Remote reformat/install

[demagogue]

I don't think the reformat/install option will work remotely, but does anyone know if it's possible to remotely install Ubuntu on a computer, say if the guy in question's desktop has an extra partition or hard drive? By the way, he uses windows XP.

 

[Austinn1]

Remote connection. I think thats what its called. Why do you want to do this remotely?

 

[root]

there are a few ways to do remote installations

I've been installing windows on servers yesterday and today that are in london, I'm in Oxford, but I'm using an RSA card, that's a special piece of hardware that lets you see what's happening on the screen and control the mouse and keyboard etc.


As far as I know, without specialised hardware there is no way that you could make the computer boot from the CD remotley (by pressing f12 or whatever) and there is no way to enter the install settings (computer name IP address etc).


the only way I can think that you could do this would be to try to generate an unattended installation script, that way your friend could put in the custom CD that you send him and have it boot from this and do the install without him doing anything.

the remote install /network install for Linux just means that the installation media can be remote, or on an FTP server, (so you can go to a machine with just 1 boot CD to install an OS that might be like red hat and has 3 CDs).

 

[Austinn1]

With Ubuntu, you can install it inside of windows. So you would boot up into windows XP. Put Ubuntu in, and click install inside windows.
Not sure you can designate where it installs though.

You could do it that way remotely.