install from hard drive

I would like to try out Arch. But is it possible to install Arch from downloaded ISO files stored in hard drive? I could install slackware from DOS using loadlin.exe. I tried this method for Arch but Arch does not provide any way to pre-mount the ISO file during installation.

Any suggestion?

I think I figured out a way to do it............This will require booting from a floppy...Here's the step from the Arch install guide for using floppies:

Floppy Install

1. Download images/boot.img (path is relative to the mirror root) 
2. Download images/root.img
3. Download any add-on images you need from the addon/ subdirectory: 
   ether_pcmcia.img - PCMCIA utilities/modules, Ethernet modules 
   fs.img - XFS/JFS filesystem utilities, Ext2 extra utilities 
   keymaps_usb.img - Additional keymaps/consolefonts, USB modules 
   raid_lvm.img - RAID/LVM modules and utilities 
   scsi.img - SCSI modules 
4. Find some blank floppies and write the images to them: 
   (insert first disk)
   # dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0
   (insert second disk)
   # dd if=root.img of=/dev/fd0

   (repeat for any additional add-on images)
   # dd if=scsi.img of=/dev/fd0
 
   If you need to write these images from a Windows box, you can download rawrite.exe
   and use it instead of dd. 
5. Write down all your network settings so you can enter them into setup later, if you
   want to install via FTP: 
   -IP Address 
   -Subnet Mask 
   -Gateway 
   -Ethernet Module for your network card (eg.: eepro100, 8139too) 


Using The Floppies

If you have any chance of booting the system from the ArchLinux CD, it's strongly
recommended to do so. Not only are the floppies themselves prone to failure, the
whole boot process takes much longer, and if you need a handful of modules the
disk-juggling is very unnerving. Note that you do not have to boot from floppies to
install via FTP, CD-ROM will do just fine. 

Reboot your computer with the boot disk in the floppy drive. After some disk-crunching
noises, you should come to a boot prompt, waiting eagerly for your input. Press Enter to
continue the boot process after adding any potentially needed kernel parameters. 

If you are using a USB keyboard, you will need to load USB support automatically at
bootup. You can do this by setting the NEEDUSB parameter to your USB bus type. For
example, if you have a UHCI bus, you would type arch NEEDUSB=uhci at the boot
prompt. After the root disk loads, you will be prompted to load the USB add-on disk,
which will be auto-loaded after a 10-second wait. If you're not sure what kind of USB
bus you have, try specifying NEEDUSB=auto, which will load all three (UHCI,OHCI,EHCI)
bus modules. 

Partway through the boot-up process, you will be prompted: 

   VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER

Insert the root disk in the drive and hit Enter. After some more chunking you will be
given a shell. Since you'll be needing your ethernet module for the install, you
should now load the modules from the ether_pcmcia disk.

Note - you shouldn't need to load any network stuff, since you're using a mounted iso.

As soon as you get a command line after booting from the root floppy, you can mount the iso manually to the /src directory with a command something like this:

mount /path/to/iso /src -t iso9660 -o loop

Then run /arch/setup. When you're ready to "Select the packages", you should be given a choice of installing from a cd or from a pre-mounted directory........Choose the directory option.......

I burned the iso I downloaded to cd and installed from the cd, so I can't vouch for how it will turn out...........but it should do the trick......


---thegeekster

Thanks for your advise.

Since I do not have floppy drive with my laptop. I tried loadlin from dos to bring me to hte arch setup prompt sucessfully.

The problem was that I cannot premount /dev/hda1 where my iso file is located. I found from arch website that arch chreat /dev/hda1 as /dev/discs/disc1/part1 which is very confusing. Isn't it just /dev/hda1?

I mkdir /winc so that I can used it as mountpoint for mounting /dev/hda1, and then mount the iso in /winc to src dir, but it just did not mount, warning no such device.

Need help.

Arch uses devfs, which is a virtual filesystem that dynamically assigns the drives, based on what's installed.............It uses a different syntax instead of the more familiar /dev/hdax........Here's a breakdown of the equivalent expressions to substitute:

Drive:
  /dev/hda           /dev/discs/disc0/disc
Partitions:
  /dev/hda1          /dev/discs/disc0/part1
  /dev/hda2          /dev/discs/disc0/part2
  /dev/hdax          /dev/discs/disc0/partx

Drive:
  /dev/hdb           /dev/discs/disc1/disc
Partitions:
  /dev/hdb1          /dev/discs/disc1[part1
  /dev/hdb2          /dev/discs/disc1/part2
  /dev/hdbx          /dev/discs/disc1/partx

Drive:
  /dev/hdc           /dev/discs/disc2/disc
Partitions:
  /dev/hdc1          /dev/discs/disc2/part1
  /dev/hdc2          /dev/discs/disc2/part2
  /dev/hdcx          /dev/discs/disc2/partx

Drive:
  /dev/hdd           /dev/discs/disc3/disc
Partitions:
  /dev/hdd1          /dev/discs/disc3/part1
  /dev/hdd2          /dev/discs/disc3/part2
  /dev/hddx          /dev/discs/disc3/partx

Notice for partitions, instead of using something like a1, you would use /disc0/part1. If you want to specify the whole drive and not just a single parition, instead of a using single letter such as a, you would use /disc0/disc...............Basically each drive has it's own separate directory (disc0, disc1, disc2, disc3) with device files called disc to designate the whole drive and part1, part2, etc., for the partitions.......

HTH


PS: This is for IDE drives...........For SCSI devices, I'm not sure if it's different............remember, devfs assigns these names based ONLY on what's installed...........So it might use /dev/discs for the SCSI drives just like the IDE drives, or it might use somehting different........

My follow up:

It seems that the kernel comes with arch installer does not support vfat fs. That is why I could not mount dos partition. I put the install iso files to a linux partition and solved the problem. My installation from hard drive was then successful.