Fedora 7 - Basic Installation - CD ISO wanted

[Corsari]

Hi to all of you.

I'm desperately seeking for a Fedora 7 CD ISO. Something basic that installs just the kernel and the needed packages for running up the systems and that allows to install the additional packages from the internet or from additional medias.

This is needed to be installed on old slow computers that may be equipped with just cdrom and 64MB ram.

As reference I can tell you about something similar to Mandriva Mini 2007.1 free.

I can also tell you about my first tests.
On the same machine I've installed Mandriva Mini 2007.1 without X and without "everything": 360 Mb only occupied on the harddisk
I started over, erased everything and did the same with Fedora 7. First of all I had to install a DVD ROM (and this, if you understand) is an issue, then I started the text mode installation trying to "emulate" the Mandriva configuration. Well, DF result is over 1.5 Gb occupied

The request

Do you know if a project team or some good guys, builded a similar than mandriva mini Fedora 7 mini CD ISO?

Or, on the other hand, do you know a tool to build it up?

Thank you for any link, suggestion and or tip.

Robert

[RahulSundaram]

Hi,

You can do a network installation using the very small boot.iso image.

See http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora.html

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/instal...ich-files.html

[Corsari]

Thank you Raul,

I know the network installation. I also tried it. In addition, if you read what above, my suspect is that also the network installation would go to download 1.5GB of software packages...

Anyway, thank you again but network installation is not what I need: mainly because of time to spend at customer site and last 'cause maybe onsite, internet connection could be not availabile.

Robert

[RahulSundaram]

Hi,

How about using the installalable live images then?

See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora7/FAQ

[leigh123linux]

Originally Posted by Corsari

Thank you Raul,

I know the network installation. I also tried it. In addition, if you read what above, my suspect is that also the network installation would go to download 1.5GB of software packages...

Anyway, thank you again but network installation is not what I need: mainly because of time to spend at customer site and last 'cause maybe onsite, internet connection could be not availabile.

Robert

You could always buy a usb DVD drive !

[pdusen]

I have the same need as the OP; I am taking a networking-related class and the instructor has expressed interest in using Fedora 7 for the Linux portion of the class. However, all of the computers available to us are rather old and none have DVD drives, and we have no internet access on this network.

I have downloaded the Live CD, but I do not believe it is installable? I can't seem to figure out how to install with it (unless I was just tired and missed something)

I'm currently downloading the first two disks of FC6 to fill this need, but if there is a way I can do FC7 instead I am ready to hear it.

[gthill]

Originally Posted by pdusen

I have the same need as the OP; I am taking a networking-related class and the instructor has expressed interest in using Fedora 7 for the Linux portion of the class. However, all of the computers available to us are rather old and none have DVD drives, and we have no internet access on this network.

I have downloaded the Live CD, but I do not believe it is installable? I can't seem to figure out how to install with it (unless I was just tired and missed something)

I'm currently downloading the first two disks of FC6 to fill this need, but if there is a way I can do FC7 instead I am ready to hear it.

Class 1
How to do a network install on a local area network.

Surely someone has a laptop, usbdrive or you can even buy a 4gb thumb drive for less than Aus $50, (US$35) which is big enough to hold the 2.9GB fedora7 iso and get it on your server.
You don't need the internet to install nor do you need to update anything to learn about networking as long as you have your server with the fedora image accessible to all machines on the network so you can install packages.
You could even pull the dvd drive out of someones home computer to use for the first class.
Use a live cd.
How hard can it be?

[jbannon]

Originally Posted by pdusen

I have the same need as the OP; I am taking a networking-related class and the instructor has expressed interest in using Fedora 7 for the Linux portion of the class. However, all of the computers available to us are rather old and none have DVD drives, and we have no internet access on this network.

I have downloaded the Live CD, but I do not believe it is installable? I can't seem to figure out how to install with it (unless I was just tired and missed something)

I'm currently downloading the first two disks of FC6 to fill this need, but if there is a way I can do FC7 instead I am ready to hear it.

The LiveCD is installable. Use the "Install to Hard Drive" option. It is there.

[leigh123linux]

Originally Posted by Corsari

Hi to all of you.

I'm desperately seeking for a Fedora 7 CD ISO. Something basic that installs just the kernel and the needed packages for running up the systems and that allows to install the additional packages from the internet or from additional medias.

This is needed to be installed on old slow computers that may be equipped with just cdrom and 64MB ram.

