I wanted to install Fedora 7 on a box but I didn't want to burn an install CD. Those install CDs get used once and then thrown away, so I set out to find a way to install using images stored on the HD. I already had an old Linux distro on the box. I figured I could make grub boot the install images and just go to town. Here's what I found.

This method only works if you're going to do a network install. I haven't found a way to do an install with the full DVD iso image. You'll need to get both the kernel (vmlinuz), and then ramdisk image (initrd) files from the images/pxeboot directory of your installation tree. Place them on the HD in the same location as your existing grub bootable files (probably /boot). Next modify your grub.conf and add another entry similar to the ones already there. Replace the kernel and initrd lines with the path to the files you download. Reboot and use this profile in grub and you're network install is well on it's way. No CD-Rs wasted.

title Fedora Install root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz initrd /boot/initrd.img