Install XP (or 98se) without CD, floppy or USB boot?

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: kaborka
Bummer. If it hangs during the 'copying files' phase, I've no idea what's wrong. I'd try to verify that your XP cd is good by trying an install on another machine.

I have now tried it with 3 different XP CDs two of which I know work.
It always hangs on the file copying process.
WTF? How can I avoid this?

 

[kaborka]

I'm fresh out of ideas. Google shows lots of reports of XP setup hangs during the Copying Files phase. Perhaps further research will reveal something. Good luck!

 

[coolVariable]

I thought I would give nlite another chance.
It hosed the laptop in the first place when I tried installing an 'nlite XP' over the existing (hosed) XP installation. [I will chalk the new install being hosed up to the fact that I actually tried removing some unusued features ... but at least it installed).

So, I used nlite to create a folder with XP installation files on my desktop. this time I did not remove anything. It essentially just copied the folder to HDD.
Then I used these instructions to boot into Dos with network support.
I couldn't use it to copy the installation files but I was able to start the installation process ... which failed AFTER it had copied the files to the local HD and restarted (it couldn't find the resource files/CD over the network ... isn't that grand? How the F is this supposed to work otherwise?)

Since that failed ... I guess I will have to re-install ubuntu, then use ubuntu to copy the files across the network to a FAT partition on the laptop, and try running the install locally again.

BUT (fun, fun!!!): since yesterday evening the ubuntu netboot installation (which worked 4-6 times at this point) failed to download any installation packages and failed three times until I just gave up.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: coolVariable
I can install ubuntu without any problems through the netboot.

So your machine can network boot?
Go back to my first post and download UDA on another machine and rip an ISO of XP. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle.

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: coolVariable
I can install ubuntu without any problems through the netboot.

So your machine can network boot?
Go back to my first post and download UDA on another machine and rip an ISO of XP. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle.

Without any instructions on its website, UDA is pretty useless.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: coolVariable

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: coolVariable
I can install ubuntu without any problems through the netboot.

So your machine can network boot?
Go back to my first post and download UDA on another machine and rip an ISO of XP. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle.

Without any instructions on its website, UDA is pretty useless.

It's really pretty self-explanatory, but if you don't have any experience with VMs, watch this video on how to mount the VM in VMWare Server and configure its network settings to match your local network (you can also just change the IP scheme on your machine temporarily to match UDA's). Once you've done that and the VM is running, the web interface includes step by step instructions for providing an XP iso to UDA (from a windows share, NFS share, or copy them to one of UDA's virtual disks), importing boot files, creating a template (make sure to take note of the unattended install settings in the template, first time I ran it, I didn't realize it set a password for me), and deploying the install. Really, the hardest part is changing the network settings of the appliance if you're not familiar with Linux.