How to install without DVD-ROM drive
You can install Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 even without a DVD-ROM drive.
This page details how it can be done if you have a Linux machine which can act as
a server and the machine where you intend to install has a CD-ROM drive. Also you need
a drive which is capable of burning CD-R(W) disks.
First you should download Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 DVD image to your server machine, combine the files,
check the md5sum, mount it using the loop device (mount lel3.iso <empty_directory>
-o loop), burn a CD-R(W) from images/boot.iso, make certain you share the mounted
directory, boot the machine where you intend to install Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 with
the newly created CD-R(W), choose some server based installation like NFS, enter the network path
where Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 DVD image is mounted, and then the installation proceeds as
usual.
Note that the installation from a local hard disk containing DVD image file doesn't work, probably
because the installation program has trouble accessing over 2 GB files.
This is fast!
Booting from a CD is something like 100 times faster than from a floppy. But that is not all.
Anaconda, the installation program used in Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0, first copies
RPM packages from CD-ROM to hard disk and only after that installs them.
If the packages are installed from a network share, they are installed
directly. Usually this means around 30% faster installation.
Why is it fast, a technical explanation
The reason Anaconda does that extra round is probably partly because of bad quality of home
burned CD-R disks but also because earlier a modified 2.4.18 kernel used with it
had a new IDE driver code which caused
problems with many older hardware combinations. After Anaconda has copied an RPM package to
hard disk, its md5 sum is checked and if that fails, it means that files can't be reliably
copied from CD to hard disk and the installation should and does abort with error.
So the installation from a CD is also a lengthty hardware test.
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