How to install Arch from hard drive?

clovenhoof · 2011-08-09 06:42:26

Hello

I have an old laptop - Pentium II 266 MHz, 128Mb RAM and I want to install Arch on it.
The problem is that there is no way to boot from this laptop -> floppy is broken, CD drive is not bootable, no available boot options from BIOS to boot from PXE or USB.

So, I found this link useful (but not enough).
I have done everything as described on the upper link, but on the final step 7 I don't know how to proceed.

What I have got is:
Arch installation CD is in the CD drive.
After loading vmlinuz26 and archiso.img (which is RAM Disk or initrd) it shows this message: "waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/"
And another message: "ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds" and after that it put me in the ramfs prompt.

I try this in ramfs prompt, but without success:
1. ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/archiso
2. exit (and try again)

What I want is to tell the installer that it must proceed with the installation files on my CD drive.
But how to do that?

If it is not possible, then how could I install Arch on this old laptop? Is there any other methods to try?

PS: There is Windows 2000 and Windows 98 installed on this laptop, but I want to install Arch on it. The whole hard drive is one partition.

Last edited by clovenhoof (2011-08-09 06:49:48)

lolilolicon · 2011-08-09 07:15:46

Try either of the following:

* Add archisolabel=LABEL to the kernel line in menu.lst, where LABEL is the filesystem label of the partition where the ISO resides.
* Add archisodevice=/dev/sdaX to the kernel line in menu.lst, where sdaX should be replaced with the partition where the ISO resides.

[Edit]

Hmmm, sorry I think I was wrong. With the above, you need also extract the ISO, put the arch/ directory at the root of the partition.
Alternatively, you can put the ISO to the root of that partition, and add img_dev=/dev/sdaX and img_loop=foo-bar.iso. For details, see:
https://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git/tree/README

BUT even if it loads, I don't think you will be able to install Arch on the same partition since it's mounted readonly to /bootmnt, (unless, you explicitly add copytoram to the kernel line, in which case, everything is copied to RAM, but since the machine has got only 128MB of RAM, this is not gonna happen). So, you need to put the ISO (or the extracted squashfs images) to a different partition than your target installation partition...

There probably are other things I'm missing... Gotta say this sounds quite challenging.

[Edit2]

Bah! Try archisodevice=/dev/sr0 then!

Last edited by lolilolicon (2011-08-09 07:48:17)

cybertorture · 2011-08-09 07:38:35

Hello,

this setup wich you describe is way too painfull IMO.
Main problem is low memory you have.

In your case i would recommend that you use puppy linux, tini core or so on

As for step 7 if u followed guide and use arch installer kernel and ramdisk u should have C:\vmlinuz-linux and c:\initramfs-linux.img
also in grub menu
title Install Linux
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz-linux
initrd (hd0,0)/initramfs-linux (possibly but not sure rootfs=ntfs or so)

and with best wishes and mutch more hope u should be runing arch installer

(edit) sry for kinda doubled post but it seems i m way too slow

Last edited by cybertorture (2011-08-09 07:40:09)

hcjl · 2011-08-09 07:51:08

maybe another way would be to update the bios. perhaps then you thave the option to boot from cd or usb.

clovenhoof · 2011-08-09 16:45:55

[Edit2]
Bah! Try archisodevice=/dev/sr0 then!

This worked, yeahhhh

Now, I'm wondering if Arch is proper choice or, as @cybertorture said may be I should choose some other, more lightweight distro.

Thank you for a help!

Last edited by clovenhoof (2011-08-09 16:47:46)

cybertorture · 2011-08-09 19:23:22

suggestion is also because it ll be great pain to partition your 1 drive 1 partition , so puppy linux can use fat/ntfs whithout touching your current set of other OS

But in the end it's all about choice (your personal choice) and arch linux is not bad at all... its just that IMO you choose very hard way to learn it

Last edited by cybertorture (2011-08-09 19:23:40)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-09 06:42:26

How to install Arch from hard drive?

#2 2011-08-09 07:15:46

Re: How to install Arch from hard drive?

#3 2011-08-09 07:38:35

Re: How to install Arch from hard drive?

#4 2011-08-09 07:51:08

Re: How to install Arch from hard drive?

#5 2011-08-09 16:45:55

Re: How to install Arch from hard drive?

#6 2011-08-09 19:23:22

Re: How to install Arch from hard drive?

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