Fedora 11 Network Installation from GRUB

Fedora 11 is finally out. Now I want to install it on a system running Ubuntu 9.04 and dual-boot between both systems. This can easily be accomplished by configuring the GRUB boot loader used by Ubuntu (and other popular Linux distributions, including Fedora). First I’ll setup a boot menu entry to launch the Fedora 11 installation program, Anaconda and then I will use Anaconda to perform a network installation of Fedora 11. Note I will be using Grub as an intermediate step in the installation of Fedora and also as the final boot loader for both distributions.

When I want to try out or install the latest release of a Linux distribution, I prefer to use a network installation for a couple of reasons. First of all, I’m lazy — I don’t have to download the installation ISO images and then burn them to CDs or DVDs. This is a big plus. Second, its very easy to setup GRUB for a network installation. Finally, I can be more eco-friendly by not throwing out old CDs/DVDs every time a new release comes out, which is quite often with Linux distributions.

Basically, a network install downloads the installation packages for the Linux distribution over a network. So you’ll need a relatively fast, reliable Internet connection (e.g., broadband cable modem, DSL). If you have a slow connection, you’re better off using the CD/DVD installation method.

First Steps

To get started, I boot into my Ubuntu 9.04 system. I log in as root in a Gnome Terminal window. First, let’s modify the GRUB boot loader menu by adding an entry to boot into the Fedora 11 installation program, Anaconda. To do this, open the GRUB configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst in a text editor. Now, find the first OS definition. Look for the first line that starts with the word title, followed by a short title/description. On my system the first OS definition looks like

title     Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11
root      (hd0,2)
kernel    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11 root=UUID=a128e38d-9a45-49c3-9863-43e1b30671ac ro quiet splash
initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11
quiet

Let’s add the following lines just above this first OS definition.

title     Fedora 11 Installation
root      (hd0,2)
kernel    /boot/fedora11-vmlinuz
initrd    /boot/fedora11-initrd.img

You’ll need to change the device name on the line highlighted in red, to match your system’s configuration. Run the following Bash script to find the correct device name on your system and to print the resulting GRUB root command.

bash -c 'A=abcdefghij D=$(mount|awk "/on \/ / {print \$1}") E=${D/*\/sd} DADDR=${A%${E:0:1}*} PART=$((${E:1}-1)) && echo "root (hd${#DADDR},$PART)"'

Next, we’ll download the Fedora 11 installation kernel (vmlinuz) and initial ramdisk (initrd.img) images from a Fedora mirror site. I’m using mirrors.kernel.org.

root@ubuntu:~# cd /boot
root@ubuntu:/boot# wget -q http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/11/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz -O fedora11-vmlinuz
root@ubuntu:/boot# wget -q http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/11/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/initrd.img -O fedora11-initrd.img

You should now have the two files fedora11-vmlinuz and fedora11-initrd.img in the /boot directory.

We’re ready to reboot the system. Remember to hit the ‘ESC’ key to see the GRUB boot loader menu during the initial system startup phase. Select the entry titled ‘Fedora 11 Installation‘ to launch the Fedora 11 installation program.

Once the installation program has started, it will step through common configuration tasks to prepare your system for a network installation. Pay special attention to the network connection (Configure TCP/IP) and Fedora installation repository (URL Setup) configuration tasks. If you’re unfamiliar with network installations, take some time to understand the process by visiting the following pages from the Fedora Installation documentation.

• Fedora 11 Installation Guide
• Section 7.7: Performing a Network Installation
• Section 7.9: Installing via FTP or HTTP

After completing the configuration steps, the actual installation process takes approximately 40 minutes.