install scenario
 

Im wondering, how would you install linux if say you didn't have a floppy drive, and you couldn't make a cd, and the only thing you had was just the isos ,what files would you have to put in the windows partition in order to get NTLDR to boot into linux in order to set it up , and once in linux, how exactly would you mount the iso image to install from it? (the iso is on a FAT32 partition , and in linux it would be /hda2) and the name of the iso is slackinstall1.iso and slackinstall2.iso

That sounds like what I went through when trying to get Slackware on my laptop. Except I do have a CD reader, but no floppy drive. I ended up using Partition Magic and making available a 1.5GB partition on the HD. Then I downloaded nothing but the /slackware folder from an ftp mirror site and placed it in the new 1.5GB partition. I used another computer with a CD writer to download the first ISO and burn it to CD so I could boot off from it in my laptop. Then during installation, I pointed the setup to the 1.5GB partition. My CD reader works fine for a while, but it kept dying on me at mid-installation. That's why I came up with the partition idea.

great, but lets say in a slightly different scenario, you couldn't burn an iso, (cause you ran out of cds, or whatever) and you couldn't boot from a floppy, and (lets say for theory) there was no linux installed, but you did create the linux partition already with partition magic , how would you boot into a setup of linux with NTLDR ? or is that unheard of...

I've boot into Linux usin NTLDR, but only after installing it from a CD.

1. I installed Linux to its own partition
2. Instead of installing LILO to MBR, installed LILO to the Linux partition
3. used the dd command to create a bootsect.lnx file and placed it in the Windows partition
4. edited boot.ini and added an entry something like Slackware=c:\bootsect.lnx

I guess the only other way to get Linux without a CD or floppy would be to downlad Zipslack. Zipslack installs to an existing DOS partition. The problem then becomes how to do start the setup process from withing Zipslack. :confused:

Instead of ZipSlack use install.zip which is in /rootdisks. But this is if you have a FAT.
Search for 'grug4dos' or 'grub4all' to find the windows-compiled GRUB that will allow ntldr to boot linux! boot the kernel and initrd from cd1. Then loop-mount the ISO for the install files and then run setup.

install.zip.README - Interesting file to read.

So, what about installing Slackware using install.zip, but on a computer with no OS, no CD, and no floppy? :D

Not very easy... better to start with a regular slack install.
Since ZipSlack is in in .zip format it's diffcult to unpack under DOS, because of poor memory management.

You could take the HD out of it and place it on another PC. Setup a small partition on it just large enough to hold all 3 bootdisks. Combine the 3 bootdisks into 1 image by mounting it on /dev/loop on an existing system. Edit the syslinux.cfg file to change the root to your hard drive vs floppy. Then use dd to write that image to the parition. Place the hard drive back in the crippled PC and boot it up. If you had the space, you could add all the slackware packages to the image as well, saving you from having to transfer them over a network. Once you have Slackware installed, you could format the temporary parition and reclaim it as /home or something along those lines if you wanted.

He doesn't need to do that, since that what install.zip is. There are 3 ways to get Slackware setup -in the initrd.gz on CD1, in the install.1 and install.2 rootdisks and in install.zip.
He can however make the hard disk DOS bootable that way and then use loadlin to start zipslack after having unzipped zipslack.zip or Amigo2.0.zip there and replacing in the new machine.