Chapter 1. Steps to Get You Started

15

1.4.2. Making Installation Diskettes

You may need to create a diskette from an image file; for example, you may need to use updated

diskette images obtained from the Red Hat Linux errata page:

http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/errata/

An image file contains an exact copy (or image) of a diskette's contents. Since a diskette contains file

system information in addition to the data contained in files, the contents of the image file are not

usable until they have been written to a diskette.

To start, you will need a blank, formatted, high density (1.44MB), 3.5 inch diskette. You will need

access to a computer with a 3.5 inch diskette drive. The computer must be able to run either an MS 

DOS program or the

dd

utility found on most Linux like operating systems.

The

images

directory on your Red Hat Linux CD ROM contains the boot images for Red Hat

Linux/x86. Once you have selected the proper image (such as

boot.img

for a CD ROM based in 

stallation or

bootnet.img

for a network installation), transfer the image file onto a diskette using

one of the following methods.

1.4.2.1. Using the

rawrite

Utility

To make a diskette using MS DOS, use the

rawrite

utility included on the Red Hat Linux CD ROM

in the

dosutils

directory. First, label a blank, formatted 3.5 inch diskette appropriately (such as

"Boot Disk" or "Updates Disk"). Insert it into the diskette drive. Then, use the following commands

(assuming your CD ROM is drive

D:

):

C:\

d:

D:\

cd \dosutils

D:\dosutils

rawrite

Enter disk image source file name:

..\images\boot.img

Enter target diskette drive:

a:

Please insert a formatted diskette into drive A: and

press   ENTER   :

[Enter]

D:\dosutils

First,

rawrite

asks you for the filename of a diskette image; enter the directory and name of the

image you wish to write (for example,

..\images\boot.img

). Then

rawrite

asks for a diskette

drive to write the image to; enter

a:

. Finally,

rawrite

asks for confirmation that a formatted diskette

is in the drive you have selected. After pressing [Enter] to confirm,

rawrite

copies the image file

onto the diskette. If you need to make another diskette, label that diskette, and run

rawrite

again,

specifying the appropriate image file.

Note

The rawrite utility only accepts 8.3 type file names, such as filename.img

3

. If you

download

an

update

image

from

http://www.redhat.com

named

something

similar

to

update anaconda 03292002.img, you must rename it as updates.img before you run rawrite.

3. The 8.3 type file name originates from the naming convention of eight characters, a period, and

three characters for a file name extension. This naming convention supports file names between 1 and

8 characters, which cannot have spaces, and may not be contain ? or _ characters at the start of the

name.