Linux install from hard disk

[Ric_]

I have a laptop (nasty toshiba tablet) that I want to install an OS on - I have chosen Ubuntu. However, this tablet has no optical devices and will not boot from external CD - shonky piece of...

Anyway - I had the great idea of copying the files from the installation ISA to a small partition on the hard disk, boting of an external floppy (which works) into Grub and launching the installer from there.

Sounds like a plan? Only problem being that I just get kernel panics mid way through booting the installer.

Any ideas as to how to fix this or go about the install in a different way would be much appreciated... Incidentally, I can drop the hard disk into my desktop to copy files onto it if needed.

[webman]

You should be able to specify extra optons at the boot prompt (F1-F5 keys).

[Ric_]

you'd think! tried it all... trust me that it doesn't boot from external CD - tried 3 different make/model of drives

[webman]

Have you Googled for Ubuntu+[model of tablet]?

[Ric_]

Just a German guy with the same problem - no solution

[Geoff]

What IDE controller does it use? Have you tried booting with ACPI disabled?

[SimpleSi]

Will it boot off an external usb hard drive?

regards
Simon

[Ric_]

@Geoff: All gubbins disabled in the BIOS - it's simply pants!

@SimpleSi: Not got an external USB hard disk - if I can put an installer onto the internal drive, all will be well.

[StewartKnight]

can you not get the laptop to boot from a networked drive?

[Ric_]

That went tits up too - I cannot advise people strongly enough not to buy these things!

The hard drive image idea must work but what do I need to do to the boot sector in order to boot the installer - surely you know Geoff