Any way to install ROS on a HD without a CD/DVD?

[OpenJacob]

Hi again, I have decided to install ReactOS to my harddrive along with Cygwin to get some of my apps working. The problem is that my burner is broken on my laptop so I need to install it using SD or a thumbdrive. I can't find any instructions to do this. I see some talk about using the live iso on SD but it looks like that does not work yet and I wont the installer to SD not the live version.

I have found some info on this type of install for Windows. Could this work? http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:installxphttp://garyshortblog.wordpress.com/2009 ... e-netbook/

If this can't be don then what other ways can you think of to get ROS installed?

[OpenJacob]

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:installxp & http://garyshortblog.wordpress.com/2009 ... e-netbook/

[Pisarz]

http://reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9354

[OpenJacob]

"Lots of questions are repeated intensively and the FAQ doesn't seem to have answers for those questions.
And let's begin with one, simple statement..."

My question is answerable so reread.

I wont to install ROS using SD or a thumbdrive. I am not installing to SD, I am installing to HD from SD or some other method.

If Windows can install from SD then why can't ROS?

[OpenJacob]

What about a network install, how about a cd emulator for grub to trick the system to thinking the SD is a CD, could a virtual drive from QEMU or Vmware be backed up to a HD to install ROS or might I be able to use Unetbootin to the HD? Any thing that will work to make the install without a DVD?

If I need to buy a new burner for my testing system I will, but I don't have the $$ and wont for a few months so I'd rather not.

[hto]

could a virtual drive from QEMU or Vmware be backed up to a HD to install ROS

Yes.

[OpenJacob]

So how do I back up the virtual drive to work on real hardware? Could something like Clonezilla do that or some other tool?

[Pisarz]

But you still have to boot the installer anyway. ROS doesn't support installing from DOS.

[hto]

So how do I back up the virtual drive to work on real hardware?

One possible method is to mount the virtual drive and copy all files from it.

You can also install the OS directly from virtual machine to (unmounted!) real disk partition, but it is dangerous.

Could something like Clonezilla do that […]?

I don't know.

But you still have to boot the installer anyway.

In a virtual machine.

[Pisarz]

I could somehow connect one of my HDD's to QEMU, but I have no idea how I done it.

[PascalDragon]

I could somehow connect one of my HDD's to QEMU, but I have no idea how I done it.

In the following scenario it should be possible:
* you have a Linux or Windows running on one harddisk with QEMU installed
* you connect a second harddisk to that system

Now you can access this second harddisk from within QEMU if you start it with the following disk option:
- On Linux assuming your second disk is called "/dev/sdb"

Code: Select all

-hda /dev/sdb

- On Windows assuming your second disk is called "\\.\PhysicalDrive1" (for checking how to find that out you'd either need to ask one of the ROS devs or ask aunt Google )

Code: Select all

-hda \\.\PhysicalDrive1

Note: Be sure not to use your system drive.

After you've installed ReactOS inside QEMU you might be able to run it directly on hardware.

Regards,
Sven

[OpenJacob]

Would it not be easier to frugal install ROS to the drive, all we would need is a custom bootloader script to boot the live ROS from a compressed image on the drive. This would have a disadvantage though, it would not be writable.

[sh4ring4n]

Shouldn't this be under the support category?

[hto]

Ok, let it be there.

[OpenJacob]

Since this is a testing system I will not won't to mess with ROS it's self, rather the applications I install to it. This gave me an idea.

I have seen something about booting a vhd image without emulation with a kiosk bootloader. The vhd image would boot like a partition would and it appears that Vmware works with those images.

So if I install ROS in Vmware to a vhd image and then get the special boot loader application to boot the vhd, will I be able to skip my Windows install and all emulation, and boot right to ROS?

If this will work then I just need to find a way to make a partition to install stuff to because the image will most likely be non-wrightable.