Redhat Linux 9.0 Installation Guide

Institute of Electronic Governance

A Note to the Fresh Users

Linux still lags behind windows in the hardware support. Hence, if some sophisticated devices are not recognized, hope that they will be supported in near future, depending on the popularity of these devices. Linux supports almost all devices now a days including USB devices such as digital camaras, webcams, printers, external drives etc. but only limited models.Don't get frustrated in the first instance. You will enjoy crash-less operation and happy nights in lieu.If you are purchasing a new gadget, check if is supported already at the Linux site

(http://www.linux.org/hardware/index.html).You loaded Linux to enjoy the freedom and coming out of the clutches of propriotary software. knowing all this ... So be cool if something is not working immediately. Consult the Gurus and web sites before finally withdraw from using it, in case of absolute must.

Start Installation with CD-1/3 of RH 9. The User is expected to have the basic knowledge of Drives, BIOS Setup, Selecting an Item with Mouse etc..

Make sure that the boot drive is CDROM. If not, set the BIOS options

Insert RH 9 CD-1 in the drive and restart the machine

This gives you the boot: prompt

Press <Enter> to start graphic Installation

Click Next on the welcome screen

You can read the Release notes during the installation by clicking it

Select a language (English is Default) and click next

Select Keyboard (US Keyboard is default and OK normally) and Click Next

Select Mouse (default mouse is normally OK) and click next

Select Custom Installation (click the radio button). If you have an existing Linux version, it also shows Upgrade Option. In that case you can select that for upgrade. Click next

Select Manually Partition with Disk Druid and Click Next

The Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Partitions

• The hard Disk is the storage space for a computer. This can be split logically into various partitions.• Each partition can be of any type like FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, HPFS and so on..• If you plan to have more than one operating systems on the same machine, the disk should be

logically partitioned first, before installation. • The first sector of the disk is a special sector called the boot sector, which records the information

about the various partitions and the operating systems on the disk.• If you are planning to have Windows and Linux, then install Windows first. Otherwise, windows erases

the Linux installation by overwriting the boot sector. • During the windows installation, it asks for the partition information. Be careful to answer properly to

set aside certain space unallocated for windows (allocate all space for one partition).• If you have already allocated all space for windows, use disk de-fragmentation tool to collect all the

free space at the end and you can use a program called FIPS to create a new partition from the existing partition. But be careful to take a backup before venture. Get ready with one or two new floppies to have undo of FIPS.

• Install Windows as usual. It is out of the scope of this document.• In a typical case of about 40GB Hard disk, the partition strategy can be

• Windows C: Windows D: Linux boot Linux root Linux Var Linux Swap Linux home (user data)

• 10GB (hda1), 15GB (hda2), 120MB (hda3), 8GB (hda4), 4GB (hda5), 600MB (swap), Remaining (hda6)

• Please note that the partition numbers may not be the same, since some partitions will be reserved by the partition program itself, for example, hda4 may not be available, but it may the aggregation of hda5 and hda6. In this case we simply don’t use the partition hda4 but use hda5 and hda6.

Disk Partitions, Drive Names & Recommended Partitions

Disk Druid is a partition and configuration Tool for the hard disks.It shows all the partitions if the disk is already partitioned including free space available.If you have windows partitions, these are also shown and you can select a mount point (directory name) for the partitions, so that you can access them from Linux.The Hard Disks are named as Primary master: 'hda', Primary slave: 'hdb', Secondary master = 'hdc', Slave = 'hdd' (If you have one hard disk and a cdrom, most likely HDD = had and CDD = hdb)Within hda, the partitions are named sequentially as hda1, hda2 and so on Consider hda1 , and hda2 are windows C: and D: (primary and extended partitions of Windows) and we have a free space of 10 GB at least for Linux.

Partition Partition-type Size Mount Point hda1 FAT-32 --- /win1 (whatever size that it has already) hda2 FAT-31 --- /win2 (whatever size that it has already) hda3 ext3 120MB /boot hda4 ext3 6000MB / hda5 ext3 1200MB /home (user data partition) hda6 swap 600MB --- (all remaining space- no mount point)Leave maximum space (remaining for the /home since this is the user space and need not be formatted even if we re-install the OS. Hence, the data is not lost from this partition.

