Home > Articles > Certification > Other IT

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Choosing How to Install Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Linux can be installed in a variety of ways using different techniques and hardware.

Most users install Red Hat Linux by booting to the installation directly from a CD-ROM. Other options include

  • Booting to an installation using a floppy diskette

  • Using a hard drive partition to hold the installation software

  • Booting from a DOS command line

  • Booting to an installation and installing software over a network using FTP or HTTP protocols

  • Booting to an installation and installing software from an NFS-mounted hard drive

How you choose to install (and use) Red Hat Linux depends on your system's hardware, networking capabilities, corporate information service policy, or personal preference. The following sections describe the issues surrounding each of these types of installation.

Installing from CD-ROM

Most PCs' BIOS support booting directly from a CD-ROM drive, and offer the capability to set a specific order of devices (such as floppy, hard drive, CD-ROM, or USB) to search for bootable software. Turn on your PC, set your PC's BIOS if required (usually accessed by pressing an F key after powering on), and then insert the CD-ROM and boot to install Red Hat Linux.

To use this installation method, your computer must support booting from CD-ROM, and the CD-ROM drive must be recognizable by the Linux kernel. You can verify this by checking your BIOS and then booting your PC.

In the past, booting the Red Hat installer using some CD-ROM drives required a kernel patch, but this should no longer be a problem; see Table 3.1 in this chapter, which lists a driver disk image used to support older drives.

Booting to an Install from DOS

As previously mentioned, you can use a DOS utility such as LOADLIN (or BOOTLIN) to either directly boot to an install from the CD-ROM or to load the Red Hat Linux install kernel.

See the dosutils directory on the first Red Hat Linux CD-ROM included with this book, and read the README file under the dosutils directory for an overview of the DOS utilities. The directory contains a one-line DOS batch file (.bat file) that can help boot to an install:

loadlin autoboot\vmlinuz initrd=autoboot\initrd.img

In this example, the LOADLIN command will boot the Red Hat Linux install kernel residing under the dosutils/autoboot directory, and then load the installation software to launch an install.

Making an Installation Boot Diskette

Your Red Hat Linux installation can also be started using a boot floppy. A boot floppy can be used to support booting the Red Hat CD-ROM on older CD-ROM drives. A boot floppy can also be used to start a Red Hat install over a network when the PC does not have a CD-ROM drive but has a network interface card (NIC). Boot floppies are created from floppy images (.img files). These images are contained in the images directory on the first Red Hat Linux CD-ROM.

Red Hat provides a number of images, as listed in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 Red Hat Linux Boot and Driver Disk Images

Name

Description

boot.img

Enable booting using CD-ROM or hard drive partition

bootnet.img

Install via FTP, HTTP, or NFS

pcmcia.img

Boot install using PCMCIA hardware (requires the pcmciadd.img)

pcmciadd.img

PCMCIA driver disk with support for SCSI, network, and other adapters

drvblock.img

Utility image containing various hardware drivers

drvnet.img

Additional network drivers

oldcdrom.img

Support image for booting using old CD-ROM drives

images/pxeboot

Directory containing a PXE-enabled Linux kernel and RAM-disk images to support network booting


Most of the images listed in Table 3.1 support booting to an install. The pxeboot directory contains a kernel that supports a remote booting protocol named PXE that enables installation, booting, or upgrades of network-only PCs. Use of this software requires a properly configured DHCP server and a supported BIOS. Although it may be possible to use a floppy boot disk, this method is not supported by Red Hat. Browse to http://www.compaq.com/products/servers/linux/redhat-whitepapers.html and read the Compaq white paper titled "Configuring a Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) using Red Hat Linux 7.1 on Compaq ProLiant Servers" to see one way of booting to an install using PXE. Browse to http://www.europe.redhat.com/documentation/mini-HOWTO/Remote-Boot.php3 to read how to set up remote boot environments using older versions of Red Hat.

TIP

If your PC's BIOS supports booting from a USB device, you can use a USB floppy drive to boot to an install. It is also possible to boot from an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) CD-ROM if supported by your PC's BIOS.

