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#1 2009-03-24 16:54:36

aquavitae
Member
Registered: 2008-08-09
Posts: 24

Tricky installation on a laptop

I have a rather old laptop (Compaq Presario 1200) which currently has xubuntu edgy on it.  I want to replace xubuntu with arch, but I've got a bit of a problem installing it.  The cd drive doesn't work (I've tried others, but it seems to be something on the motherboard) and it doesn't support booting off usb.  I have thought of removing the hard drive and installing on another computer, since its an old drive its quite difficult finding an adaptor.  Also, I don't have the time access to find a computer shop that sells adaptors.  So for installing it on the laptop, so far I can think of two possibilities:

1.  Boot into xubuntu, then load the necessary programs (including pacman.static) into a ram drive.  It should be possible to work excusively from ram and install onto the hard drive.  The only problem is I have no idea how to do this.

2.  Create a new installation in an empty directory on another computer.  Copy the new installation onto a flash drive.  In xubuntu, chroot into the installation on the flash drive, then format/repartition the hard drive as required.  Copy the entire installation from the flash drive to the empty hard drive.  Install grub.

Does anyone have an comments, suggestions or cautions on either of these ideas?

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#2 2009-03-24 17:26:35

bangkok_manouel
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From: indicates a starting point
Registered: 2005-02-07
Posts: 1,556

Re: Tricky installation on a laptop

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#3 2009-03-24 17:51:34

aquavitae
Member
Registered: 2008-08-09
Posts: 24

Re: Tricky installation on a laptop

Thanks.  I've already read that, but it assumes that you want to keep the existing distro.  Since the hard drive is only 4G, I want to use all of it for arch, so I don't think those instructions will work.

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#4 2009-03-24 20:11:13

R00KIE
Forum Fellow
From: Between a computer and a chair
Registered: 2008-09-14
Posts: 4,734

Re: Tricky installation on a laptop

If you have another PC and a box to put that disk, maybe you can try to install arch with another pc while having the disk in the box and then put it back inside the laptop.
External boxes are cheap and you never know when you might need one (to save you or someone you know).


R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

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#5 2009-03-25 15:07:48

aquavitae
Member
Registered: 2008-08-09
Posts: 24

Re: Tricky installation on a laptop

That is an option, but the same applies to the box as to the adaptor - not easy for me to get hold of right now!

I have had another idea that might be better:  Install arch into a new dir on a flash drive, then edit grub on the laptop so that it boots off the usb.  Would that work given that the laptop itself doesn't support booting off usb?

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#6 2009-03-30 11:52:44

aquavitae
Member
Registered: 2008-08-09
Posts: 24

Re: Tricky installation on a laptop

I managed to do it eventually!  For anyone who's interested, here's how I did it:

I first installed arch onto a flash drive by following the instructions at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … ting_Linux.  When I came to mkinitcpio, I made sure that the usb hook was set and removed the autodetect one.  I don't know if this made a difference, but I decided it didn't need to be optimised for a once off exercise and it might make a difference.  Once the flash drive was working properly, I copied the kernel26.img and vmlinuz files into a new folder on the laptop called "/newboot".  I also edited the laptop's menu.lst file and added the following:

# Set grub's root to the hard drive root partition
root (hd0,0)
# Use the kernel on the hard drive, but set boot-up root to the flash drive's root partition
kernel /newboot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb3 ro
# Use the ram image on the hard drive, which includes usb drivers
initrd /newboot/kernel26.img

This allowed me to use the existing grub on the laptop to boot off the flash drive without any processes using the internal hard drive.  From the flash drive, I could then repartition the hard drive as required and install arch using the same method as before, and now I have a nice, new, clean arch system on the laptop.  And a flash drive I can use for diagnostics.

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