Hy everyone, I have a problem in installing Linux (Mandrake 9.2) on a IBM T40 notebook.
I'd like to install linux on the secondary HD, in the modular bay. Of course I can utilize only a modular bay device (HD or CD) at a time, so I can't install from CD. Moreover, the notebook hasn't a floppy drive.
I eventually have an usb HD.
I think it's possible to make bootable the USB HD or the secondary HD itself, and start the installation from either HD (of course I will copy the installation files from the CD's). How can I do it?
Thannks

I've installed freeBSD & openBSD without monitor, mouse, floppy or CD-Rom. I learned how to do it from a network engineer buddy of mine. You can do it a couple of ways with linux. I dont have much time right now but I might be on tonight late.
Example: Ftp install
SuSE - SuSE ftp install 9.0 22MB is that what you wanted?

Thank you for your suggestion, but to do a network installation I must boot from CD or floppy, and I can't boot from these devices: I can only boot from internal HD (primary or secondary IDE) or USB HD.

Thank you for your suggestion, but to do a network installation I must boot from CD or floppy, and I can't boot from these devices: I can only boot from internal HD (primary or secondary IDE) or USB HD.

Do you have a USB CD-ROM drive, or a USB floppy? I'd look into getting one of tthose. Or better yet, if the laptop has a FAT32 partition on it, you could possibly copy all of the install files over to the Windows partition. Then, you could use a DOS-based bootloader like loadlin to load a Linux kernel from DOS or Win98/95. Also, if you could get loadlin working, you could then load the files from the network. But, what OS are you running right now on the system?

Thank you for your suggestion, but to do a network installation I must boot from CD or floppy, and I can't boot from these devices: I can only boot from internal HD (primary or secondary IDE) or USB HD.

How about a USB key? Is it possble to boot that way? Or a USB floppy, since you can boot from a USB HD?

Thank you for the suggestions. In the meantime I found an USB CDROM ad so I used it. By the way, My notebook primary OS is WinXP, and I have FAT partitions on secondary HD. As I must install linux also on a second notebook with the same limitations, I will try the loadlin solution.
About the second suggestion, yes, I can boot from an USB key... but I don't know how to make it bootable in linux...

I will try the loadlin solution.

Oops... I didn't read with attention. No, I haven't a DOS environment: without floppy and CDROM I can boot only WinXP or an OS that can start from the secondary HD.
Thank you

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