Network Installation

A network installation may be performed using http, ftp or nfs. This requires a PC to serve the installation files over the local network using one of these protocols.

The server is prepared by copying all the files from the installation CDs into a common directory, /var/www/install/2005LE for example, so that all the RPMs are in subdirectories of a single media directory. If you have the distribution on DVD, the files are already arranged like this. If you have the installation ISOs rather than actual CDs, they can be loopback mounted, and symlinks used to merge the individual directory structures. This avoid the disk space required to actually copy the files.

Test that the server is working by pointing a web browser at the server, for example at http: //myserver/install/2005LE. If all is well, you should see the directory and files from the installation CDs. (In the case of http, you will need to set up the server not to treat index.html as an index file, otherwise all you will see is the contents of index.html, not a directory listing.)

Now prepare the boot diskettes, from network.img and network_drivers.img as described in the INSTALL.txt on the first installation CD.

Boot the target PC that you want to install Mandriva on using the network.img diskette. Configure the network interface when prompted with an IP address in the same network as your server, or if you are running a DHCP server, let that provide the IP address.

The boot process asks you what type of server to use (http, ftp or nfs). Select the appropriate one. The next dialog asks for the server and location on the server. If you have a DNS server set up on the network, and you configured the interface on the target PC correctly, enter the server name (eg myserver). Otherwise enter its IP address, eg 192.168.0.101. For the location, enter the path to the root of the installation files, eg /install/2005LE.

Installation should now proceed exactly as if from CD, except that you will not be prompted to change CD. It may however be a little slower than from a fast CD-ROM drive, especially if the network is only 10MB/sec.