RHEL5 Installation Guide - 4.3.3. Additional Boot Options

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4.3.3. Additional Boot Options

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® 64 users:

To pass options to the boot loader on an x86, AMD64, or Intel® 64 system, use the instructions as provided in the boot loader option samples below.

Note

Refer to Chapter 8, Additional Boot Options for Intel® and AMD Systems for additional boot options not covered in this section.

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:
```
linux console=ttyS0 utf8
```

4.3.3.1. Kernel Options

Options can also be passed to the kernel. For example, to apply updates for the anaconda installation program from a floppy disk enter:


linux updates

For text mode installations, use:


linux text updates

This command will prompt you to insert a floppy diskette containing updates for anaconda. It is not needed if you are performing a network installation and have already placed the updates image contents in rhupdates/ on the server.

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 4.19, “x86, AMD64, and Intel® 64 Boot Loader Configuration” for more information).

For more information on kernel options refer to Chapter 8, Additional Boot Options for Intel® and AMD Systems .

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