Stop Wasting CDs; Install Linux Straight from an ISO
All Linux installers use two files to boot a computer: a kernel and an initial root filesystem—also known as the RAM disk or initrd image. This initrd image contains a set of executables and drivers that are needed to mount the real root filesystem. When the real root filesystem mounts, the initrd is unmounted and its memory is freed. These two files are named differently in different distros—refer to Table 1 for their names. Table 1: Names of kernel and RAM disk images in some popular distros Distro Kernel path RAM disk path Fedora /isolinux/vmlinuz /isolinux/initrd.img RHEL5/CentOS5 /isolinux/vmlinuz /isolinux/initrd.img openSUSE /boot/i386/loader/linux /boot/i386/loader/initrd Mandriva /i586/isolinux/alt0/vmlinuz /i586/isolinux/alt0/all.rdz Ubuntu /casper/vmlinuz /casper/initrd.gz Debian /install.386/vmlinuz /isolinux/initrd.img The first thing you need to do is place the ISO image(s) inside a directory. Some installers are not able to r...