[Linux-disciples] Completely remote install

[Adam Rosi-Kessel]

Sure. This is done all the time.

See, e.g.

HOWTO - Install Debian Onto a Remote Linux System
http://www.underhanded.org/papers/debian-conversion/remotedeb.html

There are various methods. It is also possible to do a network install
if the computer can boot to network; or to have a small bootstrapping CD
(similar to Knoppix) that gets the computer online and then do the whole
installation remotely once you've opened up a network port.

Stephen R Laniel wrote:
> Hypothetical: is it possible to install a complete Linux
> installation on a remote machine? Say, I ssh into that
> remote machine, run the installer, answer some questions,
> and it reboots. I sign back in after it's rebooted, and
> continue the installation. Possible?
>
> In particular, suppose the remote machine is already running
> some Linux distribution, and I want to overwrite it with
> another Linux distribution. Suppose the remote machine
> already has a running instance of sshd; the installer
> overwrites the version on disk with its own, which is fine
> at least until sshd restarts. If there are pre-existing
> config files for a given program (say, ~/.ssh/*), it
> preserves those. It doesn't delete any files unnecessarily;
> however, where those files might cause conflicts with the
> newly-installed versions, it behaves appropriately (perhaps
> by prompting the user).
>
> This doesn't seem in-principle impossible to me. Is there
> any reason why it actually is?
>

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