Barry Brimer spake the following on 3/19/2007 9:04 PM:
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007, Dave wrote:
Hello, I've got a machine i'd like to put CentOS 4.4 on. Unfortunately this machine doesn't have a rom in it, just a floppy and a network card. I was wondering if i could boot it, then have it pick up what it needs to start the install off the network and do an unattended install vi nfs? Or, if that's not possible would it be possible to boot and load CentOS completely from the network bypassing the hard disk altogether? I don't need x on this box, in fact it doesn't have a monitor, most of the work it will do will be via ssh, or unattended stuff. Thanks. Dave.
I believe CentOS 3 was the last version of CentOS that included a boot floppy. IIRC, the issue is that the newer kernels (with other required components) are too large to fit on a floppy.
You can make a bootable usb key to install from if you can get the system to boot from usb.You can set up a PXE boot to get the system going, but it will be a bit of work just to to a one off install. Easier to just hang a cdrom in the unit temporarily to install, or use the above mentioned usb key.