installation problems 4305

The good ideas you are talking about came from Lenard, not from me.

I'll take a look at it. I've been thinking it over and I'm starting to think that the main thing I have to do is to copy the RH 7 vmlinuz and LILO to the MBR of the HD. I think some version of dd is used for that, but I don't know exactly how offhand. The HD has a rudimentary (or maybe I should say "rootimentary") root file system in its Linux parbreastions, just not the files I think should be there, and maybe not all the top level directories. So, I think the main problem is to fix the MBR.

Here are some questions, the answers to which I think will make it easier for me to think about installation issues. (1) buttume I have formatted a HD with an ext2 file system and copied vmlinuz and LILO to its MBR (or wherever they go). True of false: to install a version of Linux at that point, nothing more needs to be done to the HD after that except to cause certain directories and files to be written to it. (2) buttume that absolutely nothing but the Linux kernel itself is installed. What exactly is one capable of doing with the machine? For example, is it basically like running the machine in single user mode? How much disk space does it actually take up? I have a machine I'd be interested in carrying out such minimalist experiments on. (3) I've seen literature that explains *how* to install a given distribution of Linux. I haven't seen anything that gives a *formal definition* of the terminology "install Linux". Is there any literature that addresses issues like that at a conceptual level? -- Ignorantly, * Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and * comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.