1. Format a floppy disk, this will be used to create an emergency boot disk - a definite must!
2. In MS-DOS, insert your Red Hat Linux 5.1 CD-ROM.
3. Enter > cd e: (Or whatever your CD-ROM's drive specification letter is)
4. Enter > cd dosutils
5. Enter > autoboot.bat
6. The installation program greets you with a welcome message. Unless I specify another key to select anything, always use the <Enter> key. Press it now.
7. Select your language.
8. Select your keyboard type.
9. Select 'Local CDROM' for your installation method. This is by far the most common. If you're using a different method, consult the Red Hat Linux documentation ('D:\Doc\Rhmanual\Manual\index.htm').
10. Select 'Ok' when you are prompted to 'Insert your Red Hat CD into your CD drive now.' The CD has to be in your drive to have got this far!?! - a strange request.
11. Select 'Install' for your installation path.
12. Unless you have any SCSI adapters, select 'No'. If you're unsure, then you're very unlikely to have any SCSI adapters. SCSI adapters are almost always installed by the system's owner.
13. Select 'Disk Druid' at the 'Disk Setup' screen. This hard-drive partition package is far superior to MS-DOS and UNIX's 'Fdisk', (Remember: You're creating UNIX partitions not DOS partitions, so MS-DOS's Fdisk will not recognise UNIX partitions.)
14. Every time I select Disk Druid or Fdisk, I am informed that I have an 'Fdisk Error'. If you get this, ignore it and select 'Skip Drive'. I think this must be some kind of balls-up, because despite this error message, Linux installs perfectly.
15. Now comes the important bit - setting up your partitions in 'Disk Druid'. This will probably appear overwhelming to those who have become too dependent on Microsoft (Use the left and right cursor keys to move about or the <Tab> key. As always, use the <Enter> key to select anything).
16. Select 'Add' and enter / as the 'Mount Point' (the partition's name). This is called your 'root' partition, and will contain things necessary to boot your system and contain configuration files. Make the size 100 Megs and make it growable by selecting it with the <Spacebar>. Note: Asterix (*) always means an option has been selected/on by default. Whereas a blank space always means deactivated/off by default. Leave 'Type' as 'Linux Native' and don't touch the 'Allowable Drives' section.
17. Next create a partition called /usr (remember UNIX is case-sensitive, so make sure /usr is in small case). This will predominantly contain your applications. Red Hat advises making this partition between 500 and 700 megs. If you want to install every application on the Red Hat CD during installation (which I definitely recommend) then you need 523MB. Make it 700MB (to allow for other software to be installed in the future), growable and of type 'Linux Native'.
18. You must have a 'swap' partition. Red Hat recommends that as a rule-of-thumb, your swap partition should be of equal size to your RAM. Unless you have very little memory (e.g. 4 or 8 megs) I recommend you enter 1MB, upon which Linux will allocate anything from 3-15Mb of disk space (for some unknown reason Linux likes to allocate random amounts of disk space in Disk Druid). If you're planning on setting-up a large network, you could make this equal the amount of memory on your server. Make it growable and of type 'Linux Swap'. Swap partitions are not given a label.
19. The last partition to add is /home. This is to contain every user's work. UNIX files use very little hard-drive space. Therefore 100 Megs is more than enough. Make it growable and of type 'Linux Native'.
20. Select 'Ok' and 'Yes' to save changes to partition tables.
21. Select 'Ok' again to select your active swap space. As long as you only set-up one swap partition this partition will be the only one to select from.
22. At the moment, the new partitions have yet to be formatted. Make sure you select every partition using the <Spacebar> and then select 'Ok'.
23. Scroll down to the bottom of the 'Components to Install' list and select 'Everything'. Ignore the 'Select individual packages' for your first-time install (This feature allows you to select each individual piece of software you wish to install). Select 'Ok', and then 'Ok' again when the install log note appears. The installation process then commences (It takes 11 minutes on my 20-speed CD-ROM to install everything).
24. Select 'Ok' when it detects your mouse type, and then again with a list so that you may choose manually if you want. I recommend staying with the one detected.
25. The system will then detect your graphic card.
26. Now it's time to select your monitor. Chances are, your monitor is not in the list of supported monitors. I don't recommend selecting 'Custom' as this involves some technical know-how about your monitor, and can in fact damage your monitor if you don't know what you're doing. I recommend going for 'Generic Multisync' (The one I went for), this works with both my monitors. This gave me a screen resolution in X (Linux's GUI) of 1024 x 768 and 65,536 colours (16-bit), whilst 'Generic Monitor' only gave me 640 x 480 and 256 colours (8-bit).
27. 'Xconfigurator' will begin probing your video card when you select the 'Ok' button. If all goes well you will get something like the following:
Probing Finished
Xconfigurator has successfully probed your video card. The
default video mode will be:
Color Depth: 16 bits per pixel
Resolution : 1024 x 768
Do you want to accept this setting, or select for yourself?
28. Select 'Use Default'.
29. You will then be asked if you want to configure LAN (not dialup) networking for your installed system. Unless you're installing Linux onto a file server, which I don't recommend for your first time install, select 'No'.
30. Next you're asked if you want to configure your timezone. If like me you live in the UK scroll up the list until you get to 'Europe/London' and select it.
31. When the options box appears for which services should be automatically started, I strongly advise leaving them as they are. Select 'Ok'.
32. Now it's time to configure your printer. Obviously if you don't have one, select 'No, if you do though, select 'Yes'.
33. If your printer is plugged into the back of your computer (which it probably is) - 'local' is the option to select.
34. Leave the 'Name of Queue' and 'Spool Directory' with the default values.
35. Linux will then detect the device your printer is attached to. Leave the printer device with the value it was given.
36. Select your printer from the list of supported printers. Don't worry if it's not on the list. For instance, I have an 'Epson Stylus Color 600' and yet both the 'Epson Stylus 800 & ESC/P 2 printers' and the 'Epson Stylus Color' work fine. Just try to pick something similar to your printer and try it out.
37. In the next dialog box, select 'a4' for paper size, and select the highest resolution. Also select 'Fix stair-stepping of text'. Then select 'Ok' twice.
38. Now enter a root password. Don't worry about nothing appearing - Linux is registering it.
39. You will be asked if you wish to create a boot-disk for your system. Select 'Yes'. Insert a blank floppy disk and select 'Ok'.
40. When prompted, leave the bootloader to install as 'Master Boot Record', especially if Windows is already installed on your system i.e. selecting 'First sector of Boot Partition' will corrupt your Windows installation. Select 'Ok'.
41. Ignore the next 'LILO Installation' dialogue box and select 'Ok' again.
42. The bootable partition dialogue allows you to change the boot labels. They're fine as they are, so I would recommend leaving them. Select 'Ok'.
43. That's it, you have now installed Red Hat Linux 5.1 on your system! Remove the floppy from your drive, and press <Enter> to reboot.
44. If you have another operating system on your computer e.g. Windows, then after the memory test a prompt will appear like so :
LILO Boot:
You can either :
45. Enter > root at the login prompt, to log on as the super-user.
46. Enter the password, you selected in step 38.
47. Enter > startx to take a look at Linux's GUI.
48. I suggest your first port of call be:
Start > Program > Red Hat Linux Installation Guide.
Enjoy using this super-powerful operating system!
Laurence Hunter
thebits@thebits.co.uk