Gentoo install questions

WoZZeR

WoZZeR

WoZZeR

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Heyup chaps

Following a previous thread I have attempted to install Gentoo on my old notebook. The notebook is a Dell without a DVD or CD drive.

I've installed Ubuntu, Debian and Puppy before using a program called Unetbootin.

I couldn't install Gentoo this way though, it didn't load itself into RAM but ran from HD meaning I couldn't write the partitions to the HD.

I have taken the HD out of the notebook and have it hooked into my main PC via an adaptor and have partitioned it through Ubuntu.

Can I install Gentoo onto this HD via my main PC and then just hook the HD back into the notebook?

The architectures are vastly different, main PC is Intel C2D with 975X and notebook is PIII 500.
 
Not too sure if Gentoo offers a netinst.iso image, but with Debian, I use TFTPD server and load the net install image over the network, and then it goes from there.

Let me know if you need any help with doing it. :)
 
WoZZeR said:
They do a minimal install ISO, I presume that's different?
Click to expand...

Yea I did see that too - unfortunately it doesn't come with a pxelinux.0 image.

I doubt this will work, but if you download the stuff in this directory:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/intrepid/main/installer-i386/20080522ubuntu23/images/netboot/

And then follow the guide here:

http://hugi.to/blog/archive/2006/12/23/ubuntu-pxe-install-via-windows

Except replace the mini.iso (Ubuntu's minimal install ISO) with Gentoo's...

I don't know if it'll work, but easy enough to have a go :)
 
Reading further (I'm sad like that...) it definitely sounds plausible that the above might work.

If not, open the Gentoo minimal install CD using your favourite RAR app, and see if within the boot directory, there's anything related to pxelinux.

Here's another link that might help, that covers a few distros (but not Gentoo unfortunately):

http://www.fefe.de/netboot/how-to-netboot-installer.html

Edit: Reading even further, the above should definitely work :)

See "Setting up pxelinux":

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/diskless-howto.xml
 
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50/50 at the moment, I've got the wee beastie to boot off the Windows server as in the article :)

Artic Lorry driving test today so couldn't concentrate last night......:)

Boots into the Ubuntu setup using the first method but so far haven't been able to get it to start the gentoo mini install. Also the PXE boot or the server is preventing Ubunutu detecting the network setup correctly and the Ubuntu advanced install still isn't command line, so it appears impossible to manually edit the network settings once inside the Ubuntu install. A possibility would be to edit the Ubuntu install script to point towards Gentoo?

It's a work in progress, will get back to you this evening, currently feeling a little sick :)

I'm wondering if I can somehow start a Gentoo mirror in the server by using the extracted iso file.
 
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Hope your test went well :D

It seems that pxelinux.0 is distro specific then... I'm going to have a go doing what you're trying to do on my machine tonight hopefully to see how far I can get :)

There's probably someone on here who has a better knowledge of it - come on, 'fess up!
 
Yeah, passed :cool:

I shall have another go tonight when I've come down a bit.

It's a shame I can't just boot from a shared ISO mounted in XP.
 
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