Install FC2 in external HD + boot via floppy

[Afonso Duarte]

Dear All,

I have been using FC2 for some time and now i am interested in installing it in my Toshiba 1400-103.

Because i still need to use XP - :( - i am interested on placing the FC2 on a external HD and keep the XP on the internal disk. The problem on this is that my laptop does not boot from the usb... :( so I was thinking of creating a boot floppy that could contain the main kernel of FC2 and place the file system on the disk.

I have been looking around the web for some examples on how to create the floppy but I haven't came across something similar ... did any of you tried this approach? do you have any suggestion on how to do this?

Thanks

PS: I found some small linux distributions that do fit in one disk... but i really need a full working distro like FC2 for the software i am going to run on the laptop, so those ones will not do the job.

Duarte

Abra sua conta no Yahoo! Mail, o único sem limite de espaço para armazenamento!

[Antonio M]

2007/10/16, Afonso Duarte :
> Dear All,
>
> I have been using FC2 for some time and now i am interested in installing it
> in my Toshiba 1400-103.
>
> Because i still need to use XP - :( - i am interested on placing the FC2 on
> a external HD and keep the XP on the internal disk. The problem on this is
> that my laptop does not boot from the usb... :( so I was thinking of
> creating a boot floppy that could contain the main kernel of FC2 and place
> the file system on the disk.
>
> I have been looking around the web for some examples on how to create the
> floppy but I haven't came across something similar ... did any of you tried
> this approach? do you have any suggestion on how to do this?
>
> Thanks
>
> PS: I found some small linux distributions that do fit in one disk... but i
> really need a full working distro like FC2 for the software i am going to
> run on the laptop, so those ones will not do the job.
>
> Duarte
>
> Abra sua conta no Yahoo! Mail, o único sem limite de espaço para
> armazenamento!
> --
> fedora-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe:
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

I created a boot CD....but maybe that you have to use mkinitrd to
pre-load USB.In recent days, it was not necessary any longer, but I
mean at least for FC5...Why don't you jump to a more recent Fedora.
If you like I can send you the small file and some
instructions.....(tnx to John Austin, where are you John???)

[Dr J Austin]

On Tue, 2007-10-16 at 17:32 +0200, Antonio wrote:
> 2007/10/16, Afonso Duarte :
> > Dear All,
> >
> > I have been using FC2 for some time and now i am interested in installing it
> > in my Toshiba 1400-103.
> >
> > Because i still need to use XP - :( - i am interested on placing the FC2 on
> > a external HD and keep the XP on the internal disk. The problem on this is
> > that my laptop does not boot from the usb... :( so I was thinking of
> > creating a boot floppy that could contain the main kernel of FC2 and place
> > the file system on the disk.
> >
> > I have been looking around the web for some examples on how to create the
> > floppy but I haven't came across something similar ... did any of you tried
> > this approach? do you have any suggestion on how to do this?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > PS: I found some small linux distributions that do fit in one disk... but i
> > really need a full working distro like FC2 for the software i am going to
> > run on the laptop, so those ones will not do the job.
> >
> > Duarte
> >
> > Abra sua conta no Yahoo! Mail, o único sem limite de espaço para
> > armazenamento!
> > --
> > fedora-list mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe:
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
>
> I created a boot CD....but maybe that you have to use mkinitrd to
> pre-load USB.In recent days, it was not necessary any longer, but I
> mean at least for FC5...Why don't you jump to a more recent Fedora.
> If you like I can send you the small file and some
> instructions.....(tnx to John Austin, where are you John???)
>
> -- 
> Antonio Montagnani
> Skype : antoniomontag

I'm still alive Antonio, just, I've been windsurfing today, hot for
England in October!

Duarte, I attach a blog type file of my playing with booting from USB
disks/sticks - it may be of use.
I used a CD for the booting stage.
I also would suggest moving to a later version of Fedora - 8???????

The author for the first part of the file is not me,
but I have lost the reference.

John

[Aaron Konstam]

On Tue, 2007-10-16 at 12:05 -0300, Afonso Duarte wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I have been using FC2 for some time and now i am interested in
> installing it in my Toshiba 1400-103.
>
> Because i still need to use XP - :( - i am interested on placing the
> FC2 on a external HD and keep the XP on the internal disk. The problem
> on this is that my laptop does not boot from the usb... :( so I was
> thinking of creating a boot floppy that could contain the main kernel
> of FC2 and place the file system on the disk.

You mean when you look at the list of boot devices, usb is not listed?
Are you sure yo just don't have it in the wrong position in the list?
> I have been looking around the web for some examples on how to create
> the floppy but I haven't came across something similar ... did any of
> you tried this approach? do you have any suggestion on how to do this?
>
> Thanks
>
> PS: I found some small linux distributions that do fit in one disk...
> but i really need a full working distro like FC2 for the software i am
> going to run on the laptop, so those ones will not do the job.
>
> Duarte
> Abra sua conta no Yahoo! Mail, o único sem limite de espaço para
> armazenamento!
>
> -- 
> fedora-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

--
=======================================================================
Diplomacy is the art of letting the other party have things your way. --
Daniele Vare
=======================================================================
Aaron Konstam telephone: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail]

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, Oct 16, 2007 at 12:05:04PM -0300, Afonso Duarte wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I have been using FC2 for some time and now i am interested in
>    installing it in my Toshiba 1400-103.
>
> Because i still need to use XP - :( - i am interested on placing the
>    FC2 on a external HD and keep the XP on the internal disk. The problem
>    on this is that my laptop does not boot from the usb... :( so I was
>    thinking of creating a boot floppy that could contain the main kernel
>    of FC2 and place the file system on the disk.

You did not indicate whether your machine will boot to CD-ROM or
not. On the off chance that it doesn't, check out Smart Boot Manager
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/). You could then create boot
CDs as others have suggested.

You might also be able to hack boot.ini to boot to the external drive,
thereby eliminating the need for a CD or floppy. That is how I boot my
laptop (http://www.charlescurley.com/Lenovo.R51.html), although Linux
and XP co-habit on the built in hard drive. Does anyone know if
ntldr.com will detect a USB drive?

Failing that, how about a small (~100MB) /boot partition on the
internal drive, with kernel and initrd pointing to the external drive?
> PS: I found some small linux distributions that do fit in one disk...
>    but i really need a full working distro like FC2 for the software i am
>    going to run on the laptop, so those ones will not do the job.

Have you looked at Knoppix or Ubuntu live CDs? The main disadvantage
is that live CDs are slow.