[conspire] questions on how to install Fedora 7 from downloaded iso

[Darlene Wallach]

Because my BIOS will not boot from a SCSI CD-ROM, I have
to jump through some minor hoops to install Fedora.

Here are notes I have from when Conor Daly advised me of the
hoops through which I had to jump:

Here are instructions I used to install Fedora Core 3
a few years ago. Note I cannot boot from scsi cdrom.
[start instructions]
re: I want to install Fedora Core 3 but can't boot from scsi cdrom

1. Loopmount diskboot.img
2. Copy vmlinuz and initrd.img (with unique names) to
    your /boot directory
3. Configure grub (you should be on grub with RH7.3) to
    boot from the copied kernel
4. At boot time type 'linux askmethod' and you'll get to
    specify the CDROM

I used this method to install FC3 online. Just downloaded
the boot.iso and chose 'ftp' as the install method...

or

1. Copy boot.iso to your hard disk
2. Configure grub to boot from the iso [0]
3. At boot time type 'linux askmethod' and you'll get to
    specify the CDROM

This assumes that there is a suitable scsi driver available
in the initrd.img. If not, you can go about it this way.

1. copy the contents of the CDs to the hard disk (second
    and subsequent CDs' rpm files go in the RPMS directory
    copied from the first CD
2. Use either of the above boot methods and specify 'hard
    disk' as the source.

NB. Make sure you copy the CD contents to a filesystem that
     is _not_ going to be formatted at install time otherwise
     there'll be nothing there for the installer to use!

Conor

[0] Booting direct from an iso is mentioned here:
http://www.linux.ie/lists/pipermail/ilug/2005-February/022062.html

Basically, it's:

grub> chainloader hd(0,0)/image.iso
grub> boot

-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>
[end instructions]

This is what I have in grub:
title Fedora Core 3 install
         root (hd0,0)
         kernel /vmlinuz-fc3-install ro root=/dev/hda3
         initrd /initrd-fc3-install.img
title Fedora Core 3 install text askmethod
         root (hd0,0)
         kernel /vmlinuz-fc3-install ro root=/dev/hda3
         initrd /initrd-fc3-install.img

I don't remember which of the two I used to install
Fedora Core 3.

I downloaded the DVD iso and mounted it.
$ ls /tmp/mountpoint/isolinux/
boot.cat     initrd.img    options.msg  splash.jpg    vmlinuz
boot.msg     isolinux.bin  param.msg    TRANS.TBL
general.msg  isolinux.cfg  rescue.msg   vesamenu.c32

So I plan on copying initrd.img and vmlinuz to /boot
cp /tmp/mountpoint/isolinux/initrd.img /boot/initrd-f7-install.img
cp /tmp/mountpoint/vmlinuz /boot/vmlinuz-f7-install
and modifying grub to:
title Fedora 7 install
         root (hd0,0)
         kernel /vmlinuz-f7-install ro root=/dev/hda3
         initrd /initrd-f7-install.img

What I'm not sure of is if the install will allow me to
access the external hard drive for the installation.

Have I made any mistakes in what I plan on doing?

Thank you for your attention and patience,

Darlene Wallach