Linux Unleashed, Third Edition:Installing Linux
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Choosing Text or Graphics Installation
Red Hat Linux gives you two choices for installation: text-based or X-based. If you have installed Linux before or are familiar with operating systems, you can use either with equal confidence. The graphical interface installation using X is a more visually pleasant process and is a neat aspect of Red Hat Linux.
On the other hand, the text-based installation process is more traditional and familiar to veteran Linux users. If you are unsure of how to use X or of your system configuration with respect to mouse and video card, you should stay with the text-based installation. It guides you through each step with full descriptions on the screen.
Setting Up Your Hard Drive
If you have not set Linux up on your system before or you need to allocate partitions for Linux on your system, you need to use a disk partitioning scheme. Red Hat Linux gives you a choice of two disk partitioning utilities: fdisk and cfdisk. The fdisk utility is similar to the DOS fdisk program. It is covered in more detail in the section “Installing the Linux Partitions” later in this chapter.
The cfdisk utility is similar to fdisk except full-screen. Many people find cfdisk easier to use than fdisk because it uses simple mnemonic commands to perform each function. The choice of partitioning utility is entirely up to you; they both do the same job.
If you have set new partitions on your hard disk for Linux, you must reboot your system to make them effective (don’t forget to write the partition table to disk when you exit either fdisk or cfdisk!). After a reboot, start the installation process again either from your boot floppies or the CD-ROM, and the new disk partitions will be recognized by Linux.
Formatting the Partitions
After the disk partitions are set, Red Hat tries to detect your swap partition. The installation routine displays a window listing the device names of all your swap partitions. To format the swap partition, choose one of the partitions listed (or the only entry if you set up only one swap partition) and choose Yes from the menu to start the formatting. The process takes about a minute, depending on the size of the swap partition.
After the swap partition has been formatted and made available to the kernel, the installation routine detects any Linux data partitions. These are displayed with the option to format them. For a new installation, you should format the Linux partition using this screen.
Setting Up Ethernet
During the swap and Linux data formatting process, Red Hat asks whether you want to install Ethernet now. If you have an Ethernet card in your machine and want to set it up while the installation process is running, you can do so. If you don’t have an Ethernet card or want to delay the installation for later, that’s fine, too, and you skip a few steps.
If you elect to set up Ethernet now, you are asked for a machine name and a domain name. After that, you are prompted for the IP address of your machine and the subnet mask (which is generated automatically and probably doesn’t need changing). A few other configuration settings (such as whether you are using a gateway and NFS server) might be displayed. Again, the default settings are fine for almost every system.
You are asked if your machine uses a gateway. If you use a separate machine to access the Internet or another network, answer yes. If you are not planning to use the machine as a gateway, answer no. If you use a gateway, you are asked for its identification.
You also are asked whether this machine is to use a nameserver. If your network has a DNS (Domain Name System) server that performs IP address conversions, answer Yes and supply its identification. Otherwise, answer No. You can always add a nameserver later after the system is up and running.
Setting Up the Mouse
After a message about the Metro-X server supplied with Red Hat Linux and a selection of the type of graphics card to use (if in doubt, select standard VGA or SVGA), you are asked for the type of mouse attached to your system. (The mouse is not tied to Metro-X specifically; this is just the way the installation routine works.) Select the entry that matches the type of mouse you use, or one that is compatible with your mouse. You are then asked to which device your mouse is attached. In most cases, the mouse is attached to COM1 (/dev/ttyS0) or COM2 (/dev/ttyS1). Select the proper entry. If you are not sure which port your mouse uses, select COM1—it is the most common configuration.
Configuring X
If you have selected the X-based installation routine, Red Hat Linux tries to determine your video system so it can start X. If you are using the text-based installation routine, this process is skipped for now.
In most cases Red Hat Linux tries to set up the X system by checking the type of video card you have. You will probably see a message asking whether you want the installation routine to autoprobe, which means it tries to determine the type of video card and video chipset installed on your machine. If you have a particular reason for not autoprobing (some video cards hang if they are sent the wrong sequence), you must supply the configuration information manually. If you are unsure of whether autoprobing should be allowed, let it try. The worst that can happen (usually) is that the system will hang, and you will have to reboot.
After autoprobing, the installation routine displays the type of video chipset it found and the amount of memory it thinks is on the card. For most systems, accept the defaults unless you know exactly what type of chipset and onboard RAM you have.
After answering all the questions properly, X starts, and you can see the X-based installation procedure.
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