Howto: Install Ubuntu without a CD

[guyver]

Ouch, that doesn't sound good... I think you should start again using the lenny floppies at ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/te.../images/floppy that'll probably save you some time and frustration; you'll be able to upgrade directly to Gutsy that way

As for the rest, I'm not sure; I haven't tried the Debian-to-Ubuntu-by-dist-upgrade conversion approach since Debian Sarge -> Ubuntu 5.10 so things are likely quite different now

If I use the Lenny disks, do I need to add those comments concerning Lenny in my sources.list file? And do I need to get the dpkgs for that mattter?

[tuxcantfly]

If I use the Lenny disks, do I need to add those comments concerning Lenny in my sources.list file? And do I need to get the dpkgs for that mattter?

No, you should be able to just upgrade directly to Gutsy, however, can't quite guarantee it'll work perfectly (haven't tried this procedure in years).

[guyver]

No, you should be able to just upgrade directly to Gutsy, however, can't quite guarantee it'll work perfectly (haven't tried this procedure in years).

Ah, so I can skip the getting a key as well? I'm on it now... crossing my fingers. If this fails, I guess this old notebook will have to be a Debian box.

For the life of me, it seems there are A LOT of people asking for this feature to be able to do a floppy install and it seems to fall on deaf ears with Canonical. How hard could it be for them to make a Ubuntu version of Debian's floppy install?

[tuxcantfly]

Ah, so I can skip the getting a key as well? I'm on it now... crossing my fingers. If this fails, I guess this old notebook will have to be a Debian box.

For the life of me, it seems there are A LOT of people asking for this feature to be able to do a floppy install and it seems to fall on deaf ears with Canonical. How hard could it be for them to make a Ubuntu version of Debian's floppy install?

for 1: yes you will need the Ubuntu gpg key, and you'll need to add the ubuntu lines to the /etc/apt/sources.list and the other instructions I described in my original post, however you won't need to deal with the rest of the madness

for 2: ubuntu's kernel doesn't fit on a floppy drive (it's 1.7 MB as of Gutsy), I believe that's why

[tuxcantfly]

Ah, so I can skip the getting a key as well? I'm on it now... crossing my fingers. If this fails, I guess this old notebook will have to be a Debian box.

For the life of me, it seems there are A LOT of people asking for this feature to be able to do a floppy install and it seems to fall on deaf ears with Canonical. How hard could it be for them to make a Ubuntu version of Debian's floppy install?

Come to think of it, can't believe I haven't realized it, you have a working debian system now, you can just use UNetbootin (the deb package) to install Ubuntu Gutsy. Just download with wget, and do the usual dpkg -i, reboot, and select "UNetbootin". Don't bother with the dist-upgrade approach I mentioned, UNetbootin will do the job way better.

[guyver]

Come to think of it, can't believe I haven't realized it, you have a working debian system now, you can just use UNetbootin (the deb package) to install Ubuntu Gutsy. Just download with wget, and do the usual dpkg -i, reboot, and select "UNetbootin". Don't bother with the dist-upgrade approach I mentioned, UNetbootin will do the job way better.

Ah, so immediately after doing the minimal install, I should use this UNetbootin to install Xubuntu? I clicked on your signature block dealing with UNetbootin but it seems the link there assumes I already have a GUI linux to run from... did I miss something? The SourceForge link I think is dead.

But you're saying this other approach requires my installing Etch and Lenny?

[tuxcantfly]

Ah, so immediately after doing the minimal install, I should use this UNetbootin to install Xubuntu? I clicked on your signature block dealing with UNetbootin but it seems the link there assumes I already have a GUI linux to run from... did I miss something? The SourceForge link I think is dead.

Sourceforge link is dead? Whoa that's not good, it's supposed to be at http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=198821 exactly where is it linking from?

Anyhow all you need is dpkg, GRUB, and internet access. No need for a fancy GUI environment. Download the deb using wget, using dpkg -i to install, then reboot.

But you're saying this other approach requires my installing Etch and Lenny?

You need to have something installed beforehand, to boot off of in the first place. Installing Debian just happens to be the easiest approach if you have no OS on your hard drive in the first place, anything else (Windows, Linux) will do.

[guyver]

Sourceforge link is dead? Whoa that's not good, it's supposed to be at http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=198821 exactly where is it linking from?

Anyhow all you need is dpkg, GRUB, and internet access. No need for a fancy GUI environment. Download the deb using wget, using dpkg -i to install, then reboot.



You need to have something installed beforehand, to boot off of in the first place. Installing Debian just happens to be the easiest approach if you have no OS on your hard drive in the first place, anything else (Windows, Linux) will do.

Sorry, I meant the tutorial link found in your signature block's link appears to be dead.

I'm sort of confused. When you say dpkg, you are referring to Etch and Lenny, right?

I also do not know what you mean by "the deb".

I was thinking I just redo a minimal install and go straight to UnetBootin... I just don't know how I go about getting this onto the old laptop I'm trying to use as a linux box... and yes I would be using the laptop entirely for Linux so there's no worry about data loss.

[tuxcantfly]

Sorry, I meant the tutorial link found in your signature block's link appears to be dead.

I'm sort of confused. When you say dpkg, you are referring to Etch and Lenny, right?

I also do not know what you mean by "the deb".

I was thinking I just redo a minimal install and go straight to UnetBootin... I just don't know how I go about getting this onto the old laptop I'm trying to use as a linux box... and yes I would be using the laptop entirely for Linux so there's no worry about data loss.

"The deb" refers to this file (ends in .deb): http://downloads.sourceforge.net/lub...8&big_mirror=0

When I say dpkg I mean boot your Debian install (whichever one you have, doesn't really matter), and after downloading the file I linked to

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/lubi/unetbootin_ubuntu710rev48_all.deb

Then install the package:

su root
dpkg -i ./unetbootin_ubuntu710rev48_all.deb

Then reboot, select UNetbootin in the grub menu, after that it's just standard Ubuntu install process

PS is my sig link still dead? Seems to work fine for me...

[guyver]

"The deb" refers to this file (ends in .deb): http://downloads.sourceforge.net/lub...8&big_mirror=0

When I say dpkg I mean boot your Debian install (whichever one you have, doesn't really matter), and after downloading the file I linked to

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/lubi/unetbootin_ubuntu710rev48_all.deb

Then install the package:

su root
dpkg -i ./unetbootin_ubuntu710rev48_all.deb

Then reboot, select UNetbootin in the grub menu, after that it's just standard Ubuntu install process

PS is my sig link still dead? Seems to work fine for me...

I'm redoing the Debian installation just for good luck. How do I get UNetbootin to install Xubuntu instead of Ubuntu?