Install Fedora 13 from Hard Drive

[mike cloaked]

On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 8:03 PM, Henry Wyatt <hewjr1000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Need link or instructions on how to install from HDD.
>
> Currently have F13 86x64 but want to install 32 bit instead
>

Copy the DVD iso onto a non-root partition on your machine, as an iso
file. eg if you have a / and a /home partition then put the iso onto
the /home partition. Or if you have a /opt partition that won't be
altered during the install then you can put it in there instead.

Then make a directory such as /mnt/tmp and then loop mount the iso
onto that mount point by doing as root:
# mount -o loop   /path/to/Fedora-13-i386-DVD.iso    /mnt/tmp

Now copy the images directory from the /mnt/tmp area to the same
directory that you stored your DVD iso on i.e. /path/to/ in the line
above.

Now as root still, copy the two key boot files from the iso  into the
/boot area:
# cd /boot
# cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/vmlinuz f13.install
# cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/initrd.img f13.install.img

Now you have these two files in /boot
Now add a suitable grub stanza to your grub.conf by doing
# cd /boot/grub
# vim grub.conf

Once in the editor add a set of lines after the last normal stanza in
this file that boots Fedora, in the form:
title Fedora 13 Install
        root (hd0,5)
        kernel /boot/f13.install
        initrd /boot/f13.install.img

Make sure that the line with root (hd0,5) matches the line in the
previous stanza in your grub/conf file so that it picks the correct
partition to boot from. i.e. select the correct drive and partition.
Making it the same as the values from another stanza that boots your
normal previous Fedora should be fine.

Exit vim using the "esc" button followed by ":" to get a command
prompt and then "wq" to write the changed file to disk.

Now check the partition and path to the Fedora install iso file that
you have on disk and write it down.

eg Let's say that you have /opt mounted on /dev/sda7 (check using "df
-h") and the path was /opt/isos/Fedora-13-i386-DVD.iso

You need to remember /dev/sda7 and the "relative" path will be
/isos/Fedora-13-i386-DVD.iso

Now all you need to do is to reboot the machine and interrupt grub so
that you can select "Fedora 13 Install" to boot instead of the normal
boot process.

If all has gone well you should now start to boot the Fedora 13
installer - and be able to start off the install. If you select a hard
drive install, then select /dev/sda7 (or whatever it is on your
machine for the partition containing your iso) and your correct
relative path, then the install should proceed as normal.  Note that
you will not be able to format the partition containing your iso
during the install.

Note that you should select custom partitioning and make sure that the
root partition (/) is formatted during the install - and ensure that
/opt and /home are not formatted but selected to be mounted after the
install completes.

If you use LVM then you will have to modify this approach accordingly.

This approach allows a full normal install.   It is the way I normally
do my "upgrades" from one version of Fedora to the next.

I hope this helps.

-- 
mike c