Old Laptop with broken CD reader. How to install?[SOLVED]

[cybermc75]

Hi guys.

I'm using gentoo at home, on a pretty old desktop (Athlon 750). I works fine. I'm happy of it.

Now, I have an old Pentium IV Toshiba Laptop in my hands and, since the original W2K installation is gone, and the CD reader seems to be broken, I can't boot the poor baby.
Unfortunately, the BIOS does not support USB boot.
Network boot is possible (but I'm new to it).
I'd like install gentoo using the 2007 live CD files, gathering them via LAN, from my desktop, either with a Network boot, or - don't know - some minimal floppy boot.
Is there any guru that can help me, please?

Thanx
Claudio

[davidgurvich]

I don't recall all the steps, but you will need to setup a tftp server with access to the livecd. Also, the laptop must be capable of booting from network.

I would suggest not using the liveCD for this.

[cybermc75]

After a few hours of google-search, maybe I found a good link.

http://menteb.org/tech/gentoo-pxe

I'm going to try it this week-end.

[cybermc75]

Mmm. The link I suggested refers to a procedure a little bit out-of-date.

For now I could:

1. setup the trivial-ftp server (emerge atftp)

2. setup PXELINUX (tar zxvf syslinux-x.xx.tar.gz, got at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux)

3. setup DHCPD (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_setup_DHCP)

4. mounting the minimal gentoo CD (mount -o loop /<somewhwere>/<whatever>.iso /mnt/temp)

5. network-booting my laptop. Got IP.

The laptop boots, run PXELINUX, then prompt me 'boot:'

If I write "gentoo", the kernel starts, then run into kernel-panic, suggesting me to specify a 'root=' clause.
The documentation linked in the previous post talk about 'kernel' and 'rescue.gz', that I could not find on gentoo CD. I replace them with 'gentoo' and 'gentoo.igz'. Probably it's not correct. I'm pretty lost.
Can anybody help me, pls?

Regards
Claudio

[cybermc75]

You have to type 'linux' stupid man (or either label 'gentoo' in pxelinux.cfg/default).

Next problem is: 'No bootable media found. Waiting for new devices ...'

Working on it.

If anybody can help, I appreciated.

Regards
Claudio

[cybermc75]

I did it.

Just patch init following this mini-howto.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-559267-highlight-nfs+howto.html

you'll find correct pxelinux.cfg/default file there.

Enjoy Gentoo!