This forum is a bit like a blog for me, as well as a help forum :-D

But it does allow you to boot from CDROM, right? I would just pay a few dollars and buy a couple of Linux distributions burnt onto CDROM, or as other LQ members have suggested, get a fried to burn them for you. Check http://www.distrowatch.com for cheap Linux burnt CDROM links and for comparisons of some Linux distributions. With your older hardware, you could choose a slightly older distribution with a smaller kernel and less software to install.

Yea man! I have been considering shelling out 10 or 15 bux on a few distros, at least so I can rule out my ISO packager, and my DVD burner, as potentially faulty. To get the CDs that I currently have, I downloaded the torrent ISOs, burned to DVD (data), then a few days later went to mom's and burned each ISO to their own image CD. Multi-step hassle. But, not to say that I'm a minimalist, I do like to try to make the most of old hand-me-down stuff, like my computer, She-Beast. I also enjoy learning to R&M my own stuff, and tinker with projects on my own rather than hire out the work. Needless to say, I'm ready to purchase some CDs, as most other options have proven ineffective.

...or if not ineffective, I'm just doing it all wrong over and over, and don't realize it.

I think I'd recommend wubi at this point. You can get it here:
http://wubi-installer.org/
I believe(not certain, but would be surprised if you couldn't) that from there that you can install a distro directly onto your harddrive instead of running off of a file on Windows' partition. I'll try it out in the next few minutes.
EDIT: Make that hours...

OK, mdever, let me know.

I have been sitting here for 3 hours now, reading PDFs, sorting emails, reading my ethnobotany blogs and forums, a few movie torrents... basically everything I love to do on a computer. It is working just fine. As reliable as ever.

I was wondering why this site is still on my screen, after all the aggravation that I have been through the last few days, and the 40+ continuous hours of lost sleep.

I am spent. Somebody remind me what I am doing here. Inspire me to give up, or to try again.

Well; wubi will atleast allow you to use Linux instead of Windows; and it's easier to install than the previous methods given. So that alone is a plus. The only thing that is really distasteful about it is that it's on an NTFS partition; and apparently has problems when shut down incorrectly because of that (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_%2...29#Limitations). Of course, it's probably slower as well.
Other than that; it looks pretty good. It even has a Kubuntu version available. It's probably easier to install other distributions from it as well; but I don't know if it would be easier for someone who doesn't know that much about Linux yet. I know it's easier for a terminal junkie like me ;) . But I wouldn't recommend my methods to someone brand new to linux.
In any case; the estimated wait time for wubi is at 10 hours for me; so I'll tell you if I was able to easily* get something like Kubuntu onto another partition around then.

*My definition of easily involves as little terminal as possible; very little knowledge of how block devices like harddrives and partitions are referenced by Linux; very little self modification of the menu.lst file; and no self installation of GRUB. Really installing it is different than installing GRUB4DOS.

Sweet reply, md! Look forward to your results.

Installing Linux from ISO
 

steps:

1: boot from from any linux bootable media
2: at boot prompt write "linux text askmethod" and press enter
3: after entering select "hard drive" from options and press "OK"
4: select the partition("like /dev/sda1 or other") where you hold the
iso image and press "OK".
These steps install the linux from an iso

???
How could it be just that easy
???

Hello Lorax,

What's up!? I see you're still hanging in there, that's great to see. I saw some post about Windoze having been screwed up, so I imagine you did a fresh install, keeping some of the space on the HD free for Linux?

Also noticed a post concerning wubi, that's another alternative but in my opinion not that good. It creates like a virtual drive and runs ubuntu within Windoze. It will not give you good results in regards to performance.

Where are you at now? Have you been able to get the NETINST burnt to CD by someone?

I'm at the office now, but be checking in on regular intervals.

Kind regards,

Eric

Hi Eric!
I was just now about to reboot, after completing the grub4dos tutorial, to get the NETINST going.

No, no CD made. I was just going to install per the tutorial, from HD.

Any last minute comments before I run this?

My prayers are with you and my fingers are crossed :D

Bootin...............

Am I supposed to have the NETINST CDrom in the drive?
It keeps looking for it. Says it cant mount the CDrom.