Hi everyone, Linux noob here.

I built a RAID 5 server last week and installed Ubuntu 7.04 Server on it, but when I was building I decided that since it would be used as a web/FTP server and I was going to administer remotely using TightVNC, I wouldn't need to buy a cd-rom drive for it. I pulled a drive from another Windows PC I have here for the initial installation, but that's back in it's home now.

Anyway, I've had trouble getting the NIC working and downloaded a driver for it. I've transferred that driver to the server using a USB stick and I tried to install it, but first I need to install make and the system's asking for the Ubuntu disc. If this is going to come up again in the future, or if I decide to upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu, is there a way I can edit fstab or some other file so that the cdrom entry points to a mount point I can use for ISO images i.e. when the system looks for the ubuntu disc it will search in the spot where I've mounted the ISO file?

Is this possible or should I just go out and pick up a drive? If anyone has any advice, please go step by step with me - I'm not very familiar with Linux commands yet.

Thanks,
Nemo

so basically you want to mount an iso image?

This is done by:

su
mkdir <mount point> (this creates a directory that will be used as a mount point)
mount -t iso9660 <location to iso.iso> <mount point> -o loop

I'm not sure about ubuntu, but then i guess you can tell it where to look if it needs the cd-rom? Just give the location of the mount point.

Hope this helps

Your problem is probably that you have the CD in your list of sources for software.
Go System > Admininstration > Synaptic package Manager;
Whack in your password, then Settings > Repositories;
Untick the boxes in "Installable from CDRom", refresh; and try again.

tjyorkshire: Thanks for the advice. I was able to find out how to mount an iso image yesterday after a bit of Googling, but I don't know how I can namke the system look at that mount point instead of the default when it's searching for a cd-rom. Is there any way to either make that a permanent change or manually redirect it when needed?

syg00: Thanks for your help, it was very clear and straightforward. Unfortunately, I guess I wasn't clear enough myself! I assumed everyone would be familiar with the server version of Ubuntu, but with so many distros out there.... Ubuntu Server doesn't come with a GUI installed. I chose it because of the LAMP server installation option. As soon as I get my NIC installed and configured, I intend to install KDE desktop, but until then I'm stuck at a command line. Do you think your solution could be applied using text commands only? If it works, will the system then request sources be manually specified?

Thanks again for your quick, helpful responses!
Nemo

Ignore this. I wasn't paying attention.

Absolutely,

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list files and Comment out the line for the CDROM..

I have debian not Ubuntu, but if you view my sources.list file you will see the top line for the install CDROM has been commented out.. Should be the same thing for Ubuntu.

More info in the Ubuntu guide on manually editing your Ubuntu sources.list

No, I missed the implication of "7.04 Server" - saw noob, and stopped concentrating; my bad.
If you still need to update the sources, try this - I can't get to that ubuntuguide site, so I don't know what it suggests

Most odd the ubuntuguide site does appear to be non-functioning today..