SRPMS unless you're doing some development, or
you need information
that is included in the source code comments or documentation--even AFTER you
get your machine
up and running...
How did you install Red Hat 4.2.1? How long did you run it?
--
======================== Mike Wilkerson ==========================
"You cannot go on 'seeing through' things forever. The whole point
of seeing through something is to see something through it."
C.S. Lewis, "The Abolition of Man"
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