[plug] Attempting to install redhat 5.2 over network

[Colin 't Hart]

David Buddrige wrote:
> Managed to get hold of 36X CD-ROM... got Linux installed that way... thanks
> heaps for the offer though... 8-)
> 
> I'll have to investigate NFS in further detail... (at my leisure) since
> installing over the network is very useful - I often come across Machines
> that are powerful enough for a nifty little Linux box but lacking a
> CD-ROM...

I'm surprised that Dave had such a hard time about doing a network
install. The third ever Debian install that I did was a network
install using NFS and once I actually got the network card recognised
the install went off without a hitch. It was an old Osborne 486 with 8Mb
RAM that's now used as a dial-out modem server (for accessing client
sites). It even masquarades our entire subnet so that anyone on the LAN
can access the client site machines -- even if the client site uses
10.x.x.x addresses. :-)

The hardest bit was configuring the plug and play NE2000 compatible
network card. In the end I download the software configuration program
for the card and allocated a fixed IRQ and base address for the card
rather than allocate one by PNP.

Also make sure that the IP address for the new machine has DNS name =
reverse DNS name otherwise the NFS server probably won't allow the
mount.

Cheers,

Colin