To start, first make sure that you have all necessary resources for the
installation. If you have already read through
Chapter 2 Steps to Get You Started, and followed the instructions, you should be
ready to start the installation process. When you have verified that you
are ready to begin, boot the installation program using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROM #1 or
any boot media that you have created.
Note
Occasionally, some hardware components require a driver
diskette during the installation. A driver diskette adds
support for hardware that is not otherwise supported by the installation
program. Refer
to Appendix E Driver Media for more information.
Insert the boot media and reboot the system. Your BIOS settings may
need to be changed to allow you to boot from the CD-ROM or USB device.
Tip
To change your BIOS settings on an x86, AMD64, or
Intel® EM64T system, watch the instructions provided on your display when your
computer first boots. A line of text appears, telling you which key to
press to enter the BIOS settings.
Once you have entered your BIOS setup program, find the section
where you can alter your boot sequence. The default is often C, A or A,
C (depending on whether you boot from your hard drive [C] or a diskette
drive [A]). Change this sequence so that the CD-ROM is first in your
boot order and that C or A (whichever is your typical boot default) is
second. This instructs the computer to first look at the CD-ROM drive
for bootable media; if it does not find bootable media on the CD-ROM
drive, it then checks your hard drive or diskette drive.
Save your changes before exiting the BIOS. For more information,
refer to the documentation that came with your system.
After a short delay, a screen containing the boot:
prompt should appear. The screen contains information on a variety of
boot options. Each boot option also has one or more help screens
associated with it. To access a help screen, press the appropriate
function key as listed in the line at the bottom of the screen.
As you boot the installation program, be aware of two issues:
Once the boot: prompt appears, the installation
program automatically begins if you take no action within the
first minute. To disable this feature, press one of the help screen
function keys.
If you press a help screen function key, there is a slight
delay while the help screen is read from the boot media.
Normally, you only need to press [Enter] to boot.
Be sure to watch the boot messages to review if the Linux kernel detects your
hardware. If your hardware is properly detected, continue to the next
section. If it does not properly detect your hardware, you may need to
restart the installation and use one of the boot options provided in
Appendix F Additional Boot Options.
Your Itanium system should be able to boot the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation
program directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD #1. If your Itanium cannot boot the
installation program from the CD-ROM (or if you want to perform a hard
drive, NFS, FTP, or HTTP installation) you must boot from an LS-120
diskette. Refer to Section 4.3.2.2 Booting the Installation Program from an LS-120
Diskette for
more information.
To boot from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD #1 follow these steps:
Remove all media except Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD #1.
From the Boot Option menu choose
EFI Shell.
At the Shell> prompt, change to the file
system on the CD-ROM. For example, in the above sample
map output, the system partition on the CD-ROM is
fs1. To change to the fs1
file system, type fs1: at the prompt.
Type elilo linux to boot into the
installation program.
If your Itanium cannot boot from Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD #1, you must boot from an
LS-120 diskette. If you want to perform a hard drive, NFS, FTP, or HTTP
installation, you must boot from boot LS-120 diskette.
You must create an LS-120 boot image file diskette from the boot
image file on CD #1: images/boot.img. To create
this diskette in Linux, insert a blank LS-120 diskette and type the
following command at a shell prompt:
dd if=boot.img of=/dev/hda bs=180k
Replace boot.img with the full path to
the boot image file and /dev/hda with the correct
device name for the LS-120 diskette drive.
If you are not using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD, the installation program starts
in text mode and you must choose a few basic options for your system.
To boot from an LS-120 diskette follow these steps:
Insert the LS-120 diskette you made from the boot image file
boot.img. If you are performing a local CD-ROM
installation but booting off the LS-120 diskette, insert the Red Hat Enterprise Linux
CD #1 also. If you are performing a hard drive, NFS, FTP, or
HTTP installation, you do not need the CD-ROM.
From the Boot Option menu choose
EFI Shell.
At the Shell> prompt, change the device to
the LS-120 drive by typing the command
fs0:, using the example
map output above.
Type elilo linux to boot into the
installation program.
While it is easiest to boot using a CD-ROM and perform a graphical
installation, sometimes there are installation scenarios where booting in
a different manner may be needed. This section discusses additional boot
options available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
For Itanium users:
To pass options to the boot loader on an Itanium system, enter
the following at the EFI Shell prompt:
elilo linux option
For x86, AMD64, and Intel® EM64T users:
To pass options to the boot loader on an x86, AMD64, or Intel® EM64T
system, use the instructions as provided in the boot loader option samples
below.
To perform a text mode installation, at the
installation boot prompt, type:
linux text
ISO images have an md5sum embedded in them. To test the
checksum integrity of an ISO image, at the installation boot prompt,
type:
linux mediacheck
The installation program prompts you to insert a CD or
select an ISO image to test, and select OK to
perform the checksum operation. This checksum operation can be
performed on any Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD and does not have to be performed in a
specific order (for example, CD #1 does not have to be the first CD
you verify). It is strongly recommended to perform this operation on
any Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD that was created from downloaded ISO images. This
command works with the CD, DVD, hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO
installation methods.
Also in the images/ directory is the
boot.iso file. This file is an ISO image than can
be used to boot the installation program. To use the
boot.iso, your computer must be able to boot from
its CD-ROM drive, and its BIOS settings must be configured to do
so. You must then burn the boot.iso file onto a
recordable/rewriteable CD-ROM.
If you need to perform the installation in serial
mode, type the following command:
linux console=<device>
For text mode installations, use:
linux text console=<device>
In the above command, <device>
should be the device you are using (such as ttyS0 or ttyS1). For
example, linux text console=ttyS0.
Text mode installations using a serial terminal work best when
the terminal supports UTF-8. Under UNIX and Linux, Kermit supports
UTF-8. For Windows, Kermit '95 works well. Non-UTF-8 capable
terminals works as long as only English is used during the
installation process. An enhanced serial display can be used by
passing the utf8 command as a boot-time option to
the installation program. For example:
Options can also be passed to the kernel. For example, to instruct
the kernel to use all the RAM in a system with 128 MB of RAM, at the
installation boot prompt, enter:
linux mem=128M
For text mode installations, use:
linux text mem=128M
With most computers, there is no need to pass this argument to the
kernel. The kernel detects the amount of memory your system has in most
cases. However, using this command is often helpful for testing
purposes. For example, you can boot with less memory by passing a
linux mem=64M or linux text
mem=64M option to the kernel.
After entering any options, press [Enter] to boot
using those options.
If you need to specify boot options to identify your hardware,
please write them down. The boot options are needed during the boot
loader configuration portion of the installation (refer to Section 4.17 x86, AMD64, and Intel® EM64T Boot Loader
Configuration for more information).
