booting a computer that has no floppy or cd and no OS installed

[siqe]

What if you had a bunch of numbers to crunch and you wanted to get some new computers to crunch them for you. Would it be possible to buy several systems with just a mobo/processors/RAM/HD and case and somehow install linux over a network to the computer with no floppy or CD. It seems like teh computer would have to be booted first before any network would work, but maybe you know something i don't :)

[rid3r]

there must be some means of input (floppy), then you read abot the kickstart installation, (haven't done it myself).

[Bokkenka]

Take a look at the << Linux Terminal Server Project (www.ltsp.org) >>.

It is possible to boot a computer without any drives, but net-booting is usually a function of either the motherboard or NIC.

[Icarus]

You'll at least need a floppy drive to start the install, then once the install is done take the drive out and go to the next...

There is no motherboard with any network drivers in it's BIOS (that I know of), so if you have a HD, you'll at least need a floppy drive to start a network install...

[2damncommon]

booting a computer that has no floppy or cd and no OS installed.What if you had a bunch of numbers to crunch and you wanted to get some new computers to crunch them for you. Would it be possible to buy several systems with just a mobo/processors/RAM/HD and case and somehow install linux over a network to the computer with no floppy or CD.
A whole bunch of numbers? :D

[ljd65536]

You could put the HD in the secondary port in another Linux machine and clone primary disk onto the secondary with dd. Then put the HD back into the other machine.

Some non-x86 Linux computers, such as the NetWinder, have net boot capability.