64 mb of RAM is nowhere near enough for a fedora install

[John the train]

Originally Posted by leigh123@linux

64 mb of RAM is nowhere near enough for a fedora install

While I've had Fedora running in 192mb the live CD won't run and install in that. The age of the machines could rule out a USB drive too, if the BIOS won't allow booting from it.
The nearest thing to a F7 minimal install CD I know of is Momonga, a F7 fork, but that is minimal in the extreme, little more than base system, XFCE desktop and Firefox. Those of us who've tried it were not over impressed!

[pdusen]

Originally Posted by jbannon

The LiveCD is installable. Use the "Install to Hard Drive" option. It is there.

Strange... when I tested the LiveCD on my own computer yesterday that option never appeared, but when I tried it on one of the class PCs it showed up.

However, I ran into a different problem; These PCs each have 128 megs of RAM, and Fedora wouldn't run the installer unless I put in another 128 meg stick. As much as I'd like to do this on all the computers, we simply don't have the means to do so (We're short on sticks, and as these PCs are being replaced in a few months anyhow, I doubt we can get away with upgrading them.)

Is there a way that Fedora can be installed on 128 megs of ram?

[jbannon]

128MB is a "no go" if you're thinking of running running a desktop. You might get away with it running openbox, blackbox, fluxbox or similar but I doubt it. It should be possible though to get a minimal install to run (command line) provided you don't have a lot of services on startup, but you would need to do a specific livecd or run a network install. Off the top of my head I think there are instructions for creating a very minimalistic livecd in the documentation pages.

ETA: You might also want to consider a more lightweight / more configurable distribution, say a minimal Gentoo or FreeBSD or perhaps Puppy Linux.

[Corsari]

Originally Posted by gthill

Class 1
How to do a network install on a local area network.

Surely someone has a laptop, usbdrive or you can even buy a 4gb thumb drive for less than Aus $50, (US$35) which is big enough to hold the 2.9GB fedora7 iso ...

You don't got the point. ))

The point is to work without troubles and issues:
- find a dvd
- use a server
- buy an usb drive (old PCs have got USB1 and not USB2)

Have a CD like the one I talk about in the original thread (read first post of this thread) mean get an old Pentium ZERO with 64 MB RAM, one CD and start working. Exactly what you can do with last Mandriva Mini ISO.

Anyway, thank you for the tip.
Ciao
Robert

[Corsari]

Originally Posted by jbannon

The LiveCD is installable. Use the "Install to Hard Drive" option. It is there.

Tried on a Celeron with 64MB RAM.

I lost half, no, more, one day to understand why installation was freezing. It was because of ram. And fakes you taking you to think the cd has been defectively burned.

Anyway, the real issues is that Live CD starts with no options.

This mean it does start in graphical mode, which gives the above freezing issue and doesn't give you the option to boot/install in text mode.
Please note that on the same hardware Mandriva Mini 2007.1 installs in graphical mode

Some tests I made
I added (just for testing) 128MB ram and, finally, graphical environment started, but you must set it up in 800*600 mode. But after some tenths of minutes, when desktop appears, icons for installation are missed.

So I mounted a DVD (so let's observe, I had to add some RAM and a DVD too, while with mandriva I installed and run without open that pc) and I started installation in text mode

I got it installed. Now testing in reverse order I would remove the 128MB ram to see if installation would start.

Now you should understand why I'm asking what I ask in the first post of this thread

Ciao
Robert

[Corsari]

Originally Posted by jbannon

128MB is a "no go" if you're thinking of running running a desktop. You might get away with it running openbox, blackbox, fluxbox or similar but I doubt it. It should be possible though to get a minimal install to run (command line) provided you don't have a lot of services on startup, but you would need to do a specific livecd or run a network install. Off the top of my head I think there are instructions for creating a very minimalistic livecd in the documentation pages.

ETA: You might also want to consider a more lightweight / more configurable distribution, say a minimal Gentoo or FreeBSD or perhaps Puppy Linux.

Dear jbannon, please don't loose the focus of this thread:

me and (now) pdusen want to install fedora otherwise we would have posted on Gentoo, FreeBSD or Puppy forums : )))

Take it easy we would like to find a solution. I think my need is different that the pdusen one. I really need to boot a small server system, I need and MUST to install Fedora and fortunately I do not want any kind of desktop.

My surprise has been that a Mandriva Mini 2007.1 installation... installs less than 400MB of files, while when I succeeded in installing F7 in text mode REMOVING FROM INSTALLATION every kind of X, desktop, graphical enviroment and so on... tried also to remove them just for verifying... the final result has been 1.7GB of installed files

Please note that "we" still have the hardware issue, to install Fedora 7 I had to mount a DVD and maybe you also need additional ram to be able to install F7 easy.

Ciao and thank you
Robert