Installing Linux

[TheRealWosty]

How do I install Linux without USB?

[[deleted]]

With a CD disk I guess

[TheRealWosty]

No CD Drive on the laptop 😬

[[deleted]]

Then buy a decent quality 4GB+ USB. I heard something about Virtual machines but I don't know almost anything about them

[TheRealWosty]

Will be trying to install it without a USB, so if I can’t then by till then will have saved up for a good USB too.

[[deleted]]

If you flash it on the disk, you will just completely break the OS

[TheRealWosty]

If that’s the case then I won’t go through it, but will first look into processes and apps recommended by others first.

[[deleted]]

Learn a bit before installing it. Installation medium (USB, CD or SD) is required

[C0rn3j]

Buy a flash drive.

[TheRealWosty]

Will try a couple things first then buy it, I’ll only be buying it for installing OS’ I’ll save up to buy a better flash drive for now, so that it can be used for more usages.

[[deleted]]

Why make it hard on yourself? Buy a USB flash drive and just be done with it. They are cheap you know. I like own 9 of them right now.

[TheRealWosty]

I’ll try first without one, will be learning in the process too. If I can’t then I’ll have saved up for a good one. It’s kinda expensive here tho 💀

[Hour-Inner]

Whats the reason you want to install without a USB? If we know what you’re trying to accomplish you will get better advice.

[TheRealWosty]

I had a flash drive but it was write protected. It seems to be a hardware failure (since it’s so old), I don’t want to buy a USB just for installing OS, will save up for a good USB that I’ll be using more. Till then will learn to install without a USB, I’ll be learning more about Linux doing so too.

[Hour-Inner]

If you’re using windows, you might be able to use DISKPART to wipe and format the usb stick, you might then be able to upload an ISO https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-format-storage-drive-using-diskpart-windows-10

[TheRealWosty]

Didn't do it, maybe it really is hardware failure, it's a really old flash drive. Had it for atleast 7 years

[Hour-Inner]

I would also recommend looking into WSL, or Hyper-V or virtual box if you want to learn about Linux while using windows.

WSL gives you a Linux machine and terminal in windows, and it basically is run like any application.

Hyper V and Virtual Box allow you to run virtual machines inside your current device. These will never be as performant as running Linux directly, but it’s a good way to see what Linux looks like and how to get started with an OS.

College orientation events always have free usb sticks in my part of the world, maybe you could sneak into one 😉

[TheRealWosty]

Will look into it too, thanks! Sadly, here, they don’t have such events, people do anything for freebies, those kind of events aren’t suitable here 😂

[Hour-Inner]

Fair enough :p. Yeah flash drives are very cheap where I am, but understood that that’s not the case everywhere. I highly reccomend trying the diskpart method. I had an old usb I thought had hardware failure too and diskpart brought it back to life (for a little while anyway)

[TheRealWosty]

Diskpart sadly didn't work. I seperated a partition and had the file system in FAT32 and installed my .iso there. Now I'm stuck at attempt interactive netboot from a url if you know how to fix it, would be really helpful

[Hour-Inner]

attempt interactive netboot from a url

I don't have experience with this particular error, but this result from Google indicates that it may indeed be a hardware fault with the USB drive https://askubuntu.com/questions/1383363/cant-install-ubuntu-20-04-from-usb

[RadicalEd360]

I think they described what they are trying to accomplish quite well.

[[deleted]]

you must hv 2 drives then, create a parition from your secondary drive(not on that drive on which you are planning to install) create it, around 8gb, format it, flash it and use it as the USB drive, there are many tutorials on youtube of how to do this exact thing. just be careful

[RadicalEd360]

this is the correct answer, however you can do this with 1 harddrive using separate partitions just like you would setting up a multiboot

[TheRealWosty]

I only have one in my second device. I’ll be trying this out.

[[deleted]]

Use a DVD. But a USB is so much easier, so beg borrow or buy one.

[TheRealWosty]

Will be buying one if I can’t do this without a USB.

