HOWTO: Install Edgy 6.10 from an .iso file

[say2sky]

Hi All,

please use the vmlinuz & initrd.gz files from the below site:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...ages/hd-media/

The vmlinuz & initrd.gz files from the .iso have been coded for an install from a physical CD and will not work for an .iso based install.

thanks

John

Thanks for this info and it is useful.

But I wonder what is the difference between initrd.gz inside .iso and initrd.gz specially for hard drive installation in website. I indeed have found sometimes a new .iso is out but initrd.gz have not be updated in website. Could we just make some adjustment to let initrd.gz from .iso useful for hard drive installation. Thanks!

[Allener]

***ONLY USE THIS HOWTO IF YOU DON'T HAVE A WORKING CD DRIVE OR WANT TO SAVE THE TROUBLE OF BURNING A PHYSICAL DISC***

***THIS INSTALLATION METHOD WILL ONLY WORK WITH THE ALTERNATIVE ISO FILES OF UBUNTU/KUBUNTU/XUBUNTU - PLEASE CHOOSE THE RELEVANT .iso , vmlinuz & initrd.gz FILES FOR 7.04 & 7.10 ***

***SKIP STEPS 9/10 IF YOU ARE INSTALLING 7.04 & 7.10***

Hi,

Below is a micro step-by-step procedure for installing Ubuntu 6.10 from an .iso file. The below procedure might also be useful for installing Kubuntu/Edubuntu & Xubuntu.

Before I go any further I’m still relatively new to Ubuntu and would appreciate your help in refining/correcting this HOWTO and answering questions.

(1) Download the Alternative Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu/Xubuntu .iso file and run an md5 check on it. If you are running Windows drag your .iso file onto the below program (md5sums.exe) and it will spit out a long string of characters and numbers. Make sure the string it spits out matches the published md5 sum.

http://www.pc-tools.net/files/win32/...d5sums-1.2.zip

md5 sums look like the following:

549ef19097b10ac9237c08f6dc6084c6 ubuntu-6.10-alternate-i386.iso

(2) Before installing Ubuntu you will need to partition your drive. In essence you will need to boot from another media either a floppy, 2nd drive or USB key and run some type of partition software. Create one new partition for the Ubuntu installation, one to hold the .iso file & additional boot files (say 700megs). You might need to resize your existing OS to make space for the above 2 partitions.

(3) Install grub onto either a floppy or hard drive and create a similar entry in your menu.lst file:

title Install Ubuntu
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz vga=normal ramdisk_size=14972 root=/dev/rd/0 rw --
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

**(hd0,2) refers to the 1st hard drive 'hd0' and the 3rd partition '2'.

The counting of partitions and hard drives starts at zero. Linux loves making life complicated

Change (hd0,2) to match the drive and partition of your .iso file.

e.g (hd1,3) Refers to drive 2 and partition 4.

(4) Download the vmlinuz & initrd.gz files from the below site (DON'T USE vmlinuz & initrd.gz FILES FROM .iso) :

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...ages/hd-media/

(5) Plonk the .iso, vmlinuz & initrd.gz files onto the newly created partition from step (2) in a /boot directory.

(6) NB Make sure all other Ubuntu/Kbuntu/Xubuntu/Debian .iso installer files have been renamed to .iso.somethingelse, this will prevent the installer from picking up the wrong .iso file.

(7) Boot the machine from the hard disk or floppy that has grub installed, you should see a menu that contains ‘Install Ubuntu’. Select ‘Install Ubuntu’ and press enter.

(eight) Next run through the installation until it fails to find the .iso file. Then change to terminal 2 with (Ctrl-Alt-F2). Hit enter to activate this console.

(9) Type the below commands in terminal 2:

mkdir -p /dev/loop
ln /dev/loop0 /dev/loop/0

(10) Change back to terminal 1 (Ctrl-Alt-F1), scan again and the ISO will be detected.

(11) Voila! The install should be working, choose the manual option on the '[!!] Partition disks' screen, specify your large partition might be hda2 as your root/home....

(12) You will need to edit your grub entry to get it to work, please post problems.

Thanks to all the helpful people on the forums for getting this procedure to work.

Thanks also to the busybox mailing list!

Thanks for your guide .Following it,I managed to scan and detect the ISO image form the hd. It showed as :
Successfully mounted gutsy installer ISO image The ISO file /ubuntu-7.10-alternate-amd64.iso on /dev/sda8 (gutsy) will be used as the installation ISO image.However,it failed at Load installer components r\from an installer ISO reading data from the CD-ROM. I installed my ubuntu from hd. How come that it needs to read from the CD-ROM? How to straighten this out?
Thanks a million!

[bbruecker]

Hi,
I've tryed to install ubuntu server 7.10 -- but the installer does not find the iso-file. Does this procedere only work with desktop-alternate versions?
Benjamin

[john_spiral]

Hi,
I've tryed to install ubuntu server 7.10 -- but the installer does not find the iso-file. Does this procedere only work with desktop-alternate versions?
Benjamin

As far as I'm aware you will need to use the alternative version of 7.10 with files from the below download:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...ages/hd-media/

[john_spiral]

Thanks for your guide .Following it,I managed to scan and detect the ISO image form the hd. It showed as :
Successfully mounted gutsy installer ISO image The ISO file /ubuntu-7.10-alternate-amd64.iso on /dev/sda8 (gutsy) will be used as the installation ISO image.However,it failed at Load installer components r\from an installer ISO reading data from the CD-ROM. I installed my ubuntu from hd. How come that it needs to read from the CD-ROM? How to straighten this out?
Thanks a million!

Where did you download the vmlinuz & initrd.gz files from?

[john_spiral]

Thanks for this info and it is useful.

But I wonder what is the difference between initrd.gz inside .iso and initrd.gz specially for hard drive installation in website. I indeed have found sometimes a new .iso is out but initrd.gz have not be updated in website. Could we just make some adjustment to let initrd.gz from .iso useful for hard drive installation. Thanks!

Give it a try to see what happens?

Also try running a md5sum check on the .iso's initrd.gz file compared to the downloaded initrd.gz file?

[madmatrixz3000]

Okay I am using the gusty altermate and I am getting the error of it cannot find the iso neither in the same dir nor on a USB which it is able to detect

Also, do I need the boot.img.gz file or just the other 2?

[madmatrixz3000]

Does anyone know what I need to do?

[garuhhh]

i'm stuck... my installation got to the iso detected, and when it starts the "partman" (i think its the partition manager) it just shows a blank screen and does nothing.. what seems to be wrong? thanks

am installing xubuntu 7.10 alternate iso. the partition where my win2000 is located is ntfs. have 128MB ram, 800Mhz Duron.

[garuhhh]

Okay I am using the gusty altermate and I am getting the error of it cannot find the iso neither in the same dir nor on a USB which it is able to detect

Also, do I need the boot.img.gz file or just the other 2?

did you do this?

(eight) Next run through the installation until it fails to find the .iso file. Then change to terminal 2 with (Ctrl-Alt-F2). Hit enter to activate this console.

(9) Type the below commands in terminal 2:

mkdir -p /dev/loop
ln /dev/loop0 /dev/loop/0

(10) Change back to terminal 1 (Ctrl-Alt-F1), scan again and the ISO will be detected.