Howto: Install Ubuntu without a CD

[tuxcantfly]

I tried this just now, however it said it cannot find any network devices (i have a gigabit onboard network card) so clearly i need some kind of driver.

Is there anyway to load a driver ?



Cheers

Alec

What that means is that the ethernet card chipset isn't supported by the distribution you're attempting to install. Loading a driver on boot is (theoretically) possible by locating a functioning driver, compiling it, and modifying the initrd to use it by replacing the existing module in /lib/modules (google up "initrd customization" if interested, there are a few guides), but it's rather difficult and time-consuming, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a Linux expert.

I'd suggest trying out Fedora and openSUSE, and seeing if either of them support your network chipset out-of-the box. If you still have no luck there, you can just pre-download the install iso for Fedora/openSUSE while still in Windows to your hard drive (make sure you do the partitioning beforehand though, and download the iso to a different partition than the one you want to install to), and select "hard drive" as the installation source, to be able to install without a CD without needing to be connected to the internet (or alternatively you could just use the standard CD install process). Then again, in both situations after installation, you'll still be faced with the issue of locating, compiling, and installing the driver for the network card.

An easy way to avoid all this, though, is to see if you can salvage a standard PCI ethernet card from an older computer if you have a spare one, and use it on a temporary basis, since they tend to be better compatible with Linux than some newer chipsets.