Installing FC2 from harddisk - no cds
 

I have a comp running Windows XP, with 10gig free to install FC2. The only problem = I don't have a cdr/dvdr... so I cannot burn the cds like the relase notes say. I do not have any *nix partition or anything, I have one FAT32 and one NTFS.

I have all four iso images downloaded from linuxiso.org..

I was thinking that you'd have to get one of the boot files in the /images/ folder on to a floppy, but I don't know that any would fit.

Please help! Thanks in advnace.
- rhys

wwhoops should have been under install ..

whoah baby careful now
 

You are aware of the dual boot bug affecting FC2, are you not.

If not, please see http://lwn.net/Articles/86835/

I dual boot and installed FC2 following those instructions but relied on a recovery disk to get the needed info to avoid the dual boot bug.

Cheers!

(I didn't run into any dual boot issue! I have FC2 running like a charm now) :)
I did it!! woot! All by myself. I didn't even have the net to help me!! For the record here's my every step:

1. Dowload all of Fedora Core 1 and Fedora Core 2 for i386 from http://www.linuxiso.org.
2. With WinRAR installed, extract the \'dosutils' & \'images' directories from the first cd of Fedora Core 1, to a directory on C.
3. Place the FC1 images in a directory called 'fedone', at the base of the partition, on a partition other than your installation partition. Do the same for the FC2 images, but place them in a directory called 'fedtwo'. Try searching for "partioning" on google, if you need a program to make a new parition.
4. Move all of the files you want to keep off of C. We are going to format and overwrite.
5. Naviagate to \dosutils\rawritewin.
6. Run the executable.
7. Put a 3.5 inch floppy in the floppy drive.
8. Click the small grey button at the right side of the rawritewin window.
9. Navigate to \images
10. Select "boot.iso"
11. Click Open
12. Click the Write Floppy or button (I don't remember its exact name)
13. Leave the floppy in the drive.
14. Hit the restart button on the front of your computer. DO NOT click Windows > Shutdown, or try to shutdown Windows properly. Why? Because Windows is shite, and you hate Windows, so don't even try to respect it.
15. When the install screen loads, hit Enter.
16. Choose Language.
17. Choose your keyboard. If you don't know just hit enter.
18. Select Hard Disk.
19. Choose the correct partition.
20. Press tab.
21. Type 'fedone' without the quotes.
22. Hit Enter.
23. Follow any other prompts using your own brain.
24. When the screen goes black, just sit and wait. Count to 100. If nothing happens by the time you get to 100, seek professional help... maybe call your favourite IT gal or guy... (but the guys are such geeks, oops I'm talking about myself) :p
25. When Anaconda, the nice looking Fedora installer loads: click next.
26. Choose Custom Paritioning.
27. Now, select C - it prolly appears under a name like hda or hdb. Find out which is the right one by looking at the volume column.
28. Click Delete, from just above that menu-box.
29. Select the new entry you just created "Free Space".
30. Click New.
31. Select "swap" from the second highest dropdown. This will make this parition a swap drive, used for RAM. You need one. If you don't have one, the installation will most likely fail.
32. Set the size of the parition to the size of your RAM. If you don't know the size of your RAM, you're dumb. lol. {{ Just put 240. It will give you an alert later if your RAM is larger than 240. }}
33. Click Ok.
34. Select the remaning Free Space.
35. Set the first option in the dialog that appears as " \ ". This will make the base of this parition the base of Fedora.
36. Click next.
37. Somewhere in this leg of the process, you are asked for your Root password. Make this a secure one.
38. Somewhere it also asks about a boot manager, called GRUB. Just leave the default settings to install Grub. If you don't the rest of this tutorial is pretty darn useless.
39. Choose Custom installation.
40. When a long list of things you can install appears, head straight to the bottom, and click "Minimal". This will install the least amount of components possible. You can choose the FC2 components you want to install LATER, during the FC2 install.
41. Click Next.
42. Watch as the beautiful Fedora Core One installs.
43. If it exits p.rematurely, giving a black screen and saying "Teriminated Abnomally", press the restart button on the front of your computer and try again, this time don't skip the part about the SWAP paritioning. (If you didn't skip the SWAP part, then call your favourite IT geek.)
44. Once the install is complete remove the floppy disk, and click the Reboot button.
45. IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE HARDDRIVES... and when you reboot you get 'Cannot load the operating system', a similar error, or something other than Fedora Core One loads up, then press the restart button on the front of your computer and hit del constantly as the computer is starting, until you get into the BIOS setup. Then try to change the hard drive that loads, to the appropriate one. If you get stuck here, I can't help ya, call your favourite IT geek.
46. Welcome to Fedora Core 1.
47. Login as Root. Don't worry if your internet and sound don't work. Mine didn't, but in FC2 they work beautifully.
48. Now, move any files you want to keep away from the parition that FC2 is going to be installed in. Also, the iso images must be on a different partition than the one you install FC2 to.
    
    Just incase you need to access files on another parition I've included this, below. I had to figure it out for myself.:(, but you get it free.
    • TO CREATE A LINK TO ANOTHER PARTITION/DRIVE ~START~
      Click on Root's Files (I think that's what it's called, my version is in French and Welsh, so I don't know what it is in English).
    • Click the ^ (upwards pointing) arrow.
    • Click on Dev.
    • Right click on some whitespace.
    • Choose New Folder.
    • Type the name of the new folder, that will become the link to der old files. I'm calling mine maindisk. So the path to this directory would be: /dev/maindisk.
    • Click the Red Hat on the start menu.
    • Choose System Tools > Terminal. (If it's not there, just click run an application, it's near the bottom of the list)
    • Type: mount -t vfat /dev/maindisk /dev/hdb. The syntax is like this: mount -t filesystemtype thingtomount wheretomountthething :) In the example, I am mounting my 2nd hard drive. (If you get an error, that's okay, still go on to the next step.)
    • Navigate in the browser like thing to /dev/maindisk, your files from the other parition should appear there.
49. Now you need to mount the FC2-cd1 image, so that we can pull some files off of it. Follow the instructions in the above list. The type of filesystem to mention is iso9660, (I think, if you aren't sure, just put iso9660 anyway, and if it's not correct it should return an error like this: "maybe you meant vfat?"; whereas vfat is the correct filesystem to mention).
50. Now go to the mounted image, and copy the "isolinux" folder to /boot/iso. You will have to create the "iso" directory in /boot.
51. Right click on grub.conf.
52. Select open with gedit. (Or something similar)
53. Copy the FC1 entry in the list. And paste it at the end
54. Now change the pathnames of the vlinz line and the intrkinit line (they have names like this) to point to the vlinz and intrkinit in /boot/iso :)
55. Restart your computer.
56. You should now be in the FC2 installation.
57. Follow the steps to your own desires. :) YOU HAVE NOW installed FC2 with only a floppy disk. Oh and the power of rhys aka rhyshypnotic.

Blessings...