Before You Begin
Before you begin installing Red Hat Linux, you should collect some information
about your system:
-
Be familiar with the hardware you have installed in your machine,
including:
- hard drive(s):
number and size; if you have more than one, it's helpful to
know which one is first, second, etc.
- memory:
amount of RAM.
- CD-ROM:
its interface type (IDE, SCSI, or other interface), and, for
non-IDE, non-SCSI CD-ROMs, the make and model number.
- SCSI adapter:
make and model number.
- network card:
make and model number.
- mouse:
type (serial, PS/2, or bus mouse), protocol (Logitech,
Microsoft, MouseMan, etc.), and number of buttons; also, for serial
mice, the com port it is connected to.
Also, if you will be installing the X Window System, you should be
familiar with the following:
- your video card:
make and model number or video chipset, amount of video RAM.
- your monitor:
make and model number, allowable range of horizontal and
vertical refresh rates.
You can find most of the above information in the documentation
accompanying your system or from your system's vendor or manufacturer.
Please Note: Current information about what hardware is supported by
Red Hat Linux/Intel is available via Red Hat Software's World Wide Web site at
http://www.redhat.com/hardware.
-
If you will be connected to a network, be sure you know your IP
address, netmask, gateway IP address, name server IP addresses, domain
name, and hostname. If you don't know these values, ask your network
administrator.
-
If Red Hat Linux/Intel will coexist on your machine with OS/2, you
must create your disk partitions with the OS/2 partitioning
software---otherwise, OS/2 may not recognize the disk partitions.
During the installation, do not create any new partitions, but do set
the proper partition types for your Linux partitions using the Linux
fdisk.
-
If you plan to use LILO (the LInux LOader) to boot your Red Hat Linux system,
see Section 2.4.19, LILO Installation, for
guidelines that might affect your partitioning plans.
Please read all of the installation instructions before starting;
this will prepare you for any decisions you need to make and should
eliminate potential surprises.
Installation Methods
You can install or upgrade Red Hat Linux/Intel via any of several basic
methods. Depending on the method you use, you need either one or two
formatted high-density (1.44 MB) 3.5-inch diskettes.
Installing from CD-ROM or via NFS requires only a boot diskette.
Installing from a hard drive, via FTP, from an SMB volume, or from a
PCMCIA device (including PCMCIA-based CD-ROMs) requires both a boot
diskette and a supplemental diskette. Section 2.3.1 below
explains how to create boot and supplemental diskettes.
- CD-ROM
-
If you have a Red Hat Linux CD and a boot diskette you will need a supported
CD-ROM drive and either a 3.5 inch floppy drive or an operational
installation of MS-DOS on your machine in order to run the installation
utility. If a boot diskette did not accompany your CD, you will need
access to a computer running either Linux or MS-DOS to create a boot
diskette from the CD.
- NFS
-
If you wish to install over a network, you will need to mount the
Red Hat Linux CD-ROM on a machine that supports ISO-9660 file systems with
Rock Ridge extensions. The machine must also support NFS. Export the
CD-ROM file system via NFS. You will need to have nameservices
configured, or know the NFS server's IP address, and the path to the
exported CD-ROM.
- FTP
-
For an FTP install, you must have a boot disk and supplemental disk.
You will need to have a valid nameserver configured or the IP address
of the FTP server you will be using. You will also need the path to
the root of the Red Hat Linux directory on the FTP site.
- SMB Shared Volume
-
If you wish to install from an SMB shared volume, you will need to
mount the Red Hat Linux CD-ROM on a Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 95 server
that supports shared volumes. You will need to have nameservices
configured, or know the server's IP address; you will also need the
name of the shared volume containing the Red Hat Linux CD-ROM and the account
number and password to use to access the volume.
- Hard Drive
-
To install Red Hat Linux from a hard drive you will need the same boot
and supplemental disks used by the FTP install. You must first create a
RedHat directory at the top level of your directory tree. Everything
you will install should be placed in that directory. First copy the
base subdirectory, then copy the packages
you want to install to another subdirectory called RPMS.
You can use available space on an
existing DOS partition or a Linux partition that is not required in the
install procedure (for example, a partition that would be used for data
storage on the installed system).
If you are using a DOS filesystem, you may not be able to use the full
Linux filenames for the RPM packages. The installation process
does not care what the filenames look like, but it is a good idea that
you keep track of them so you will know what you are installing.
