I'm trying to install Linux on a computer without a CD-ROM. How do I do that with Mandrake 9? I have a network card on both and the one with CD-ROM dual-boots WinXP and Mandrake 9. My biggest challenge right now is setting up the network. I know I created an old thread on that, but it seems to be lost in the mess in the search. Since I know nothing about using networks with Linux, assume I do know nothing about it.

What is the setup of the network? Is it just the two computer? Is there a router connecting them? I have never setup a Linux box over a network, but i may be able to help you with getting the computers communicating atleast.

you can do a network install. share the internet connection form the first computer or connect the live net cable to the machine directly. i guess you have the mandrake CD's. on the CD's there should be a images directory, and dosutils direcoty. using windows goto dosutils and then start 'rawwritewin' and then make a image by choosing 'network.img' from the images folder. boot form the floppy. before booting goto mandrake site and form the download page write down the ip addresses or the website addresses for the for the download destination.

I am using a 10.100 peer-to-peer network. I'm just stringing a 10 foot crossover cable directly from my desktop computer which has a CD-ROM to a laptop which uses a PCMCIA 10.100 network card. After using RAWRITE to make several disks (starting with network.img, then moving to pcmcia.img, and then to the older kernel versions), this card appears to not be properly supported under Linux, though it come with Linux drivers (daemons, whatever they're called under Linux). The newest kernels always terminate abnormally on me and the older ones appear to "want" to work but say they don't suport a network install. The wording's wierd. "We now use kernel pcmcia support and this won't work with a 2.2 kernel." On my "big" computer, my network is relatively unconfigured so I need to set that up too (and I'm clueless how at this point). As far as a web install, I cannot access the web from here as I have a dial-up connection from a company that don't have Linux. Maybe I can have it going tomorrow over the web or something. Any ideas from here?

You can find network info in the howtos or at at the www.tldp.org.

You need to setup the network card for a static ip on the big computer. Just use the Mandrake control center under networking. Use an IP of 192.168.0.1 and netmask of 255.255.255.0.

You will need either a ftp, nfs or web server running on your big computer. Copy the install cds to the desired directory for the install method. For nfs make sure you configure the /etc/exports file.

I don't have any experience of using pcmcia with linux. Once you have the network install floppy booting and pcmcia woring with the network driver installed you will need to setup the network address on the laptop. Use 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0. You will then need to specify which directory you copied the install CD to.

BTW check the hardware compatablility list and MDK's website to see if your pcmcia network card is supported.

Also you can only use rawwrite in a pure DOS OS. It will not work correctly in a DOS promt box in windows. Use winrawrite ( or whatever its called) instead.

Check out the documentation at MDK's website for more details.

Now we're getting somewhere! How do I find and get a server running? I bet there's one of the three on my Mandrake CD, if I can find it. Which one's best for this purpose and how do I make it run?

ftp should be the easy one. goto /etc/xinetd.d/ directory. there should be a file with ftp in the file name. open the file and change the line which says 'default = off' to 'default = on' ( something like that)

restart xinetd i.e. '/etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart'

and then you can give your ip address and the path to your cd folder during installation

Use Mandrake control center system, services and look for proftp, nfs or httpd. If you see one make sure its running or start it up. I think nfs is the easiest.

If not then under configuration packaging select install software. Select what server you want and install.

For nfs edit the /etc/export file to add the following line:
/<cd folder> (ro,insecure,all_squash)

Select nfs during the install and use its IP address and the /<cd folder> (where ever you copied the files to, be sure its permissions allow all to read).

I guess I'll need to set up a server on my desktop. I need more ram, too. I've ordered it though. FTP and HTTP takes 64MB Ram, and I only got 8 now. Hopefully, I can use this 128 I ordered with this thing. Anyway, any ideas why the new Mandrake 9 images would terminate abnormally while checking out my PC-Card slots? Could it be related to the fact I only have 8 MB Ram in it right now?

I already have a NFS server, but first I gotta get my network card to pick up. My PCMCIA root controller is crashing my boot disks.

I got it! I got it! Linux Mandrake 7.2 is on my laptop now!! ...now, how would I configure and invoke my X server?

Did you setup x during the install process? If so then you should be already to go. Just type the command
startx

I don't remember if there is a better tool with MDK 7.2 but this will work to configure x if you know your monitor settings.
xf86config

I think Harddrake sets up the hardware end of X, doesn't it? I remember seeing about the X-free 86, but it was only mentioned when I saw it.