If your system cannot boot from the CD-ROM you will need to create a floppy boot disk. The CD-ROM contains all of the image files and utility programs needed to do so.
The floppy boot disk images are in the CD-ROM's images/ directory.
The following is a list of different images and their respective installation methods:
To install from an NFS, FTP, HTTP repository on your local LAN or via a PPPoE (DSL line) network connection. The network configuration of the machine on which you wish to install may be manual or automatic. Please make sure you make both floppies.
Use this image if the installation medium is reached through a PCMCIA card (network, CD-ROM, etc.).
Use this image if you want to perform the installation from a hard disk. You need to copy the contents of the CD onto the hard drive (either on a FAT, ext2FS, ext3FS or ReiserFS partition).
The images/alternatives/* directory provides more or less the same boot images, but with a different (older) kernel. Actually it provides a 2.4 kernel (Mandrakelinux 10.0 onwards uses kernel 2.6) which might help you to get started on older systems.
In order to do so, you need to use the rawwrite program. You will find it in the CD-ROM's dosutils/ directory.
You may have noticed that there is a DOS version of the same program called rawrite. In fact, it is the original version of the program. rawwrite is a graphical front-end to it.
Start the program, as shown in Figure 2.1, “The Rawwrite Program”.
Select the boot image to be copied and the target device. In almost every case, the target device is the A: drive (that is, the first floppy disk drive).
Then if you have not already done so, insert an empty disk into your chosen floppy drive and click on the button. When completed click on the button: now you have a floppy boot disk to install your Mandrakelinux distribution.
If you already have GNU/Linux installed (another version, or on another machine, etc.), then carry out the following steps:
Mount the CD-ROM. Let us suppose that the mount point is /mnt/cdrom.
Log in as root (to do so, open a terminal window, run the su command and enter root's password).
Insert an empty diskette into the floppy drive and type:
$ dd if=/mnt/cdrom/images/cdrom.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 |
When this operation is completed, your floppy boot disk will be ready for use.