Help with Installing Linux (No CD-ROM writer)

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Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 16:41:11 +0100

ray wrote:
[...]
>SUSE has an install from ftp option - it normally starts with burning a
>small CD which is basically a boot loader - check on the SUSE web pages
>whether that can be initiated from a floppy.

I need the kernel source and the drivers for the modem need to
be compiled. It hardly seems likely that I will be able to do that
before the OS has been installed. That rules out the FTP option,
which may be tedious and unreliable anyway.

See: http://www.sagem.com/support/site/livret/gu_linux_en.doc

What I want to do is download the Linux installation files onto a
a hard disk and and install from that. Currently there is a single
partition where Windows XP resides.

I don't want to get rid of Windows XP, because I need something
I can rely on to provide access to the net if anything goes wrong
with the Linux installation - and having read many news articles I
am inclined to think that something is very likely to go wrong.

All that means I probably need to repartition my hard disk.

It may be best not to let a Linux installer repartition the disk.
Doing it manually, so to speak, may be a better option. The
reason for partitioning manually is to avoid certain problems
that may afflict the partitioning software that comes with some
distros. See the July 9 news here:

http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

I have a win32 version of ntfsresize that may be dependable.
I'm not sure if I can run this from within XP. Perhaps I need to run
it from a DOS boot disk for safety. That is, run it from a system
that is not sitting on the file system to be altered.

That program will resize the file system, but not the partition. For
that I need, apparently, a program called fdisk. But it does not seem
to be available to run under Windows. So, it would seem, I need a
Linux boot disk with fdisk on it, or some way of accessing fdisk on
my hard drive. But that's just guesswork.

If all this can be done, I will be in a position to download a Linux
distro to install. But which one?

I have found few references in the patchy documentation of many
distros to installing from a hard disk. But I was able to verify that
the fedora core comes with a floppy boot image will allow such
an installation. Or, at least, it offered that kind of installation as
an alternative when I ran it. Can it read the fedora core installation
files from my XP filesystem?

Now, the fedora "core" seems to be absolutely huge. Do I really
have to download all four CD ISOs? They may contain stuff that
I will never use. I just want a basic installation in which I can
compile the drivers for my modem and test the connection to the
internet, and do a few other things. A GUI would be nice, but I
don't need Firefox etc. intially. I would like to download additional
programs later if all goes well. I have heard so much about how
configurable Linux is. I would like to think that the installation
process is equally configurable.

Regarding the ISO images: do I have to unpack them? And can
I avoid having the fedora installation mucking about with my MBR?
And if I have repartitioned my drive manually, will it use a partition
I make available, or do I have to leave unallocated space for the
installer to format and use?

The questions go on and on and bleeding on. I'm sorry to ask
about so many things, but I've found it difficult to find the
information by other means.

And please don't say I should upgrade the hardware, buy a
CD-writer, blah blah blah. I just want to give Linux a spin and
see what it's like. There's little pointing in making the investment
if I find Linux not to my taste. The hardware I use works perfectly
well under the Windows XP, the currently installed OS.

I just want to get this sorted out as quickly as possible now. I've
already spent a not inconsiderable amount of time reading around
the fragmented online documentation. I've thrown in a lot of
questions and any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,

R.

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