CentOS 5.4 netinstall

I just recently tried installing CentOS on a old Toshiba laptop (Model: M45-S269) which has a DVD-RW drive but functions only as a CD drive. So the easiest option for me to install CentOS was through the Internet.

Here is what I did:

1) Depending on your PCs processor architecture download the CentOS netinstall.iso file from
CentOS 5.4 ISOs

2) I followed the steps described in the following URL CentOS NetInstall 5.3 written by Chris Gountanis

I am referring you to the above blog post mainly for the screen shots to give you a feel on what to expect on each step.

3) When you are at the stage where you are asked for the website name and directory use the following instead of the ones given in the blog post cited in step-2:

website name: mirror.centos.org
directory: centos/5.4/os/i386

The above worked perfectly for me. After retrieving the stage2.img from the above mentioned directory, the installation is pretty much similar to any distro - you specify partitions, specify the time zone, language, root password and other required information and your on your way for a successful install.

For a screen by screen walk through with explanation of the installation process refer to: Installing RHEL 5.0. This guide applies to CentOS 5.4 as well since its installation is very similar to that of RHEL 5.0.

Hope this post helps you!
Cheers...