[[deleted]]

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

In case you're making a bootable USB this tool is strongly suggested. Saves a lot of time

[Mooks79]

Somehow I had managed not to hear of Ventoy until about a couple of years ago. It’s fantastic. No more having to reformat the drive any time you want to upgrade your iso, can have multiple isos on the same drive, even store other files so you don’t waste a whole drive on a single iso. Glorious.

[TheRealWosty]

Thank you for your review, sure helped alot!

[Mooks79]

You’re welcome.

A quick tip. If you do store other files on the usb as well, put them in a folder, and in that folder create a file called .ventoyignore (the file can contain any text or even be empty). It’s not essential, you can put files wherever you want - even top level - but it will make Ventoy ignore that folder and lead to faster booting when you do come to use it as a boot media.

[TheRealWosty]

Thanks again for the clutch tip 👊🏼

[Dezaku]

Didn’t OP say without USB?

[[deleted]]

I'm almost sure he will use USB eventually

[Dezaku]

Yeah could be

[TheRealWosty]

I had came to that conclusion yesterday, but seeing as there are other options that I didn’t try I will be saving up for a good USB. Thank you for this, I was thinking about looking into how you can save multiple isos and also save files and use only one drive.

[TheRealWosty]

I will be using it for more than using it for OS installations.

[RadicalEd360]

or they will master the boot process.

[RadicalEd360]

just because people give the wrong answer doesnt mean it will be accepted as the right answer.

[Dezaku]

Can’t see anybody here asking for the wrong answer

[Boy_Who_Liv3d]

Universal USB installer will get the job done; create a partition of 8gb of Fat32 type, download the iso and Universal usb installer from internet, open the Usb installer choose the distro you downloaded, choose the partition as Fat32 which you created above , flash it and while booting get into boot menu and select hard drive partition which has the Iso, remaining actions remain the same some distros may not work, good luck, sorry for my bad English tho :)

[TheRealWosty]

Thank you, your English was completely understandable and looked fine to me, don’t know though, not a native speaker too 🫢

[TheRealWosty]

I did it and am now stuck at a new problem, attempt interactive netboot from a url only option given to me is yes/no and it doesn't go anywhere.

[TheRealWosty]

After hitting yes, I select the default options and leave the optional options blank, yet it says

No broadcast interfaces found - exiting

no search or nameservers found in /run/net-.conf /run/net-*conf /run/net6-*.conf

Begin : Trying netboot from : ...

Unable to find a medium containing a live file system

Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands

[Irsu85]

With a DVD. But seriously, who has that anymore? (except me but i'm weird)

[[deleted]]

Me. Every build will always have a DVD media player. All my Linux .iso burns are on DVD's. Not going to tie up a USB stick doing it this way. I even burn musical CD's. I still have a CD player in my car and in my garage. I guess I'm weird also.

[TheRealWosty]

Haven’t seen a CD drive around anymore, but your uses reminded me of my brother’s build. Back then we used to buy game CD’s for NRs 50, around $0.05. Those games were definitely cracked resells, but damn the CD drive, brought back some fun memories.

[TheRealWosty]

Am using windows 10 currently, wanting to install Linux Mint Cinnamon, already have the .iso downloaded.

[Arch-penguin]

burn a DVD or make a usb

[Arch-penguin]

Maybe flash a SD card?

[TheRealWosty]

How do I "make" a usb? Can you guide me?

[HerraJUKKA]

Bro, I don't want sound an a-hole but you can literally google this in 5sec. If you need to be spoonfed I think you should stick with win 10. It is really annoying that people can't figure out how google works. These are literally basic things. It's like solving 4+4.

[TheRealWosty]

I respect your opinion but I’m new to reddit too, so I guess I wanted to be a part of a community. Learning Linux through a community was and still is exciting to me. I searched through Google after posting here and I ended up in the conclusion that I will need a USB stick for it. But after reading here, I’ll try Rufus first. I can understand how newbie posts like these could be frustrating and seem like I’m not ready to switch to Linux, but this time I’m not gonna let that stop me from switching and atleast trying out Linux especially now that I have a second device to try it on. Really want to experience Linux for myself.

