6 Chapter 1. Steps to Get You Started
1.8. Preparing for a Hard Drive Installation
Note
Hard drive installations only work from ext2, ext3, or FAT file systems. If you have a file system other
than those listed here, such as reiserfs, you will not be able to perform a hard drive installation.
Hard drive installations require the use of the ISO (or CD-ROM) images. An ISO image is a file
containing an exact copy of a CD-ROM disk image. Because Red Hat Enterprise Linux has so many
packages included with its distribution, there are several ISO images available. After placing the
required ISO images (the binary Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROMs) in a directory, choose to install
from the hard drive. You can then point the installation program at that directory to perform the
installation.
Verifying that the ISO images are intact before you attempt an installation will help to avoid problems
that are often encountered during a hard drive installation. To verify the ISO images are intact prior
to performing an installation, use an md5sum program (many md5sum programs are available for
various operating systems). An md5sum program should be available on the same server as the ISO
images.
To prepare your system for a hard drive installation, you must set the system up in one of the following
ways:
• Using a set of CD-ROMs — Create CD-ROM ISO image files from each installation CD-ROM.
For each CD-ROM, execute the following command on a Linux system:
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/tmp/file-name.iso
• Using ISO images — transfer these images to the system to be installed.
Verifying that ISO images are intact before you attempt an installation, helps to avoid problems.
To verify the ISO images are intact prior to performing an installation, use an md5sum program
(many md5sum programs are available for various operating systems). An md5sum program should
be available on the same Linux machine as the ISO images.
Note
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program has the ability to test the integrity of the installation
media. It works with the CD, DVD, hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO installation methods. Red Hat recom-
mends that you test all installation media before starting the installation process, and before reporting
any installation-related bugs (many of the bugs reported are actually due to improperly-burned CDs).
To use this test, type the following command at the boot: prompt:
linux mediacheck
iSeries system users must remember to add boot options, as are listed in this manual for other
operating systems, by first logging into an OS/400 system as an iSeries user and then setting any
IPL parameters within their partition’s NWSD.
Additionally, if a file called RedHat/base/updates.img exists in the directory from which you
install, it is used for installation program updates. Refer to the file install-methods.txt in the
anaconda RPM package for detailed information on the various ways to install Red Hat Enterprise
Linux, as well as how to apply the installation program updates.