Disk Druid - Creating Partitions

Mounting Existing Partitions:●Select any windows partition and double click (or) click on edit button●This opens a dialog box as shown in the figure shown in next slide. ●Type '/win1' or '/win2' .. ●Ensure that the “leave Unchanged (Preserve data)” is selected (default) and Click Ok●Do the same for all the existing partitions, selecting the proper mount pointCreating New Partitions:●Click 'new' to create new partition and fill the details that we decided earlier●Select proper mount point from the list menu (or) directly enter the path●You must specify the root directory at least (/). Though others can be mounted later it is recommended to give mount points to all at this time●Select format the partition for the root●Select ext3 for file system type for all the types.●If you have more than one hard disk, choose the drive you wish to allocate space●Select Fixed size for all but the last partition, normally the swap, for which we will allocate all the remaining space in that hard disk by selecting “fill to maximum allowable space” button.●Click OK●Create all partitions like this. If necessary, delete a partition and re-create

Create all the partitions and ensure that mount points are set to all the partitions including the windows partitions. Swap will not have mount point

Partitioning with Disk Druid – See the explanation given

Review the Partition information and click Next

If you have Windows also, Select a default OS. You can edit the label if required. Leave the other Fields unchanged. Click Next

Network Configuration

If you wish to have Automatic IP Assigned to you on your LAN, or on Internet, click edit and check both configure using DHCP and Activate on Boot check boxes.If you wish to have an IP assigned by yourself, uncheck configure using DHCP and enter IP address and net-mask. For example,192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0Click OKClick Manual mode and then enter your host name (host.domain) and IP Address of DNS ServersClick OK

Fill IP Address and Net-mask and click OK and finally click next

Click next after filling all the fields

The Entry for

IP: 192.168.1.1

Net mask: 255.255.255.0

Network: 192.168.1.0

Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Primary DNS:

192.168.1.1

Secondary DNS:

202.54.96.1

Machine Name: svl

Domain: svl.edu

Select Firewall Rules (omit telnet and FTP if you don't use them). You can specify any other port which you wish to allow (Ex: 8080 for Tomcat) and click Next

Select Default Language and Other Languages (if required) and click next

Select Asia/Calcutta (or point to it in map as shown by the small green arrow in the figure) and click Next

Select a difficult to guess root password and type it in both text boxes and click next. If the passwords don’t match, re-type them

Tick Enable MD5 Password and Enable Shadow Passwords and Un-check Others (This is important because, you may not be able to login otherwise). Click Next

If you forget or intentionally check enable NIS or LDAP or Kerberos or SMB, you can not boot with the passwd given.In such case reboot with the first CD and at boot prompt type '' linux rescue'' and hit enterThis will ask some questions and finally boots with the file system root mounted on /mnt/sysimage.Issue the command at root prompt:# chroot /mnt/sysimage# passwd rootGive password now # setupThis brings the setup menuSelect Authentication and uncheck all leaving only MD5 and Shadow Password checked.Issue the command 'exit' twice to reboot the machine. Remove CDROM and let it boot with HD.

Select the packages required by checking the group and by selecting the details. Otherwise, you can select install everything at the end of the window (Scroll down to the end) and click next

Tick “Everything” if you are not sure what to select (around 5GB required)

Say Yes for any additional packages that are required to fulfil our selection (shown as separate dialog by the installer) and click next (If no dependency is there we don’t get the dialog box)

The Installation begins and takes about an hour even on a faster machine (for install everything).

Insert Disk 2 and Disk 3 when asked

Insert a fresh floppy in the drive and click next. If you don't need a boot disk, select No and proceed (In most cases you don’t need a boot disk if you have the install CDROM, though it is recommended normally)

Click next for Graphical Interface since, in most cases it properly identifies the hardware

Again click next as in many cases the hardware is found properly

Select the resolution and color depth, and select a login type. If text is selected, you must start Graphical Windows by issuing ''startx'' command after login

Congratulations, you have installed Linux :-) Press exit and remove the CD in the drive (cd-3) to reboot the system with the new Linux!!

Post Installation and a piece of advise

After the Linux System started for the first time, it checks the configuration and setting of the desktop. It asks for other disks if you have (like Documentation etc.). If you have documentation CD insert it in the drive and continue. Otherwise simply skip the steps. This brings the Linux machine into usable mode.Normally you shouldn't have any trouble loading the OS. In case of failure, consult any book on Redhat Linux (There are a number of wonderful books in the market. Redhat Linux 9 Bible is one such book with 3 CD set).