Burning 4-5 CDs to install any modern distro like Fedora Core 5 or Suse 10 is a big pain in the neck. This tutorial will teach you how to install FC5 or Suse or any other distro without burning a single CD!!! This method, however, will only work if you already have Windows installed on your system and want to dual boot with Linux.
1. The first thing you will have to do is copy all the ISO files to your hard disk. Make sure that you copy all the files to the root of the partition and the partition must be formatted in FAT32. If you do not copy the ISO to the root of the partition (i.e. keep inside a folder) the setup will not able to detect the files.
2. Now use winrar to open the first ISO file (disc1). Go inside the folder "isolinux" and copy the files initrd.img and vmlinuz to your c:boot. You will need to enable viewing of hidden and system files in order to locate c:boot.
3. Now download the file called grub4dos from here. Extract the folder "boot" and the file "grldr" from the downloaded zip file. Inside the folder "boot" is another folder called "grub"; copy this folder to c:boot. Copy the file "grldr" to c:
4. Then open c:bootgrubmenu.lst and add these following lines.
5. Now you have to add grub to your c:boot.ini file. Open boot.ini and add this line in the end:
6. You are now ready to install FC5. Restart your PC and from the boot screen select "Start GRUB". This will load GRUB.
7. From the grub screen select "Fedora Core 5 Install". The setup will now start and you can now select the hard drive partition where you copied the ISO files.
Now sit back and let it install. No more burning and wasting discs and even no more changing CDs during install. After the installation is over you can delete the folder c:bootgrub as well as c:grldr and also the reference to this file from your boot.ini file, as these are no longer needed.
I just installed FC5 by this method so I can guarantee you that it will work. Enjoy!!!
UPDATE:
For Suse its a bit different. Instead of initrd.img and vmlinuz, you have to copy initrd and linux. So the changes to c:bootgrubmenu.lst will be this
Also you have to type the full name of the first ISO when it asks for the path. So write it down before you begin installation.
1. The first thing you will have to do is copy all the ISO files to your hard disk. Make sure that you copy all the files to the root of the partition and the partition must be formatted in FAT32. If you do not copy the ISO to the root of the partition (i.e. keep inside a folder) the setup will not able to detect the files.
2. Now use winrar to open the first ISO file (disc1). Go inside the folder "isolinux" and copy the files initrd.img and vmlinuz to your c:boot. You will need to enable viewing of hidden and system files in order to locate c:boot.
3. Now download the file called grub4dos from here. Extract the folder "boot" and the file "grldr" from the downloaded zip file. Inside the folder "boot" is another folder called "grub"; copy this folder to c:boot. Copy the file "grldr" to c:
4. Then open c:bootgrubmenu.lst and add these following lines.
Code:
title Fedora Core 5 Install
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img
5. Now you have to add grub to your c:boot.ini file. Open boot.ini and add this line in the end:
Code:
C:grldr=”Start GRUB”
6. You are now ready to install FC5. Restart your PC and from the boot screen select "Start GRUB". This will load GRUB.
7. From the grub screen select "Fedora Core 5 Install". The setup will now start and you can now select the hard drive partition where you copied the ISO files.
Now sit back and let it install. No more burning and wasting discs and even no more changing CDs during install. After the installation is over you can delete the folder c:bootgrub as well as c:grldr and also the reference to this file from your boot.ini file, as these are no longer needed.
I just installed FC5 by this method so I can guarantee you that it will work. Enjoy!!!
UPDATE:
For Suse its a bit different. Instead of initrd.img and vmlinuz, you have to copy initrd and linux. So the changes to c:bootgrubmenu.lst will be this
Code:
title Suse Install
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/linux
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd
Also you have to type the full name of the first ISO when it asks for the path. So write it down before you begin installation.
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