Comment on Is it possible to install a distro directly from online ?
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
The question is confusing, what exactly do you mean by “directly from online”? Just click a button in a web browser and it will install the entire distro? If so, pretty sure the answer is no; if you imagine something else, please clarify.
andrewta@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s how I interpreted the statement.
Open web browser
Click install
Files down load and install. Computer reboots with Linux os installed on hard drive
zorro@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I feel like you should be able to do this tbh.
I can basically do this from Linux. I could build a disk image and extract it right onto my disk and reboot and be in that new system. It would take some work to get right, but it’s basically how the rpi images work.
I think your biggest issue is making sure enough utilities were loaded in ram that you could finish the extraction before the system crashes cause you’ve deleted some important utilities.
iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
The answer is no, because you’d need windows to allow your Linux installer to take over top runtime privilege and modify live partitions while mounted and in use. While i guess it’s technically possible, it’s so much of a hassle i wouldn’t even want to start considering it.
zorro@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
I think you are right. A little bit of research seems to show that windows doesnt allow such things.
On Linux you could make a ramdisk with like BusyBox and your new image (or new image on some other drive) pivot_root then overwrite the entire boot disk to some other disk image.
It would be a bit hairy, but could be done
zorro@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
I wouldn’t consider this a real option in any way, but it is a fun experiment to theorycraft.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 22 hours ago
There’s WebUSB on Chromium browsers, a JS API for all kinds of peripherals. I think formatting mass storage is allowed, as long as it’s connected by USB
s38b35M5@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Sort of like GrapheneOS does, right? I don’t actually have GOS, but I thought the installer worked like that. Otherwise, there’s always the WSL that I think is how I installed Ubuntu (just as a test!!! I haven’t used Ubuntu since 2009) inside Windows 10 a few years back.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Its a different device though, you run the installer on a browser with usb access and the phone gets flashed.