Linux on 'blind' Laptop.

book · 07-15-2008, 10:45 AM

I've got an old laptop here with a broken monitor/keyboard.

I was curious if there is a technique for configuring network options for a linux distribution before burning the cd that way I could simply put the cd in and start the install over ssh.

Any tips?

(If this is in the wrong place, please move it.)

rocket357 · 07-15-2008, 11:30 AM

There are quite a few resources on building a custom Linux boot CD...

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_build_a..._with_Catalyst

is probably my favorite, though it's likely overkill if you just want to make a few modifications.

More likely, you'll want to mount the iso image and extract the squashfs image (most linux installers/livecd's use squashfs, AFAIK). Then you'll need to mount the squashfs image and browse it to do various things (dhcp or static interface config options, add sshd to boot, etc...).

Here's an Ubuntu howto outlining the process:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Li...ization%2F6.06

Hope it helps!

book · 07-15-2008, 12:10 PM

Awesome, thanks a lot. I'll definitely be taking a look at this.