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How do I install Linux over the network , using ftp, http....

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    Did you try searching a little before posting. There are plenty of howtos and documentation on the distibutions websites for doing that. Also could you give more informations about what you want to achieve?
    – Maxwell
    Dec 3, 2009 at 9:00

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The keyword you need to search for is pxeboot.

If you're wanting to install lots of machines over the network you should also investigate kickstart.

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  • +1 pxeboot is the solution and works very well.
    – pjc50
    Dec 3, 2009 at 10:13
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I think what you're searching is TFTP. Many BIOSes allow you to boot via TFTP. All you need to do is setup a TFTP Server and provide and image of your distribution. Once you boot your PC/Notebook it should fetch the image over the network and boot from it.

Best wishes, Fabian

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Look into PXEBoot as the others have mentioned, but if you're looking to do the network installs on a larger scale and a good system to maintain all those machines (updates, installs, etc.) then take a look into XCAT (http://xcat.sourceforge.net/).

HTH

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Does your server support remote ISO mounting such as HP's iLO? if so then I believe that'll be the simplest method, otherwise a PXE/kickstart is the the way to go.

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I'll recommend to you an alternative that I'm aware of if you want a Debian based linux.

FAI (Fully automatic installation) for "large" unattended installations. A little setup has to be done, but worth it. FAI uses PXEBoot with DHCP, TFTP, NFS on a debian/ubuntu system. You can customize the install for every machine in the network using a class concept. It also integrates with CFEngine (and possible with toher management tools like puppet. I didn't try it yet).

Best regards, Humber