[vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 03:22:46PM -0700, Richard Crawford wrote:
> Let's suppose you have a set of Linux CD's (in this case, SuSE Enterprise 9).  
> The computer already has SuSE 8.2 installed.  The user cannot get into the 
> BIOS to change the boot sequence (I don't know why, and she doesn't know 
> enough about the BIOS to tell me).  Is there a way to start a fresh install 
> from within Linux?  Seems like it should be possible.

Should be.  Debian's installation doc mentions, for example:

  Booting the installation system directly from a hard disk is another
  option for many architectures. This will require some other operating
  system to load the installer onto the hard disk.

This might help, too (a quick google search):

  "Install GNU/Linux without any CD, floppy, USB-key, nor any other
  removable media"

    http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html

To quote:

  The challenge

    You are in front of a working, networked machine and want to
    install your favorite GNU/Linux distribution on it. Unfortunately, you
    don't have any CD, floppy, USB-key, no nothing at hand. Fortunately,
    you don't need any one of them.

  The trick

    First put the (small) Linux installer on a hard disk and run it
    from your previous operating system. Finish using the network. In some
    variants you can replace the network by a (big) hard disk.


Hope that helps get you started.  Gotta run,


-- 
-bill!
bill at newbreedsoftware.com
http://newbreedsoftware.com/