Installing Linux without floppy and CD

[fedegiove]

Hy everyone, I have a problem in installing Linux (Mandrake 9.2) on a IBM T40 notebook.
I'd like to install linux on the secondary HD, in the modular bay. Of course I can utilize only a modular bay device (HD or CD) at a time, so I can't install from CD. Moreover, the notebook hasn't a floppy drive.
I eventually have an usb HD.
I think it's possible to make bootable the USB HD or the secondary HD itself, and start the installation from either HD (of course I will copy the installation files from the CD's). How can I do it?
Thannks

[WEATHER CHANNEL]

I've installed freeBSD & openBSD without monitor, mouse, floppy or CD-Rom. I learned how to do it from a network engineer buddy of mine. You can do it a couple of ways with linux. I dont have much time right now but I might be on tonight late.
Example: Ftp install
SuSE - SuSE ftp install 9.0 22MB is that what you wanted?

[fedegiove]

Thank you for your suggestion, but to do a network installation I must boot from CD or floppy, and I can't boot from these devices: I can only boot from internal HD (primary or secondary IDE) or USB HD.

[alc6379]

Thank you for your suggestion, but to do a network installation I must boot from CD or floppy, and I can't boot from these devices: I can only boot from internal HD (primary or secondary IDE) or USB HD.

Do you have a USB CD-ROM drive, or a USB floppy? I'd look into getting one of tthose. Or better yet, if the laptop has a FAT32 partition on it, you could possibly copy all of the install files over to the Windows partition. Then, you could use a DOS-based bootloader likeloadlin to load a Linux kernel from DOS or Win98/95. Also, if you could get loadlin working, you could then load the files from the network. But, what OS are you running right now on the system?

[TallCool1]

Thank you for your suggestion, but to do a network installation I must boot from CD or floppy, and I can't boot from these devices: I can only boot from internal HD (primary or secondary IDE) or USB HD.

How about a USB key? Is it possble to boot that way? Or a USB floppy, since you can boot from a USB HD?

[fedegiove]

Thank you for the suggestions. In the meantime I found an USB CDROM ad so I used it. By the way, My notebook primary OS is WinXP, and I have FAT partitions on secondary HD. As I must install linux also on a second notebook with the same limitations, I will try the loadlin solution.
About the second suggestion, yes, I can boot from an USB key... but I don't know how to make it bootable in linux...

[fedegiove]

I will try the loadlin solution.

Oops... I didn't read with attention. No, I haven't a DOS environment: without floppy and CDROM I can boot only WinXP or an OS that can start from the secondary HD.
Thank you