windows install with network boot

[Elmar]

topic split from http://forum.plop.at/index.php/topic,145.0.html

how to install windows with help from PLoP Linux over network
there are many ways, here is one solution

at first, you need a win95b boot disk image. you get one from www.bootdisk.com

then download the attached memdisk file from the syslinux project and save it to the c:\tftpboot\ploplinux directory

then copy the i386 directory of your windows install cd to the pluspacks directory of ploplinux.

[DreamX]

at first, you need a win95b boot disk image. you get one from www.bootdisk.com

then download the attached memdisk file from the syslinux project and save it to the c:\tftpboot\ploplinux directory

then copy the i386 directory of your windows install cd to the pluspacks directory of ploplinux.

ok i have these files...now what?

thanks

[Elmar]

whats the name of the boot disk image?

[DreamX]

whats the name of the boot disk image?

It is win95b.img

[Elmar]

copy win95b.img to the directory c:\tftpboot\ploplinux\

add to the file c:\tftpboot\ploplinux\pxelinux.cfg\default the lines

Code Select Expand


label dos
kernel memdisk
append initrd=win95b.img


do you have any data on the pc you want to rescue or can we format the partition?
i assume that windows was on the first partition, or?
is the harddisk an ide or sata harddisk?

[DreamX]

Ok done...yes the hdd originally had xp and yes we can format the disk.

Thanks

[Elmar]

i asked you, was windows on the first partition and is the harddisk an ide or sata harddisk? according to your answer i think you don't know what i am speaking.

ok, ignore it.

boot up plop linux
when you read "[root@rescue]" the enter "fdisk /dev/hda"

[DreamX]

Oh sorry, windows was on just one ntfs partition originally and yes it is ide.

Ok i have typed fdisk and it is asking which operation i would like to perform on the disk

[Elmar]

enter "t"
if you get the question what partition number you want to use then press "1"
for hex code press "c"
press "p" to print the partition table, if you see no "*" beside hda1 then press "a" for partition 1, check again with "p"
then press "w"
now linux should say something about sync and you should be back at [root@rescue]

run "lilo -M /dev/hda"

[DreamX]

Ok done everything went well.

[Elmar]

run the following:

mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/hda1
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
mc /mnt /media

on the left window you should see ".." and on the right window you should see the directories ploplinux, pluspacks and so on. you can change the active window with the tabulator key. enter the pluspacks directory and move the bar over the i386 directory. now press F5 for copy and copy the directory to the other side with pressing enter.

[DreamX]

Ok this has completed and i now see the i386 folder on the left side.

[Elmar]

now reboot by pressing ctrl alt del
boot again from network
when you see the plop linux start screen with various options then enter at "boot: " the command "dos". now dos should start.

[DreamX]

ok i am now in the win95 command prompt

[Elmar]

enter the following:
sys c:
c:
cd i386
winnt

now you should see the windows install screen. when you select the partition to install windows, you will be asked to convert the fat32 partition to the ntfs file system. let the install program do this.

[DreamX]

it is warning me that i should install smartdrive first to speed things up. Should i do this?

[Elmar]

smartdrv will improve the install speed. i don't know if its on your floppy image. try it with "smartdrv" on the command prompt. if you don't have smartdrv then the first copy part will take about a hour. maybe faster, maybe slower. but in such a worst situation is a slow installation better that no installation.

you can search the web for a boot disk with smartdrv. the only requirement is that its at least a win95b floppy image. not earlier.

[DreamX]

Ok i have opened the win95.img in magic iso and added smartdrv.exe to the win95.img and saved it. It appears to be working at the moment and the files are copying to hard drive.

[Elmar]

fine, the installation should work now without problems

[DreamX]

when the file copy was complete the laptop restarts and give error message: disk error press any key to restart.?

[Elmar]

the install program said nothing about an error?
did you select the ntfs convert?

[DreamX]

The install gave no error, the installer didnt ask me to convert the partition to ntfs

[Elmar]

hmmm, strange.

you selected the first partition to install xp, what happened then?

[DreamX]

the installer did not even give me the option to chose a partition?

[Elmar]

what happened when you started winnt?
is it a special xp?

[DreamX]

Perhaps it may be a media center edition?

[Elmar]

i mean, its not specialized to your laptop, or?
i never did it with a media center edition, but this should work too. do you have any other xp install cd's?

what happened after you started winnt?
gives "winnt /?" any  special options?

[DreamX]

No it is not specialized to my laptop...i have used it many times on standard usb installs.

When i started winnt the install screen showed up and asked me for the location of the files c:/i386 and then it begun tranfering the files to hdd.

I have a standard xp pro disk...shall i begin the whole process again with this?

[Elmar]

yes try xp pro. you don't have to do all again. simply replace the i386 directory. you can skip the fdisk and mkfs.vfat parts. to delete the i386 directory on the laptop use the F8 key in mc

[Elmar]

i quickly tried it and we have to do an additional step with plop linux, i updated it, see the fdisk and dos post

[DreamX]

i quickly tried it and we have to do an additional step with plop linux, i updated it, see the fdisk and dos post

i will try it shortly...thanks

[Elmar]

you need only the "sys c:" from dos. the other things that i added are only needed on a fresh hard disk. i am sure the media edition will work too

[DreamX]

hi lilo gives me the message "fatal: cannot open: /etc/lilo.conf

[Elmar]

lilo -M /dev/hda

but you do not need run lilo

[DreamX]

lilo -M /dev/hda

but you do not need run lilo

That command gives the error "fatal: creat /boot/boot.0300: no such file or directory?

[Elmar]

this is a problem with the 4.0.2 version
mkdir /boot
and then lilo -M /boot

[DreamX]

I am now getting major errors when using /mc /mnt /media when I try to copy over the files it gets half way through then /Mc crashes with these errors "SQUASHFS error: unable to read page, block 1846a34?

[DreamX]

Nevermind it copied fine this time

[DreamX]

Hi,

Many thanks Elmar I finally got this laptop running with xp I owe you many thank you. However there were a few things in your instructions that needed changing or you maybe typed incorrectly?

Anyway, you really are a genius...where in the world are you from?

Thanks

[Elmar]

fine that it works now.

Many thanks Elmar I finally got this laptop running with xp I owe you many thank you. However there were a few things in your instructions that needed changing or you maybe typed incorrectly?

ahh, yes, the last lilo parameter was wrong. it was late

Anyway, you really are a genius...where in the world are you from?

i would be a genius, if i said "sys c:" at the first time , but i forgot that windows does one dumb reboot. the last time i did a similar installation is long time ago. the lilo stuff was not required, your first error message at the reboot confused me, so i was thinking your mbr is not valid, but only the boot sector was not valid. this was fixed with the sys command. i write all steps together, maybe someone else needs it too.

i am from austria.

best regards
elmar

[DreamX]

Wow austria...i love austria, I have spent many days up in the mountains in mayrhofen and the zillertal valley tyrol snowboarding and enjoying the summer . I am from manchester england.

I thought I would mention I had another problem adding the plopbootmanager to the windows xp boot.ini...i got an error message that the hal.dll was missing?

Thanks

[Elmar]

you mean, you start it from the boot.ini?

[DreamX]

you mean, you start it from the boot.ini?

I added c:\plop\plpbtldr.bin="PLoP Boot Manager" to the boot.ini and attempted to run from windows boot menu and I got the hal.dll error

[Elmar]

i heard from this problem, but i was not able to reproduce it to see whats wrong

[DreamX]

Is there another quick way to add plop bootmanager to the boot list so that I may have the option to choose plop boormanager at startup?

[Elmar]

you can use grub4dos and add the boot manager to the menu.lst