Background:
After a few hours of thinking about buying a CD-RW drive, I have thought about it again. I'm thinking that maybe I can get by fine with the CD-Rom reader that comes with the PC I have.

Also, thanks to the advice given in another thread in this Newbie Forum, I have decided that I will delete Windows XP from my PC. I want to have a Linux-only PC.

Just to let you know, I am willing to get one or two blank CD-R discs and burn a distro, if necessary.



Okay now, here are the questions:
What is the way to convert a WinXP computer to a Linux-only Computer, with only a CD-rom reader?

Please clarify what I think are the steps of doing this conversion. And please let me know how to do the steps:

• Load up the PC as usual. In XP, download any distro
  
• Install Distro
  How do I install the distro?
  Is it best to install the distro from within WindowsXP?
  
• Load up the installed Linux Distro
  
• Delete Win Xp
  How do I delete WinXp?
  Is it best to delete WindowsXP from within Linux?
  

Paul, (Post#7 http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...16#post1597116) suggests that I burn the first distro onto a CD. I can do that. No problem. I can go find another PC with a CD-R burner. But is this step necessary for the very first distro? Are the steps in installing the first distro different from succeeding ones?

1) If you want to install Debian and decide not to buy the CD burner, you can take a look at:

http://linux.simple.be/debian/floppy

The installer should allow you to take rid of Windows and proceed with the Linux installation... both things at the same time (well, not exactly at the same time, but you know what I mean ).

2) If you go for the CD Burner: You can burn the CD image from Windows (99.99% of probability that you will not need any drivers). Then you boot from the CD and use the installer. Again, the setup program will allow you to delete Windows. Once you have linux installed, you shouldn't have any problems to configure the CD Burner (not 100% sure about this if it is USB). If you want a USB one, make sure your USB ports are 2.0...

Miscellaneous:
- Floppies are not the only choice. You can also make Linux to run from a pen-drive, or from the network.
- If you really want to install Linux from Windows and remove Windows after, you will need a program to partition your hard disk. I don't know if there are some free tools to do that, but surely the commercial ones are more expensive than a CD-Burner.
- If you end with both systems installed, it is not difficult to remove Windows from Linux, but if you want a MS-free PC, I would strongly recommend you to remove Windows before installing Linux, because that will allow you to partition your harddisk as you want. I think you can even use Windows to remove Windows. At least, if it is XP, you only have to use the Windows CD...
- Anyway, if you can burn ONE ISO in other computer, I'll recommend you to do so, because as someone mentioned, you will have a way to login in your system if anything goes wrong.

Hope this helps you.

There are several distributions like Mandrake and Fedora that have an option to install from hard drive. A Floppy disk is usually used to boot the install process however in the case of Fedora the kernel image is to big to fit on a floppy. So you are forced to burn the 1st CD anyway or use a flash drive. The other caveat is the ISO files can not be saved to a NTFS partition so you will need to create a FAT32 partition.

With a PC that can boot from CDROM you only need a floppy for an emergency boot disk. There are also live CD linux distributions like Knoppix that can be used to rescue your system.

The most common way of booting linux is with the bootloaders grub or lilo which is stored on the Master Boot Record of the hard drive.

If you install linux on a hard drive partition of its own you don't need boot floppies regardless of whether XP is installed on another partition. You just make that partition bootable and use a boot loader like lilo or grub.

Hi again,

========

After getting the first distro on a CD, what then? Why do you recommend getting the first distro (and only the first) on a CD?
========

Well, two reasons;

1) You may by chance fall upon the perfect distro for you at the first attempt (I know, unlkely, but it could happen). That way you won't need a 2nd.

2) It was really a "holding operation" to allow you to get started with linux while you thought about the advice of other posters about buying a CD-Writer.

I'm not really suggesting that ONLY the first distro should be bought on CD, rather that you could dip your toe in the water with this purcase. In fact, you could reasonably buy a few distros to try out this way, BUT....

....considering that there are many which come as multi-CD releases, the cost of buying these is getting close to fitting a modest CD-Writer & buying a pack of blank CD's - but others have mentioned this in this thread

(sorry for the delay in replying - ISP probs, didn't see mail)

Paul
UK

Well, I'd like to play around with user-friendly distributions, those where I don't have to do a lot of work in the command prompt. I'd like one with a graphical user interface.

well any distro has/can have/and can run with or without a graphical interface.

try fedora or mandriva or ubuntu or knoppix for your first try... pick one ... if you can decide yourself, pick the first you can find.

Have a look at the documentation on the website of the distro you choose for the installation.

good luck

All you need is a boot floppy that has the an install script and the driver for the device you connect tio the internet with which will then connect to the Internet and do a net install of Linux. Seen it many times at the companies I worked for.

DOS? FreeDOS.

DOS Networking? net.exe

S

It can connect to the internet from outside of an operating system? Is that possible? Where do I get the install script and the drivers you refer to?

If your willing to wait a while, ubundtu will send you disks if you just ask!!
http://www.ubuntu.com/

I've waited for 2 months, and still no disks!

FLIP-FLOP update: Will get a CD-RW Drive



Hi everyone,
I changed my mind again. Now I'm open to the idea of getting a CD-RW drive. Because of its non-standard casing, my computer, a Dell Optiplex GX150, can't accept an internal drive. So I believe that leaves me no choice but to get an external USB CD-RW drive. I found a used/old one, Logitech USB CD-RWLW-WNU drive.

1. Can the computer boot off an external optical disk drive? If so, what steps must be taken in order to accomplish this?

2. In the case of an optical disk drive that works with Windows, does it automatically mean that it will work with Linux, too?

If you just want linux, most distros will set up a bootloader for you. The usual ones are lilo or grub.
I use fedora 2 and it set up grub for me. Boots from HD no problem.

Just a quick question:
Can a plain CD-Rom drive read CD-RW disks?

Sometimes. Most modern drives claim to read CD-RWs, but I've found in practice that it's hardly a sure thing. Rewritable discs use a different writing technology (a kind of crystalline phase-change layer), which makes them less reflective than record-once discs. You may have to try several different brands of CD-RW to find one that works.