hello all.... I have a rather complicated problem, the details of which are long and bloated... so ill skip ahead.
i have a daily work winxp machine, and a bare essentials linux box minus its cdrom drive.
I need to reinstall redhat9 on the linux server without the cdrom drive. (i had originally used one, and then circumstance prevailed and the cdrom drive was disposed of...). Can i somehow install from a mapped network drive... even like a windows d: drive? i have read about doing network installs, but something tells me that this might be a bit different.
i know it might be a stretch and any help would be fantastic hehe.
thanks people!

-mindfestival

I have done this in a few different ways:

To boot: copy installation-kernel + initrd to /boot, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (or /etc/lilo.conf) to boot installation. To find out what parameters are needed, take a look at <cdroot>/isolinux/isolinux.cfg (or similar - I can't check it right now.)
You could also create a bootfloppy, there are instructions on install-CD about that.

To install: copy the contents from the CD's to your hard disk. You will have to copy them (if more than one) even if you install via network - installation program doesn't recognize network-paths as CD's, you won't be able to change CD.
For network install: I have tried ftp and nfs, no problem. Installing from a Windows-box I don't know, I would get an ftp-server if I were you.

hi there

for network installations u should go for ftp or http using windows.

better to get some book or tutorial

i have dome with NFS ,but i think NFS can only be donme in a linux machine

regards
gaurav

funny you should say that, i am reformatting to do just that. ok ill give it all a try now!
thanks!