FC2 install questions

[david]

At 05:58 PM 5/21/2004, you wrote:

>Okay, I figured out why there's no such thing as a boot floppy in FC2, and 
>I have a better idea of how I could get around installing via CD-ROM 
>now.  Some good advice here:
>         http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-May/msg03916.html
>
>I'm still kind of afraid to install grub on my home XP machine, though, 
>given the reports of trouble with it:
>         http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=115980
>
>mis at natlmktg.com wrote on 05/21/2004 04:34:15 PM:
>
> >
> > Hi all.  I have a couple of questions related to Fedora Core 2 installs.
> >
> > First, I have a box with no CD-ROM drive that's running FC1.  I'd
> > like to upgrade it to FC2.  I read somewhere that there's a way to
> > run the install if I copy the ISOs to the machine's hard drive, but
> > I couldn't find any documentation on how that would work exactly.
> > (The machine does have a diskette drive, so I could boot from
> > diskette if need be.)
> >
> > Second, I have a machine at home that I want to dual-boot XP and
> > FC2.  I installed FC2 on it last night, but I didn't install grub,
> > because the installer reported a problem with my boot sector, and I
> > didn't want to risk screwing it up.  I thought I would be prompted
> > to create a boot disk at the end of the install, as has been common
> > with previous versions of RedHat/Fedora, but I wasn't.  Either that,
> > or I zoned and just clicked past it.  Either way, can I boot from CD
> > 1 or the rescue CD and create a boot disk after the fact?
> >
> > In general, I haven't found a good guide for Fedora installation.  I
> > just ordered Fedora Unleashed from Amazon, and I'm hoping that has
> > some useful information, but if anyone knows of a good
> > install/upgrade guide for Fedora out there on the net someplace,
> > please let me know where it is!


Alas, his comments were hopeful, but not successful.

I am not a low-level programmer, but in the long-lost days with other 
hardware, I was.  I know it was possible to bootstrap a bi-quinary computer 
using multiple punched-cards, where the first card had enough logic to 
continue the loading process with other cards.  And these cards each had 
only 10 computer instructions on them.  I find it difficult to believe that 
some smart hacker (in the good sense) can't devise a way to bootstrap FC2 
network installation, and subsequent larger systems, using multiple 
floppies.  Even that other operating system (from the Seattle area) has (or 
had) a bootstrap with 5 or so diskettes.

One of the attractions of Linux has been its ability to run on old 
hardware.  It would be sad to see that abandoned.

Oh well.

David