Installing linux on a crippled machine via network boot?

Posted by networkbooter on Super User See other posts from Super User or by networkbooter
Published on 2010-03-20T12:52:58Z Indexed on 2010/03/20 16:31 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 299

Filed under:

linux

|

installation

|

boot

|

network

|

pxe

I have a somewhat ancient Toshiba laptop (which can't boot from USB) that I want to install linux on (probably Ubuntu).

I'm currently running Windows XP and Ubuntu via Wubi. I want to delete these OSs and replace with Ubuntu only.

The laptop does have a network boot option. I'm wondering if the easiest way might be to setup a network boot server on my other computer (which runs Ubunutu) and boot the laptop from it. Could this allow me to install Linux on the laptop?

I can't seem to find instructions on the 'net as to how to go about doing this.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about installation

Installation stuck on "Installation Type" screen

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 with Windows 7 from a CD. I am using an HP Pavilion dm4. I've never used Ubuntu (or any Linux) before. Everything goes alright until I get to the "Installation Type" screen. Instead of giving me options, it just has a blank menu, and all the buttons are disabled… >>> More
Visual Studio 2010 Installation Screenshots, links to installation Guides, Forum

as seen on Microsoft .NET Support Team - Search for 'Microsoft .NET Support Team'
Today Installed Visual Studio 2010 in my new Sony Vaio laptop. I’ve habit of taking screen shots while setups are running. It helps me if I want to find the items what I installed earlier for that software. but taking screen shots is not required for the software's like Visual Studio as it provides… >>> More
OpenIndiana installation hangs at 2% - Preparing disk for OpenIndiana installation

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I've been trying to install OpenIndiana on an HP DL320 G6 for a while now. I've got a 16GB HP SDHC card in the onboard slot and a SATA CD-Rom with oi-dev-151a-text-x86.iso burnt to a disc. Installation seems to progress fine until I get to the actual installation portion. The SD card is picked up… >>> More
local wordpress installation, plugin installation and file permissions

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a local wordpress installation and got everything working, until I tried to install a new plugin. Trying to activate the plugin, wordpress asked me for FTP connection information, which I understood to be a failure of write-access to the plugins directory. Apache runs as www-data, so I ran… >>> More
Messed up installation of mysql-server - cannot complete installation or deinstallation

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
apt-get got stuck while installing mysql-server. I don't know why but it just stopped working and never continued. I had to reboot the machine in the middle of the setup process. Now, if I try to install or purge the mysql-server package, apt-get tries to configure mysql-server first (tells me its… >>> More