Installing Linux
Installing Linux
Before you actually begin installing, there are several items you should be familiar with.
The Installation Program's Interface
The installation interface is a character interface rather than a graphical interface. A mouse isn't used during the installation process; instead, various keystrokes are used to select items.
If you're in a text region that has multiple choices or selections, you can usually use the arrow keys to move around. To switch between regions, you can use the Tab and Alt-Tab keys.
To choose a button to select, you normally position the highlighted area using one of the movement keys. You can then press the Space or Enter key to press the button. To select check boxes, scroll through the entries, highlighting the desired option. Then use the Space key to select or toggle the option on or off.
The F12 key is special in that it takes the values as selected on the screen and proceeds to the next screen. If your keyboard doesn't have an F12 key, the combination Shift F2 should have the same results.
The installation program presents various diagnostic information for the user to determine what may be happening in various parts of the install. To not clutter the main screen with extra data, it uses a useful feature of Linux called the Virtual Console which can be seen via a single keystroke. Table 2.1 lists the keystrokes used to view each of the virtual consoles:
Table 2.1. Virtual console keystrokes.
| Keystroke | Result |
| Alt-F1 | This is the main installation dialogue. |
| Alt-F2 | Once the CD-ROM has been found, you get a shell prompt that can be used to execute commands. |
| Alt-F3 | The log from the installation program. |
| Alt-F4 | The log from the kernel and other system level programs. |
| Alt-F5 | Messages from disk formatting and some other programs. |
For the most part, you won't need to ever leave the first virtual console, unless you are curious, or trying to diagnose a problem.
Beginning the Installation
To begin the installation, insert the boot diskette into the floppy drive and restart the computer. The machine should go through the normal process of booting from a floppy, then come to a screen with a boot: prompt.
| JUST A MINUTE |
The installation process occurs in two stages. In the first stage you tell the installation program some basic information about your computer and where to find the installation files. The second stage performs the rest of the installation. |
This initial screen contains helpful tips about starting the install, and allows access to some initial help screens before the boot process. To access these help screens, press one of the function keys, listed in Table 2.2, printed at the bottom of the screen. There is a short delay as the data is read from the floppy drive.
Table 2.2. Function keys and their results.
| Function Key | Result |
| F1 Main screen | The one you initially saw at startup. |
| F2 General | Some general tips on what the boot process does. |
| F3 Expert | This screen explains the expert mode. This mode disables most of the autoprobing and autodetection. |
| F4 Rescue | This mode enables you to help repair a damaged system. You need both the boot and supplemental floppy for this mode. |
| F5 Kickstart | The kickstart is an advanced mode that uses a pre-configured text file. The use of kickstart mode is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but is documented on the CD-ROM. |
| F6 Kernel | A help screen on some options that you can pass to the kernel at boot time. |
You can now type any options you require at the boot prompt, and press Enter to start the install. If you do not type anything or press any function key, the install automatically begins after one minute.
| JUST A MINUTE |
If you didn't get to this first screen, or received an error message, there may be something wrong with the floppy image. The most common causes are that the floppy disk had a bad sector, or that the floppy drive hardware has some sort of problems using the floppy. You need to recreate the boot floppy following the instructions in Hour 1, "Preparing to Install Linux." |
After pressing Enter you should see the following output:
Loading initrd.img.................... Loading vmlinuz........... Uncompressing Linux.......
If the diskette activity stops, and the initial screen doesn't appear, hardware problems or incompatibility are the likely culprit.
The First Stage
After a moment of floppy disk activity, you should see a black-and-white screen asking if you are using a color monitor, shown in Figure 2.1. This is the beginning of the first stage
of the installation process. You next set up some basic hardware and the install attempts to find the installation media.
The default choice on the first screen is Yes; you should see a blinking cursor or highlight near the Yes. If you see the cursor, or highlight option, press Enter and continue onto the next step. This walkthrough assumes that you have a color monitor.
| TIME SAVER |
When selecting between options on the screen, you can use Tab to change the selection. If you have overshot your selection you can either press Alt-Tab to back up, or continue pressing Tab to wrap around to the other choices. |
The next screen is a welcome screen, stating that the Red Hat installation guide also details the installation process. If you're ready to begin the install, press Enter.
Keyboard Selection
The next screen, shown in Figure 2.2, asks you to select the keyboard type you are using. If, after we have installed Linux, you want to change to a different keyboard type, the command /usr/sbin/kbdconfig can be used to change the keyboard type.
