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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LINUX(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual LINUX(4)
NAME
linux -- Linux ABI support
SYNOPSIS
To compile support for this ABI into an i386 kernel place the following line in your kernel configuration file:
options COMPAT_LINUX
for an amd64 kernel use:
options COMPAT_LINUX32
Alternatively, to load the ABI as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):
linux_load="YES"
DESCRIPTION
The linux module provides limited Linux ABI (application binary interface) compatibility for userland applications. The module provides the
following significant facilities:
o An image activator for correctly branded elf(5) executable images
o Special signal handling for activated images
o Linux to native system call translation
It is important to note that the Linux ABI support it not provided through an emulator. Rather, a true (albeit limited) ABI implementation
is provided.
The following sysctl(8) tunable variables are available:
compat.linux.osname Linux kernel operating system name.
compat.linux.osrelease Linux kernel operating system release. Changing this to something else is discouraged on non-development systems,
because it may change the way Linux programs work. Recent versions of GNU libc are known to use different syscalls
depending on the value of this sysctl.
compat.linux.oss_version Linux Open Sound System version.
The linux module can be linked into the kernel statically with the COMPAT_LINUX kernel configuration option or loaded as required. The fol-
lowing command will load the module if it is neither linked into the kernel nor already loaded as a module:
if ! kldstat -v | grep -E 'linux(aout|elf)' > /dev/null; then
kldload linux > /dev/null 2>&1
fi
Note that dynamically linked Linux executables will require a suitable environment in /compat/linux. Specifically, the Linux run-time
linker's hints files should be correctly initialized. For this reason, it is common to execute the following commands to prepare the system
to correctly run Linux executables:
if [ -x /compat/linux/sbin/ldconfig ]; then
/compat/linux/sbin/ldconfig -r /compat/linux
fi
For information on loading the linux kernel loadable module automatically on system startup, see rc.conf(5). This information applies
regardless of whether the linux module is statically linked into the kernel or loaded as a module.
FILES
/compat/linux minimal Linux run-time environment
/compat/linux/proc limited Linux process file system
/compat/linux/sys limited Linux system file system
SEE ALSO
brandelf(1), elf(5), linprocfs(5), linsysfs(5)
HISTORY
Linux ABI support first appeared in FreeBSD 2.1.
BSD
February 8, 2010 BSD