Installation with an ISO file on hard disk

Some CD drives have problems to handle the isolinux data format and cannot boot from a Linux CD at all. In this case you can install DeLi directly from a harddisk with a editable boot loader if you can manage to copy some files from DeLi's ISO file to this hard disk. For further informations read man mount, man lilo.conf or info grub

Here is an instruction for this kind of installtion using a quiet simple configuration. You can find (and provide !!!) variations at the end of the page. Let's assume the following situation :

• we have a working Linux installation with lilo as bootloader on /dev/hda1
• we want to install DeLi-0.8.0-full on partition /dev/hda4

Minimum requirements of free disk space are 260 MB for the ISO file + 250 MB for the /pkg directory = 510 MB on /dev/hda1 and up to ca. 750 MB for the completely installed “full” ISO on /dev/hda4. Of course, you must be root.

• (if necessary) shrink at first the old partition according to http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_resizing_ext3_partitions , create the /dev/hda4 partition and format it with Linux
• put (somehow) the ISO file deli-0.8.0-full.iso in the top level directory ”/” of /dev/hda1
• loop-mount the file with the command mount /deli-0.8.0-full.iso /mnt -t iso9660 -o loop
• copy the whole directory /mnt/pkg into the top level directory of /dev/hda1
• copy the files /mnt/isolinux/bzImage and /mnt/isolinux/initrd.gz into the top level directory of /dev/hda4
• make sure both files have “executable” permission for root
• edit the lilo.conf file of your working Linux installation and add the new section :

root = /dev/hda4

         label  = "Deli install"
         image  = /bzImage
         initrd = /initrd.gz
         append = "load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=6464 rw root=/dev/ram"

• save lilo.conf and run lilo
• reboot your PC and choose “Deli install” at the boot prompt

The DeLi installation image should be loaded and you should see a message like “use deliinstall and Good luck”.

• run deliinstall
• choose the keyboard layout
• then you will be asked, whether the program should search for a CD. Answer NO
• now give the device name of the source partition with the /pkg directory in the top level. In this example it is /dev/hda1
• choose the target partition – in this example it is /dev/hda4 – and let it get formatted
• answer the question about SCSI and the unprivileged user
• choose “skip it” at the question about lilo

Now DeLi should finish the installation.

• reboot your PC
• edit your lilo.conf file and change the DeLi section to

root = /dev/hda4

          label  = "Deli 0.8.0"
          image  = /boot/vmlinuz  

• save lilo.conf and run lilo
• reboot again and boot with “DeLi 0.8.0” and have fun

– the root=/dev/xxx is the device where the bzImage + initrd.gz are
– use image = <full-path>/bzImage(initrd.gz) if you stored them elsewhere
– if you use grub instead of lilo as bootloader, the section of the menu.list file would be :

   
   title "DeLi install"
   root (hd0,3)
   kernel /bzImage load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=6464 rw root=/dev/ram
   initrd /initrd.gz

– depending on your working Linux installation, you must modify the kernel parameters, e.g. replace /dev/ram by /dev/ramdisk or other things
– you can use for the initial booting a Windows partition instead of a Linux partition as only the lilo.conf/menu.list files are important; however, the source partition with the /pkg directory should be a Linux partition as several users reported problems with truncated file names in case of using a Windows partition
– if you want to shrink a Windows partition to get the disk space for DeLi, run scandisk and defrag before you resize the partition
– I haven't tested it, but I think it should be possible to use instead the working Linux partition a floppy with a bootmanager for the initial booting; in the directory /isolinux/sbootmgr you can find a file sbootmgr.dsk to use for the creation of a boot disk (see the README for instructions). Of course, you must put lilo somewhere (I recommend the MBR) instead of skipping this.
– if you don't have a (working) CD drive but an internet connection try to do a floppy installation with netconfig and delinetinstall of DeLi 0.7.2 and then use this as the base Linux installation for DeLi 0.8.0. A minimal installation of DeLi 0.7.2 with delibase.tgz + net + ap applications and without the GUI stuff is enough in this case.