Installing Lucid iso from another partition by booting from grub2

[praka123]

Hello ,

I am having 9.10 Karmic with grub2 on /dev/sdb5 partition.I want to use this partition for Debian later on.

I've partitioned /dev/sdb6 to ext4 and Plans to install Lucid on this Partition.I have downloaded Ubuntu LUCID amd64 iso on to /dev/sdb7 from where I hope to trigger installation using grub2.
But ,grub2 fails to find the image/partition.
here is the grub2 menu I've put on:

menuentry "Lucid ISO on /dev/sdb7" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,6)
loopback loop /lucid/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso noeject noprompt 
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

^As (hd0,6) it boots /dev/sdb which is the First Harddisk 160GB one.But ,if I do a fdisk - l "/dev/sdb" is the First Hdd ,While /dev/sda (80GB) is the 2nd One!
Is this related to the problem of not finding /dev/sdb ? I tried (hd1,6) but it shows the 80GB partition

Please Help:

• /dev/sdb5 -Current distro Ubuntu Karmic with Grub2
  
• /dev/sdb6 -where I intent to install Lucid
• /dev/sdb7- where Ubuntu Lucid ISO is stored

With Lucid iso on / directory of /dev/sdb5(on karmic) ,I successfully booted into livecd environment and even tried Ubiquity to install.but ,it asks to unmount /dev/sdb5(which is the distro) which is an issue preventing installation.even if I formatted /deb/sdb7 and swap using gparted ,the installation fails because of asking to umount /dev/sdb5(/isomount) by installer.

[praka123]

Hi ,
I am posting from My New install of Ubuntu Lucid using Ubuntu Alternate CD ISO booted from /dev/sdb7 partition.Alternate CD uses Debian Installer.

The Idea of copying to ram was not resolved.But ,Debian Installer in alternate cd by default copies to RAM(/dev/tmpfs).I will experiment with live cd iso copied to ramdisk at a later time.
--
With Debian Installer(Which is text/ncurses based) ,it asks to Mount Ubuntu CD when booted from hard disk iso.What I did was ,to symlink(symbolic Linking) Lucid Alternate cd ISO to /dev/sr0(Which is the device file for dvd drive) .Then If I ask debian-installer to retry to mount cd ,it got mounted!

ln -sf /yourubuntuisodirectory/ubuntu.iso /dev/sr0

After that the installation was smooth.ofcourse ,I had already formatted ext4 partition for Lucid install.but, partman partitioner is available in the installer.

^^^^of course!it is a crude method.moreover udev can overwrite the changes(umounting iso).But ,for the sake of iso install on *same* partition ,it worked.
Moreover ,inside debian-installer ,it can mount lucid desktop cd also(it searches).But ,I never tried.

I am interested in to getting know how to copy iso to RAM DISK.I hope someone will answer this.

Regards,
DC

[praka123]

While I wanted to install debian latest daily snapshot iso the same way ,that I learned debian iso when booted does not load all file system support.debian-installer has to loop mount the debian-iso so that to pull out the udeb's which contains the modules needed.
So,the way Ubuntu Alternate CD ISO is booted will not work with Debian testing ISO.
Here is How:


Installed Debian testing using debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso daily built snapshot on to a ext4 partition.
Here is How I installed from CD ISO:
1) download vmlinuz and initrd.gz for hard disk boot provided by Debian team here:
For Mine ,64-bit OS ,I downloaded from amd64 folder:
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/s...ages/hd-media/
I downloaded the "capable"(supports more filesystems,specifically for hard disk iso booting) Linux and initrd.gz to /dev/sdb7 /debian folder,Where "debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso" iso also resides.

2)I'm having Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid already on another partition with Grub2 Bootloader.
I added below entry to boot the debian iso from grub2(for booting iso which is in "debian" folder on /dev/sdb7):

menuentry "Debian ISO on /dev/sdb7" {
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,7)
loopback loop /debian/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso
linux  /debian/vmlinuz boot=/debian iso-scan/filename=/debian/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso noeject noprompt INSTALL_MEDIA_DEV=/dev/sdb7
initrd /debian/initrd.gz
}

^I don't think "INSTALL_MEDIA_DEV=/dev/sdb7" has any effect on debian-installer searching for debian ISO.But ,that's how I booted with ISO.

3) When Debian ISO Boots, It starts debian-installer(it's also a command,once booted) with ncurses based User Interface.
the installer offers to search for debian compatible isos on different hard disk partitions.It cannot search on ext4 partitions(that's what I experienced).
Knowing this ,I copied debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso to a ext3 partition at /dev/sdb8 .
Installer searched and mounted debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso as a loop device /dev/loop1
and install proceeds as usual.I ended up with a network enabled system also grub2 installed from the Debian.
PS:I don't know ,but when I tried loop mount or even mount ext3,ext4 partition it never worked with debian netinst cd iso!when boots it supports only a couple of file system formats like isofs,vfat(fat32).. .no ext3 also.I think ,later on ,debian-udebs(kernel modules are stored as *.udeb) containing the necessary modules has to be extracted and installed,thus ext3 and ext4 supported!

This will yield a basic Debian System with network support.

Thank You
^This is a Copy of My Post @forums.debian.net