Most of the choices on this screen are for language-specific keyboards. The typical United
States PC keyboard is the default choice. You can select a different choice by using the arrow up and arrow down keys. To the right of the screen you should notice a scroll bar with a # mark. This mark indicates that there are more types of keyboards than can be shown on the screen at present.
After selecting the keyboard for your machine, tab over to the Ok button and press Enter.
PCMCIA Support
Next, the program searches for a PCMCIA chipset in your computer. If a known PCMCIA chipset is found then you are asked to insert the supplemental floppy. When you have done this, you can select Ok and the program loads additional drivers from the floppy. If no known PCMCIA chipset is found, the program quietly goes on to the next step of the install.
Installation Method
The next screen, asks you which kind of install that you want to attempt. There are four methods that can be used. This section only be details installation from
The four options are explained in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3. Explanation of the different installation methods.
| Method | Explanation |
| Local CD-ROM | The default method of installing Linux to your hard drive. This method does not use the supplemental floppy. |
| Hard Drive | If you are unable to install from the CD-ROM, then you need to copy the \RedHat\ directory tree over to a FAT16 (DOS) partition on your hard drive. This method then loads the supplemental floppy and continues with the install. |
| NFS | This method enables you to install from an NFS server (a type of network file system). |
| FTP | This method enables you to install from an FTP server. |
This book will focus on the CD-ROM install.
Installing from CD-ROM
If you selected to install from a CD, the program asks you to insert the CD into the player. It then tries to auto-probe for an IDE CD on the system. If it doesn't find an IDE CD, it presents a screen asking what kind of CD-ROM you have. The choices on the screen are as follows:
| SCSI | If your CD is on a SCSI adapter, it tries to find the SCSI adapter, and if it is unable to, it asks you for what kind of SCSI device it should try to load. You will be asked if you want to autoprobe for the device or if you want to give options to the device. In most cases, you shouldn't need to specify any options. |
| Other CD-ROM | If your CD isn't an IDE or a SCSI CD, it probably falls under this category. You are presented with a long list of drivers. Choose which driver matches your CD-ROM and if you need to, any special options. |
| JUST A MINUTE |
If you have an IDE CD and it wasn't detected, you'll need to restart the install and at the very first screen give the kernel a special option to point out where the drive is:boot: linux hdX=cdrom Where hdX = |
Channel Jumper hdx =================================== ide0 master hda ide0 slave hdb ide1 master hdc ide1 slave hdd ide0 = primary channel ide1 = secondary channel |
Once the CD has been detected, the program attempts to mount the Red Hat CD and go on to the next stage of the install.
The Second Stage
You are now ready to begin the second stage of the installation process. In this stage you create the necessary partitions and select which parts of the Linux distribution you want to install.
Selecting to Install Fresh or Upgrade
The next menu window, asks whether you are installing or upgrading an existing system. This tutorial assumes that you are installing Linux for the first time.
| CUATION |
If you already have Linux on your system, an install using those partitions will overwrite all the data currently on there. |
SCSI Support
After choosing an installation option, the program tries to auto-probe for any SCSI adapters. If it is unable to locate any, it asks you if you have any SCSI adapters in your machine. If you do, select Yes and a dialog box asks which adapter you have. Choose the adapter you have in your machine, and another screen asking whether you wish to autoprobe or give options is displayed. Most SCSI drivers do not need options. If you don't have a SCSI adapter, choose No and press Enter.
Partitioning the Hard Drive
Before you begin partitioning the drive, it is important to understand how Linux references different partitions. In the DOS/Windows world, different partitions are given different drive letters. For example, if you had a drive with two partitions they would probably show up as drives C: and D:. Linux does away with drive letters, and partitions show up as what can best be described as different directories. So, to follow the example above, if you have two partitions under Linux, they might show up as / and /data in the user interface.
2.5. You are given the choice of choosing between two partitioning tools that are shipped with Red Hat Linux. The first choice is the Disk Druid program, and the second is the
Disk Druid is a GUI-based disk management program. It is able to create and delete partitions, while also defining the mount points for those partitions. fdisk is a more esoteric partitioning tool. While it is more flexible than Disk Druid in certain situations (dealing with disk drives having odd geometries, for example), it also is less user-friendly.
You need to dedicate at least 2 partitions to Red Hat Linux. One needs to be the root mount point / and the other needs to be the Linux swap space. The recommended Linux swap space is usually equal to twice the amount of RAM you have. If you have 32MB or more of RAM you can set the swap space equal to the amount of RAM and feel safe.
+ s m s m
