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Neil Williams wrote: > On Wed, 4 Apr 2007 09:44:28 +0100 (BST) > "Neil Stone" <neil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > >> A guy at work has come to me with an interesting situation... >> >> He has a laptop on which he would like GNU/Linux installed (he wants >> SuSe, but i'm trying to avoid RPM based if I can) >> >> Problem, the CD drive is knackered... the machine can't boot from >> USB.... >> > > I thought debootstrap was meant for this situation - download a bare > Debian installation across a network connection and boot from that. > > If you can share a directory on the machine across a network with samba, > you can copy a Debian system onto it: > > debootstrap etch /mnt/root http://ftp.uk.debian.org > > Not sure how to sort this out with reference to filesystems but if you > can connect to the laptop (telnet if necessary, or putty if you can > download it whilst the laptop is still running MS), that could help. > You might need PartitionMagic or similar to create space that can be > made into ext2. > > This is all theoretical though - haven't done it myself. If you fancy > having a go at this, let me know. I'd love to do this for real! I would > expect that the architecture of the host Debian system should match the > architecture of the laptop so two i386 systems would be best. > > Once it boots, the problem is solved. > > Certainly, debootstrap is used for setting up embedded devices - it > should work with a desktop unit. > > http://wiki.debian.org/EmDebian/CrossDebootstrap > > http://wiki.debian.org/EmDebian/DeBootstrap > > What make laptop is it? Could you get work work colleague to come along to one of the meetings? I have a couple of laptop size CD-ROM drives I can bring along to the meeting on the 12th, I was thinking if we could get one to fit it might boot an Ubuntu or Debian CD. Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html