11-28-2009
How to install linux in a system without cdrom, usb boot, floppy, other OS?
Hello to everyone,
I am new to linux and I want to move to this system after bad experiences with windows.
I have also a particular problem. An old laptop is probably able to handle just linux at this point of its life.
The cdrom is gone, the bios doesn't have usb boot support, there is no floppy or pxe network boot ability, so I was wondering what other way I can have to install linux on a barebone hd (nothing on it).
The only Idea I had was to copy some files on the hd via a ide cable adapter, connecting the laptop hd to the mobo of a desktop. I did the same in the past to install xp: I used msdos 7 to boot the machine and then launch the xp setup from withing the hd (copied before the installation files).
So my question is, can I do the same with linux? in such case, of course I will have a hd formatted with fat32 to boot in msdos, and what files should I copy on this partition to launch the installation?
If this is not the best path to follow and some guru here can advise me a better way I am looking for his helps. I look on the net but everywhere at least they require a previous operative system on it or some kind of boot support (usb, cdrom, floppy...)
Thanks again
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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN
fdformat
FDFORMAT(8) System Administration FDFORMAT(8)
NAME
fdformat - low-level format a floppy disk
SYNOPSIS
fdformat [options] device
DESCRIPTION
fdformat does a low-level format on a floppy disk. device is usually one of the following (for floppy devices the major = 2, and the minor
is shown for informational purposes only):
/dev/fd0d360 (minor = 4)
/dev/fd0h1200 (minor = 8)
/dev/fd0D360 (minor = 12)
/dev/fd0H360 (minor = 12)
/dev/fd0D720 (minor = 16)
/dev/fd0H720 (minor = 16)
/dev/fd0h360 (minor = 20)
/dev/fd0h720 (minor = 24)
/dev/fd0H1440 (minor = 28)
/dev/fd1d360 (minor = 5)
/dev/fd1h1200 (minor = 9)
/dev/fd1D360 (minor = 13)
/dev/fd1H360 (minor = 13)
/dev/fd1D720 (minor = 17)
/dev/fd1H720 (minor = 17)
/dev/fd1h360 (minor = 21)
/dev/fd1h720 (minor = 25)
/dev/fd1H1440 (minor = 29)
The generic floppy devices, /dev/fd0 and /dev/fd1, will fail to work with fdformat when a non-standard format is being used, or if the for-
mat has not been autodetected earlier. In this case, use setfdprm(8) to load the disk parameters.
OPTIONS
-n, --no-verify
Skip the verification that is normally performed after the formatting.
-V, --version
Output version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display help and exit.
SEE ALSO
fd(4), setfdprm(8), mkfs(8), emkfs(8)
AUTHOR
Werner Almesberger (almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch)
AVAILABILITY
The fdformat command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
util-linux July 2011 FDFORMAT(8)