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(The latest version of this document is at http://www.aldev.8m.com. You may want to check there for changes).
Diskless Linux Computers do not have any hard-disk, floppy drives and tape drives. They offer significant savings in "Total Cost of Ownership" by eliminating the maintenance costs. You can accomplish Diskless Linux Computer by one of the following two methods:
- Boot directly a Live Linux CDROM. The Linux CDROM is live Linux system which contains all the applications and programs and loads the software into RAM disks.
- Recent linux kernels offer the possibility to boot a linux box entirely from network, by loading its kernel and root filesystem from a server. In that case, the client may use several ways to get the first instructions it has to execute when booting: home made eproms, special network cards implementing the RARP, BOOTP or DHCP protocols, cdroms, or bootloaders loaded from a boot floppy or a local hard drive.
The simplest and most easy method to build a diskless linux is by using Live Linux CDROM. You simply download Live Linux CDROM and insert it into the CDROM drive and power-on and you are done! For details see the "Live Linux CDROM" chapter in this document.
The other option is using a EPROM, but this will take extra work to be done on the client and the server box. If you want to go for EPROM method, I recommend you to simply buy Diskless Linux computers from the manufacturers as given in the following chapters.
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