Chapter 3. Installing Red Hat Linux

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Insert the boot diskette into your computer's first diskette drive and reboot (or boot using the CD 

ROM, if your computer supports booting from it). Your BIOS settings may need to be changed to

allow you to boot from the diskette or CD ROM.

Tip

To change your BIOS settings, watch the instructions provided on your display when your computer

first boots. You will see a line of text telling you to press the [Del] or [F1] key to enter the BIOS settings.

Once you have entered your BIOS setup program, find the section where you can alter your boot

sequence. The default is often C, A or A, C (depending on whether you boot from your hard drive [C]

or a diskette drive [A]). Change this sequence so that the CD ROM is first in your boot order and that

C or A (whichever is your typical boot default) is second. This instructs the computer to first look at

the CD ROM drive for bootable media; if it does not find bootable media on the CD ROM drive, it will

then check your hard drive or diskette drive.

Save your changes before exiting the BIOS. For more information, refer to the documentation that

came with your system.

After a short delay, a screen containing the

boot:

prompt should appear. The screen contains infor 

mation on a variety of boot options. Each boot option also has one or more help screens associated

with it. To access a help screen, press the appropriate function key as listed in the line at the bottom

of the screen.

As you boot the installation program, be aware of two issues:

Once you see the

boot:

prompt, the installation program will automatically begin if you take no

action within the first minute. To disable this feature, press one of the help screen function keys.

If you press a help screen function key, there will be a slight delay while the help screen is read

from the boot media.

Normally, you only need to press [Enter] to boot. Watch the boot messages to see if the Linux kernel

detects your hardware. If your hardware is properly detected, please continue to the next section. If it

does not properly detect your hardware, you may need to restart the installation in expert mode.

3.3.1.1. Additional Boot Options

While it is easiest for a user to boot from CD ROM and perform a graphical installation, sometimes

there are installation scenarios where booting in a different manner may be needed. This section

discusses addition boot options available for Red Hat Linux.

Note

Refer to Appendix H for additional boot options not covered in this section.

If you do not wish to perform a graphical installation, you can start a text mode installation using

the following boot command:

boot: linux text

ISO images now have an md5sum embedded in them. To test the checksum integrity of an ISO

image, at the installation boot prompt, type:

boot: linux mediacheck