On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 8:11 PM, Dan Hitt <dan.h...@gmail.com> wrote: > ... > Instead, i want to devote a small partition to the project: i would > like to ideally place just an iso image on the partition, but i guess > it could be larger, but no more than a few G. I would like to then > install from the iso partition to a different, larger partition, on > the same disk. So the target would not be the whole disk, but just > part of it. The nature of the iso partition wouldn't matter too much > to me (although it would be super cool if it could be an iso in a > filesystem of some partition with a real os on it). > ...
(I hope I'm doing this right...this is one of the first times I've used a mailing list) A few thoughts come to mind: 1. Use debootstrap to create a minimal debian install on a separate partition. This way, it would also be rw (iso can only be ro). 2. I believe grub(2) has a way to boot from an iso file. Here's some info on it (check comments for command line method): http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/how-to-boot-iso-with-grub2-easy-way.html 3. "Burn" the iso to a partition like you would a usb stick, and update grub to boot from that partition. I hope that helps! --Matthew