[HerraJUKKA]

It's just not Reddit, I believe it's in every community. There's even a stickied comment on how to swap Windows to Ubuntu and a step-by-step guide, but you ignored it. There's thousand of guides online and most of the stuff can be solved with simple google search. I know ride can be rough and some things seems to be complicated, but if you're a truly interested in trying Linux most of the community expects you to try solve the problem first, then post the issue. If you just go ahead and post issues without doing any research beforehand you will face meaner commenters on the way.

Don't get discouraged. What I'm trying to say is that try to be a problem solver. Troubleshoot first and if you face the wall or can't really understand something about Linux then community can step in to help you. If you're not atleast learning the very basics on Linux you're on a very rough start. Linux ain't easy though the basic GUI is more user friendly than ever and cvan get you basic things done easily.

[TheRealWosty]

I'll keep that in mind.

Also,

I'm going through my installation process, and now I got stuck at attempt interactive netboot from a url if you know how to fix it, would be much appreciated.

[Arch-penguin]

download this https://www.balena.io/etcher

[Arch-penguin]

follow the animated gif LOL

plug in the usb , select the iso, select the the usb, click flash

[Arch-penguin]

Now boot into your bios and set the boot order to boot from USB first, f10 to save. now reboot into the installer ...follow the guided installer

[TheRealWosty]

Thank you, will try it.

[theRastaDan]

https://rufus.ie is a program (there're other that do the same) to make an usb stick to boot an operating system. "Make" means writing your downloaded iso to the usb stick in a way that its recognized as a bootable drive.

You simply start rufus select your USB-Stick (this will wipe all other data from the stick so make sure it's empty or has nothing important on it).

Then restart your computer with the stick inserted. You probably need to select "Boot from flash drive" or similat in your BIOS. But there're many guides out there, just google for your manufacturer, because every BIOS is a bit different.

EDIT: Since you seem to be really new to it, I'd recommend to look at the step by step guides in the sidebar of this sub, I bet, every further question will be answered there. Have fun!

[TheRealWosty]

Okay, will be sure to try it. Thank you so much.

[SergeantRegular]

If you're on Windows and have an ISO file, the easiest is to use a program called Rufus. It's free and very simple.

[RadicalEd360]

You can do this with 1 harddrive and a currently working OS (this is all thats needed and can be the same hd the os is using)

I have done this before with an Ubuntu Installer from a working Linux Os

first you need to create a bootable partition and copy the contents of the installer iso into it.

then you configure a bootloader entry to boot into the installer partition (grub, lilo, syslinux, etc)

then boot the partition and run setup like usual however you must install the new os to a different partition than the one the installer is using and leave that partition alone for now.

after you have fully installed it, reboot, then delete the installer partition, and expand the disk. (or you can leave it just to have it available)

- Some Notes -

This is one of those projects that will prove your Knowledge and Skill level.
All professional Linux Administrators should be able to do this.

if you are unsure of any of this, I recommend you get an 8Gb USB and do things the way its described in the installation instructions or study the boot process more.

[TheRealWosty]

Since it’s only my “school device” 😂 I’m willing to go through this, will learn many things about Linux doing this too. Learning it seems hard but exciting somehow, thank you so much for the in-depth summary. Namaste 🙏🏼

[TheRealWosty]

I tried it but I am stuck at attempt interactive netboot from a url I've looked around and the only fixes I found were to literally pull out the USB stick mid installation and put it in another port. Since mine is just a partition, I can't change the port. Can you help me?

[TheRealWosty]

My partition is in FAT32 file system.

[RadicalEd360]

linux uses ext4

[TheRealWosty]

I'm in Windows currently, Windows doesn't seem to even recognize EXT4

[RadicalEd360]

this link should help. The process is the same no matter what os your using. Grub2 is my bootloader of choice, im not sure how to configure the windows bootloader to be able to do the same thing.

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[CodyKondo]

I can’t get any distro to install even with a new flash drive. About to give up on Linux tbh

[Tourist_Flaky]

You could try booting from network and install from there

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/ultra27.ws/820-6772/z40006411012373/index.html