How to Install from Harddrive?

[clem]

You can't

Of course you could mount the ISO and extract the filesystem.squashfs file.... and use squashfs to decompress it and copy the content to the destination partition, and setup Grub to point to it. Chroot into it and setup a user and all... until it works fine.

It's possible, but to be honest you're in for some adventure... you'd basically be doing what the installer does... only manually.

Clem

[xiaoyong]

The answer is yes. You can do it like the way of booting Ubuntu desktop livecd in hard disk. The process is below:

1.copy /casper and all files in it from cdrom to a hard disk partition;
2.configure grub4dos in boot.ini of win2k/XP or menu.lst of Linux;
3,here is the content of menu.lst, you can learn from isolinux.cfg of /isolinux on Mint cd.
timeout 3
default 0
root (hd0,X)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz boot=casper rw
inird /casper/initrd.img

Just try, good luck.

[Danceman]

But the harddrive doesn't have windows xp. Can I do it just with Linux?

[lucamint]

As I wasted so much time in trying to figure out how to do it, so I want to update this post with some
additional details on how I installed Linux Mint Debian Edition (DE) 201012 from hard disk (hd, hard drive).

First of all I used gparted to create an ext2 partition (/dev/sda7), labelled "installer" and I copied in it the whole contents
of the directory "casper" contained in the cd.

Then I needed to boot this partition and run the installer.

In my case I have already installed ubuntu 11.04 so I have already had a grub (1.99) installed and I used
it to boot my linux mint installer partition.

I did the following:

- reboot the computer

- when grub menu appear i selected the ubuntu boot option and pressed 'e' (that means
you can edit the ubuntu boot coomands)

- The menu entry looked something like this
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hda,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 875fb0fa-a744-4e86-b559-a05518ac93d4
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=d3377a93-eaa7-4828-a7a3-d6102fa942f8 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic

- I changed the commands to make grub boot linux mint installer
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hda,msdos7)'
search --no-floppy --label installer --set
kernel /casper/vmlinuz boot=live live-media-path=/casper debug
initrd /casper/initrd.lz

- ctrl+x (to make grub run the edited commands).

- Finish. Install your linux mint debian edition now

[lmintnewb]

Was thinking remastersys for debian based stuff or cloning with clonezilla. Coupla other ways, was wondering about something when it comes to clonezilla though. Would it still work restoring the backup to a diff PC ? I mean since the hardware profile and etc would be diff ? With remastersys, don't think it matters. You copy it and install it wherever ya please. At least that's my understanding and the impression I get of it.

If you mean like a recovery partition. I put up a link to some good info on that subject in the how to's section of the forum. Though haven't confirmed that it works myself. Looked pretty extensive and well explained/valid from looking it over.

2 cents.

[Pythzor]

How to Install from Harddrive?by zinnerz on Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:35 pm
Dear all,

How to install Mint from Harddrive with the ISO like Ubuntu Alternate ISO?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can boot /casper directory on hard disk from gurb4dos.
by xiaoyong on Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:28 am
The answer is yes. You can do it like the way of booting Ubuntu desktop livecd in hard disk. The process is below:

1.copy /casper and all files in it from cdrom to a hard disk partition;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: How to Install from Harddrive?
by lucamint on Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:54 am
As I wasted so much time in trying to figure out how to do it, so I want to update this post with some
additional details on how I installed Linux Mint Debian Edition (DE) 201012 from hard disk (hd, hard drive).

First of all I used gparted to create an ext2 partition (/dev/sda7), labelled "installer" and I copied in it the whole contents
of the directory "casper" contained in the cd.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forgive me for being a noob and dipping into a geek conversation, But I'm just curious and would like some clarification. I thought that zinnerz wanted to install from a downloaded iso without burning it to an optical disk or flashdrive, whatever. And I'm thinking that that's what Clem gave zinnerz
directions to do. But xiaoyong and lucamint speak of copying casper from a cdrom and cd, respectively. Well if one had a cd with the casper directory on it, wouldn't that be an installation cd? Why not just boot the cd in the regular way and install in the regular way? Why go to all that other trouble.

As far as installing (from) an iso, I can see mounting it with furius isomount or archive mounter, but how would I copy and paste casper from the iso to the prepared partition? How do I go about doing that with Gparted?

Lucamint mentions, “ . . . First of all I used gparted to create an ext2 partition (/dev/sda7) . . ..” Is there any particular benefit to installing LMDE to an ext2 partition rather than ext4? Just curious and always on the lookout for good advice.

As always, any help would be much appreciated.

[lmintnewb]

lol ... kinda got that later. Google offers up some interesting looking prospects for this endeavor. Have not tried any of them so just posting a link for the OP or anyone to read through if they feel like doing so, shrugs.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=e ... 80&bih=933