install linux to hdd without a cd burner or floppy drive

[dmizer]

i'm running knoppix 3.8 with kernel 2.6.11 on an ancient toshiba tecra 8100.
through searching on this site, i've managed to create a working persistent image on a usb pen drive, but i'm running into a problem that i can't seem to find the answer to. i'm sure it's probably because i'm using the wrong search peramaters, but i'm stumped.

the cpu fan won't work correctly unless i install a utilities package from here: http://www.buzzard.me.uk/toshiba/download.html ... for obvious reasons, i would like to install this package.

however, the package failes to configure because it wants the gtk+ libraries. i know the gtk+ libraries are a part of knoppix because the gimp works. so my question is this: how do i get this package to install correctly without downloading and installing gtk+ and all it's pleathora of dependencies in my persistent image home directory?

i am very new to linux so please have patience with me.

[dmizer]

okay, i give up. i've searched for long enough that i've decided that i'm not going to find the answer no matter how long i look.

so, since i've gotten no reply to my initial question; now my question is this, is it possible to install a different linux distro from the knoppix cd without burning new cd's and without a floppy drive? i have net access, but no cd burner or floppy.

[Harry Kuhman]

.... is it possible to install a different linux distro .... without burning new cd's and without a floppy drive? i have net access, but no cd burner or floppy.

There likely is, although I can't think of any way to do it at the moment. I am very hesitant to ever suggest anyone buy a CD from the resellers, as most of these are burnt at high speed and may give problems on some drives, but without the ability to make a bootable device it is going to be a little tricky for you. You should be able to by a burnt Debian CD quite inexpensively. Better yet, if you have any friends with burners they could make you one, might even appreciate your introducing them to Linux and making one for them at the same time. And a final thought is why not get a CD burner. These things are dirt cheap (even DVD/CD burners are going at near give away prices) and should be next to free in Japan. Likely will not cost much more than buying a ready made CD, and then you'll know the CD that you made was burnt properly.

[dmizer]

yeah ... burners are super cheap if you don't have to put them in a laptop (i thought i had mentioned that i was working with a laptop, but apparently not).

i'm not too fond of buying a distro either. and as far as using a friends computer, the problem comes in with not being able to read japanese well enough to write an iso, and my friends are far from computer literate enough to do it for me.

i'm not completely incapable of attempting to come up with alternatives, and i do look at other possible solutions before defering to posting in a forum for support.

[Harry Kuhman]

yeah ... burners are super cheap if you don't have to put them in a laptop (i thought i had mentioned that i was working with a laptop, but apparently not).

i'm not too fond of buying a distro either. and as far as using a friends computer, the problem comes in with not being able to read japanese well enough to write an iso, and my friends are far from computer literate enough to do it for me.

i'm not completely incapable of attempting to come up with alternatives, and i do look at other possible solutions before defering to posting in a forum for support.

Well that does shed some light on it. Using a friend's system my not be out of the question, but I don't want to belabor that point in painful detail if you don't plan on doing it No harm in asking in the forum for support, just didn't understand the limitations that you were fighting and it seemed like there was a pretty cheap way to make lots of stuff easire, not just this one CD issue.

I'm not ruling out that someone can guide you to installing a distro without making a boot CD or floppy, but I don't know how to do it.