You can create the boot floppies using the DOS RAWRITE command or the Linux dd command. You'll need one or more blank floppies. Use the RAWRITE command after starting DOS like this:

D:\dosutils\rawrite

Follow the prompts to create the images, entering a source filename and a target drive (such as A or B).

To create a boot diskette while running Linux, use the dd command. The first step is to insert the first Red Hat Linux CD-ROM and to make sure that it is mounted:

$ df
Filesystem   1k-blocks   Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda2    18714368 10410280  7353444 59% /
/dev/hda1      46636  13247   30981 30% /boot
none        120016    0  120016  0% /dev/shm
/dev/cdrom     655808  655808     0 100% /mnt/cdrom

This example uses the disk filesystem or the df command to show free hard drive space and currently mounted devices and partitions. As you can see, the contents of the first Red Hat CD-ROM is found under the /mnt/cdrom directory. If the CD-ROM is not mounted, use the mount command to manually mount the CD-ROM. You will need to be the superuser or Linux root operator to do this (see Chapter 5, "First Steps with Linux," for details about how to become root):

# mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

You can then use the convert and copy or dd command like so:

# dd if=/mnt/cdrom/images/nameofimage.img of=/dev/fd0

This will take the contents of the specified image file (from Table 3.1) and create a diskette in the DOS drive A (represented by /dev/fd0). Use /dev/fd1 if you want to use an installed secondary floppy drive.

TIP

PC notebook users installing via a network or external CD-ROM drive using a PCMCIA adapter should create pcmcia.img and pcmciadd.img diskettes.

Hard Drive Partition Installation

Another way to install Red Hat is to use a Linux or DOS hard partition to either boot the Red Hat Linux install or hold the software required for an install. The partition must be large enough to hold .iso images (binary images of a CD-ROM). Copy the images of the first and second Red Hat Linux CD-ROMs into a directory on the local hard drive. If you use this type of install and don't need the required hard drive space later on, keep the images installed on the hard drive because Red Hat can then be quickly reinstalled from the partition.

The .iso images can be downloaded from Red Hat, Inc. or a mirror FTP site (see http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html for links). To perform this installation, you will need to know the hard drive's device name (such as /dev/hdb), along with the partition number and the name of directory containing the images (such as /dev/hdb1 and /redhat/images; if you simply copy the images to the formatted DOS or Linux partition, you don't need the directory information). See Chapter 10, "Managing the Filesystem," for more information about using hard drive partitions.

Installing Using a Network

Red Hat Linux can be installed using a local network (or even over the Internet if you have broadband access). You will need access to a Web, FTP, or NFS server hosting Red Hat Linux installation packages. To boot to a network install of Red Hat, use a network boot floppy or the first Red Hat CD-ROM included with this book. Boot your PC with the boot floppy or, if you use the CD-ROM, type linux askmethod at the boot prompt. You'll then be asked to choose the type of network installation.

Installing Red Hat Linux using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) will require access to an FTP server (see Chapter 18, "Secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service," to see how to set up a server and use FTP). You'll need to know the hostname or IP address of the server, along with the path (directory) holding the Red Hat Linux software. One way to prepare a server to host Red Hat Linux installs is to

  1. Create a directory named RedHat under the FTP server's pub directory. The directory will be /var/ftp/pub on a Red Hat server.

  2. Create a directory named base and a directory named RPMS underneath the RedHat directory.

  3. Copy or download all RPM packages included with Red Hat Linux into the pub/RedHat/RPMS directory.

  4. Copy all original base files (comps, hdlist, hdlist2, hdstg1.img, netstg1.img, stage2.img, TRANS.TBL) from the first Red Hat CD-ROM's base directory into the pub/RedHat/base directory.

Installing Red Hat Linux using a remotely mounted Network File System (NFS) is similar to a hard drive installation, but requires access to an NFS server. You'll need access permission, a permitted IP address or hostname for your computer, the hostname or IP address of the NFS server, and the path to the Red Hat Linux software. See Chapter 13, "Network Connectivity," for more information about NFS and network addressing.

To install Red Hat Linux using HTTP, you will need the hostname or IP address of the remote Web server, along with the directory containing Red Hat Linux. See Chapter 16, "Apache Web Server Management," to see how to set up a Web server.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020