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Groups > linux.debian.user > #230954
| From | David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | linux.debian.user |
| Subject | Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet |
| Date | 2021-01-22 00:50 +0100 |
| Message-ID | <BzRS9-2je-3@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink) |
| References | <BzzVf-8tO-1@gated-at.bofh.it> |
| Organization | linux.* mail to news gateway |
On 2021-01-20 20:31, Dan Hitt wrote:
> I have a machine that currently has linux mint 16.04 on it.
>
> I would like to install debian 10 on it, but the installer really
> wants access to a cd drive, and one just isn't available.
>
> However, the linux mint 16.04 system does have grub2 on it.
>
> So it is possible for me to boot from an iso image stored in the
> filesystem just like a regular file. It's just a matter of writing
> a menu entry in /etc/grub/40_custom.
>
> I know this works because i've booted into a live cd image of linux
> mint 20.1 (using the filesystem, not a cdrom), and started an
> installation process. I backed out of it, because i would like to
> install debian 10, not just a later version of mint.
>
> When i do the same thing with debian, it starts off ok, doing some
> simple things like setting the language and the keyboard layout, but
> then it complains that it cannot find a cd rom. This is true with
> both the netinst image, as well as with a jigdo xfce image which i
> think should have everything necessary and not need a cd rom. For
> reference, my debian menu entry is
>
> menuentry "debian-10-iso" { set
> isofile="/USER/iso/debian-10.7.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso" loopback loop
> (hd0,gptNN)$isofile linux (loop)/install.amd/vmlinuz boot=install.amd
> iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject initrd
> (loop)/install.amd/initrd.gz }
>
> Here, USER is the user name in whose account the iso image is, and
> gptNN stands for the particular partition where home is mounted for
> the user USER.
>
> So my first question is whether there's a better iso image i can
> use, or if i can fix this up by giving more arguments to the linux
> invocation line or something else in the menu entry.
>
> The second question is whether there's a way, from grub (grub2,
> actually), of dropping down to the bios. I imagine this is quite
> impossible, but if i'm wrong, please let me know. The reason i
> would like to do this is that it is very hard for me to interrupt the
> boot process fast enough to get to the bios, and i've only managed to
> do it once or twice after many tries. If i were in the bios, i might
> be able to figure out if it could boot from usb, and i could set the
> boot order to do this, and make a bootable usb version of netinst
> (perhaps).
>
> Or perhaps there's some other way to approach the problem? For
> example, i've already created a partition to hold the debian system
> i want to put on the machine. Is there some way of hand-populating
> it? I do have a running debian 10 system on another machine, and i
> suppose i could tar it up and unpack it into the new partition on
> the mint machine. But i'm not sure if there's something outside the
> filesystem but inside the partition which is necessary for it to be
> bootable.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice!
On 2021-01-21 13:06, Dan Hitt wrote:
> I didn't mean to imply that linux mint 16.04 was the only OS on the
> machine, or that there was only one partition.
>
> There are 30 partitions, although not all of them have an OS on
> them; i have a partition for users so that when i update the box with
> a new OS, i can have access to all the previous user accounts.
> That's what i> intend to do this time as well.
>
> I haven't put a new OS on the box in the last 5 years, but i would
> like to update it to debian 10 now; my general procedure in such
> cases is to add a new partition for the OS, but not discard what i
> have already installed. The only disadvantage to this is that
> operations that scan the entire disk looking for OSes take longer.
>
> The challenges i face this time are that the CD is not available, so
> that everything has to be done through the hd. Further, i only have
> access to the bios with great difficulty. If i could get into the
> bios, i could change the boot order, and possibly boot from usb.
> However, it is very difficult to interrupt the boot process
> successfully (by pressing F2), because it is so fast. (I could
> conceivably even get a usb
>
> But the hd is big, and i can make more partitions as needed and
> populate them as desired.
On 2021-01-21 13:20, Dan Hitt wrote:
> he problem with pxeboot, is that i would have to get into the bios to
> change the boot order. The bios does have an option for pxe boot,
> but i cannot reliably get into the bios: after many tries i was only
> able to get into it a couple of times.
>
> So if i had a way to reliably force my way into the bios, it would
> be very valuable, whether for pxe boot or just anything else.
Providing more information will allow readers to provide better answers:
- The make and model of the computer. If homebrew, the make and model
of the chassis and motherboard. Please provide URL's.
- How many drive bays the chassis has.
- Makes and models of drives in the computer, and which bay each is in.
Please provide URL's.
- How many and type of drive interfaces on the motherboard and/or
HBA(s), and which drive is connected to which interface.
- The purpose of each drive, what it contains (e.g. partitioning scheme,
slices/ partitions, LVM, dm, ZFS, LUKS, filesystems, etc.), and which
one you want to put Debian on.
- The *.iso filename of the Debian Installer you want to install from.
David
Back to linux.debian.user | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread
installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> - 2021-01-21 05:40 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-01-21 06:10 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2021-01-21 07:00 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-01-21 12:40 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> - 2021-01-21 18:40 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2021-01-21 19:10 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> - 2021-01-21 20:10 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2021-01-21 20:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-01-21 21:50 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Erwan David <erwan@rail.eu.org> - 2021-01-21 22:00 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> - 2021-01-21 22:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Erwan David <erwan@rail.eu.org> - 2021-01-21 22:00 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2021-01-22 01:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-01-21 21:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> - 2021-01-21 22:10 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2021-01-21 22:20 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-01-21 22:40 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-01-22 00:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-01-22 01:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2021-01-21 22:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2021-01-22 00:20 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2021-01-21 20:10 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2021-01-21 20:30 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2021-01-22 00:50 +0100
Re: installing debian 10 without a cd and without usb but could use ethernet David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2021-01-28 17:10 +0100
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