- PCMCIA
-
If your CD-ROM, ethernet card, or local hard disk is connected to a
PCMCIA adapter, you must install with PCMCIA support. You need a
supported PCMCIA controller and a supported PCMCIA SCSI adapter or
ethernet card. Installing via PCMCIA requires the use of a
supplemental diskette.
A Note About Kernel Drivers
During installation of Red Hat Linux, there are some limits placed on the
filesystems and other drivers supported by the kernel. However, after
installation there is support for all file systems available under
Linux. At install time the modularized kernel has support for (E)IDE
devices, (including ATAPI CD-ROM drives), SCSI adapters, and network
cards. Additionally, all mice, SLIP, CSLIP, PPP, PLIP, FPU emulation,
console selection, ELF, SysV IPC, IP forwarding, firewalling and
accounting, reverse ARP, QIC tape and parallel printers, are supported.
After the installation is complete you may want to rebuild a kernel
that includes support only for your hardware. See Chapter
5, Section 5.1 for information
on how to build a customized kernel.
Disk Partitions
To install Red Hat Linux, you must have disk space available for it to
``live'' in. This disk space needs to be separate from the disk space
used by other operating systems you may have installed on your computer
(e.g., MS-DOS, OS/2, a different version of Linux, or another
well-known operating system which we won't name). The way to make disk
space available is by dividing it into partitions.
You may wish to install Red Hat Linux on its own hard disk, or even on a
computer which contains no other operating system. In that case, you
can use the Red Hat Linux installation system to create the disk partitions
you need.
Alternatively, you may wish to install Red Hat Linux on a disk which already
contains software or data from a different operating system; how to
create the disk partitions you need depends on what other operating
system is present.
Disk Partitions and MS-DOS
Most MS-DOS systems, as they come from the vendor, have one hard disk
which contains one large partition. In order to install Red Hat Linux, you
need to make that partition smaller, and then create a partition for
Red Hat Linux in the space that's left. There are two ways to accomplish this:
- Destructive Repartitioning
-
This procedure destroys any data in the disk partition(s) you are
resizing; you should make a complete, reliable backup of everything you
wish to keep from the disk you are repartitioning. Then, use the
MS-DOS disk partitioning utility, called fdisk, to delete the
large partition and create a smaller MS-DOS partition. Restore your
data to the new partition from your backup.
- Non-Destructive Repartitioning
-
This procedure is not supposed to destroy data in the disk partition(s)
you are resizing; however, we recommend making reliable backups of data
you wish to keep in any case. You can use the fips utility,
included on the Red Hat Linux CD in the dosutils directory, to resize
your MS-DOS partition; we highly recommend reading the fips
documentation, located the the fipsdocs subdirectory, before
doing so.
After repartitioning, you can use the Red Hat Linux installation system to
create partitions for your Red Hat Linux system as described in
Step-By-Step Installation.
Disk Partitions and Other Operating Systems
Information on creating disk partitions to be compatible with other
operating systems is available in several HOWTOs and Mini-HOWTOs,
available on the Red Hat Linux CD in the doc/HOWTO and
doc/HOWTO/mini directories.
How Many Partitions?
If you wish to, you can install Red Hat Linux in a single large partition.
However, we recommend the following
(Please Note: If you plan to install all the software packages
accompanying Red Hat Linux, you may need to use even larger partitions):
- A swap partition
- for virtual memory. If your computer has 16 MB
of memory or less, you must create a swap partition; even if
you have more memory, a swap partition is recommended. The size of
your swap partition should be at least 16 MB or the same as the amount
of memory in your computer, whichever is larger.
- A root partition
- to be mounted as / (the root directory)
when your Red Hat Linux system boots; it only needs to contain things
necessary to boot your system, as well as system configuration files.
50--80 MB works well for most systems.
- A /usr partition,
- where much of the software on a Red Hat Linux
system lives; this partition should be 200--500 MB, depending on how
many packages you plan to install.
- A /home partition,
- where users' home directories
go; the size of /home depends mostly on how many users you plan
to have on your Red Hat Linux system and what they might store in their home
directories.
Additionally, you may wish to create any of the following:
- A /tmp partition
- for temporary files. This is a good idea
for larger, multiuser systems or network server machines.
- A /usr/src partition
- if you wish to install a large amount
of the source code included with Red Hat Linux.
- A /usr/local partition
- to hold things you wish to keep
separate from the rest of your Red Hat Linux system, such as software that is
not available as an RPM package.