[ale] Remote boot/install on old notebook, no floppy/CD/ethernet?

[mute wonder]

The notebook is a Hewlett-Packard Omnibook 900.

I can access the BIOS configuration, but attempting to continue beyond
that, I get a screen full of "Operating system not found"

Jerry Yu wrote:
> what about a parallel-port CDROM drive?  I tested one such thing for disater
> recovery on those slip-cased Crystal boxen long time ago with redhat 6.2 or
> 7.x .

Sounds great.  It would even be reusable on other laptops, since they
have that parallel port in common and little else.  My concern would
be getting that parallel CD drive recognized by the BIOS.  I haven't
seen an "auto-detect new drives/boot devices" feature in there.

> On 8/4/06, Dan Lambert <danlambert at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>> could do that. Otherwise, it might be that the best methdology would be
>> to use a PCMCIA network card. 3COM or Xircom cards can be had without
>> too much trouble.

I have a 2Wire wireless network PCMCIA card.

>>
>> Christopher Fowler wrote:
>>
>> >Will not work.  I can think of know way you can configure linux to a
>> >target disk via a serial cable.
>> >
>> >I would remove the drive and somehow get Linux on it.  Does this
>> >notebook have a network port?
>> >
>> >What I've done in the past was to copy the linux kernel and initrd off
>> >an FC2 network install CD.  I then create a grub entry.  What this
>> >allows me to do is select "Reinstall" at bootup.  This requires a
>> >network interface to work.

It would have to be through the wireless card, since there aren't any
LAN or dial-up modem ports.  But first I'd have to get Linux on the
hard drive?  I took the drive out and looked at the connections on the
back; I don't have a matching cable for this.  It resembles a 2-inch
long PCI card.  I hope that's standard and I can find a cable for it.
I don't have another laptop with a removable hdd for a quick check.


I think I got carried away with the replies.  So far:

-A serial boot/install would not be feasible.

-A network install would need to have an appropriate boot loader and
kernel image on the hard drive.  So, take out the drive, connect it to
another computer and copy the essentials onto the drive, then put the
drive back into the notebook and proceed with network install via
wireless card.  WAIT, my wireless network is secured, and I'd have to
configure it with the WEP to get a new computer on that network.  Does
the network install include configuring a wireless connection?

-A parallel CDROM drive would hopefully be BIOS-compatible as a boot device.