An install guide for RH6.2.
Sadly dated, but still could be of some use, perhaps.
The PCQ June 2000 CD of Red Hat 6.2 that you are holding in your hands should be the easiest Linux install that you’ve done in a long time. Essentially, the Linux install can be demarcated into a few clear sections. Sometimes, you could stumble over one section while the rest will be a breeze. The PCQ CD has the Red Hat documentation that can be explored directly off the CD. These manuals provide more in-depth information on the topics touched upon briefly here.
Preparing to install
Never forget that Murphy ("If anything can go wrong, it will") is close at hand. So, before you start, backup all the critical data on your hard disk. Make sure that you have approximately 1.5 GB of free hard disk space. Gather a local Linux guru, some food, drink (not essential, but nice), and the PCQ CD (essential and nice). It also makes sense to get two clean and freshly formatted floppies. If this is your first time, get as many hardware details about your machine as you can. This may also be a good time to hunt for your monitor manual.
Installing Linux
Booting into Linux is the next phase. If you have a BIOS that allows you to boot off the CD, that’s one problem solved. Enter into the BIOS and configure to boot off the CD-ROM. If this is not possible, you could use the autoboot application in the dosutils directory on the CD. If you’re unable to use autoboot, then you’ll need to create a boot disk to start installation. More information on this process is available in the install guide on the CD. When the machine boots up, you’ll get a prompt that reads
boot:
At this point, you could choose a graphical install (press Enter) or choose to install in text mode (type text and press Enter). I would recommend the text mode; it’s faster and always works straight out of the box. An example that serves to make the point is the i810-based motherboards. The video card works perfectly fine if you’ve booted into Linux, but stubbornly refuses to work during an install. If you’ve installed Linux before and are sure that X Window support for your machine (video card and monitor) works fine, then the graphical install is a good idea.
The next phase involves configuring the machine to install Linux. This includes the next few screens in which you’ve to choose the language to install in (English), the keyboard layout (US), media (local CD-ROM), and the mouse port, if you chose graphical install. Since Linux is a powerful operating system and can perform a variety of tasks, you’ve to decide if you want your machine to act as a server, workstation, or something completely different. For most users, a workstation install is more than sufficient. If you have special constraints such as lack of space, you may want to go in for a Custom install.
Partitioning your hard disk
Now you need to decide where you want to install Linux. There are two options at this point. It’s ideal to store and use Linux in a special partition of its own. However, Red Hat 6.2 offers a feature by which it’s possible to install Linux on a DOS partition and work with it. Linux creates a large file on your Windows partition and works off it. In order to boot into such a Linux install, you’ll have to use a boot disk. There’s no other method to boot into such a Linux partition, at least currently. This method is not recommended unless there’s no other alternative available. In a test conducted at PCQ Labs, we found that not only did the install take up to five times longer, the installed Linux system was also significantly slower than normal, and the boot up process is painfully slow, to say the least.
If you have a partition that you can delete, you could use that to install Linux. If you don’t have a partition, you’ll need to create one without destroying your existing partitions. The standard DOS utility Fdisk is unable to do such manipulation and you may need to use tools such as PartitionMagic or FIPS (available on the CD in the /dosutils directory). See the box "Using FIPS" for more information.
What goes where?
During the install, you’ll need to choose the location where your Linux files are going to be stored. This location is known as a mount point. To begin with, ensure that the display tells you that you have free hard disk space (if you have existing partitions that you want to install Linux over, remove them). Linux insists on having an area designated as swap space. You need to decide how much space to allocate for this. A rough estimate is to add a swap partition of twice as much of physical memory your machine has. Somewhere between 32 MB to 256 MB is a safe bet (see the article "Fine tuning your Linux Machine", page 47 in this issue, on where to place the swap partitions). Due to disk geometry, even though you ask it to allocate 127 MB, the allocation may be a value in excess of this (generally 133 MB). Don’t worry about that. This partition will not require a name.
Configuration
If you have to connect to a server or a LAN, you need to supply information and make a decision between using DHCP (letting the DHCP server assign a IP address) or using a static IP address (use a typical private Class C IP address such as 192.168.1.1, rather than using one from a range that’s not classified as private. RFC1918). Similarly, the DNS server entries can also be filled in.
The next screen concerns the time zone setting—the correct setting for India is Asia/Calcutta. Linux automatically assumes the existence of a system administrator or superuser. The login name for such a user is "root". Create a secure password and remember this password. The default rule for root use is that unless absolutely required, do not login as root. So, it makes good sense to create an additional login account for yourself. The next screen deals with the nature of password storage (MD5 and Shadow passwords) and should be left alone as the defaults are perfectly all right.
Installing packages
If you had chosen a machine type (Server, Workstation), the install will now proceed. In case you choose "Custom", you have the freedom to pick and choose exactly which packages to install. After you finish this section, the install tries to detect your video card and load the appropriate X server. In most cases, support has improved to such an extent that there should be hardly any problems in installing your card. You may be required to add information if Linux is unable to detect your specific hardware. This could include video memory, horizontal and vertical refresh rates, and other details. Once this is done, you can test and view the performance at various color depths and resolutions.
The next phase of the install involves watching the packages being installed. You could now safely take a walk, hike, or whatever, depending on the speed and memory available on your machine. From a 25-minute install on a PII/233 with 64 MB RAM to 2 hours on the same machine on a DOS partition install, this time can vary. If the install gets stuck here and doesn’t proceed even after a very long time, you may need to reboot and reinstall.
Post-installation configuration
After the reboot that terminates the install process, there are a few more things to be wrapped up. This may be a good time to set up your video card (if it didn’t work right off) and sound card (for an update on the sound installation of the i810, please visit the resource site mentioned below). Boot into Linux and login as root. The Red Hat setup tool can be invoked by typing
# setup
at the prompt. Once this is done, you may want to configure your bootup process. This could involve copying vmlinuz or configuring lilo (see box "Booting Into Linux"). You’ll find an update script provided by PCQ that installs some very useful stuff, including security software to secure your machine. As root, you’ll need to type the following commands
# mount /mnt/cdrom
# cd /mnt/cdrom/pcq
# ./pcqupdt
This script will set up your machine if you need it to act as a DNS (Domain Name Server) or as an Internet gateway. If you don’t require these options, you could safely ignore them. The script will then prompt you for some additional HOWTOs, OpenSSH, and GnomePGP. If you have the space to accommodate these, they are highly recommended. In addition, a few friendly DOS-like command aliases could also be installed.
All the updates, errata, and additional information on the CD or the install that’s available can be found at www.exocore.com/linux. If you succeed in getting things together, let us know by dropping us a mail at linux-register@pcquest.com. For any installation related queries, please write to linux-project@pcquest.com.
The spirit of Linux is both difficult to describe and even more difficult to communicate. It’s resilience, a drive to explore, to go where no penguin has gone before. The path may be long, winding, and difficult to traverse. Do not lose faith, for the journey is itself the destination. In the words of an immortal poet: