Name:



CIT 370 Lab 7

Topic: Installing Linux

Due Date: Tuesday, September 29

In this lab, you will install Linux CentOS 5.3 onto your computer. So as not to interfere with the current computer system, we will install CentOS as a virtual machine by using VMware. If you would like to also perform this installation on your home computer, see the instructions at the end of this lab.

NOTE: VMware is a program that emulates another machine. When running inside of your VMware window, you will only have control of your virtual machine through your mouse and keyboard. To interact with your real computer, press Ctrl+Alt and it will “toggle off” the virtual machine and return you to your real computer. Clicking anywhere inside the VMware window toggles it back to the virtual machine. Both machines are actually running (the processor is running both your real machine and your virtual machine) but your input/output interaction is limited to one or the other.

Setting up VMware for an installation:

1. Get a CentOS 5.3 DVD from your instructor. Log in to your Linux machine. Place the DVD into the optical drive and close the drive. This will cause a file browser window to open in Ubuntu. You can ignore it (minimize it or close it).

2. Start VMware. From the pop-up window, select Local host and click OK. Now select New Virtual Machine. Now you will be using the virtual machine wizard. Click Next.

3. Select a Typical configuration and Next.

4. For Guest Operating System, select Linux and from the Version box, select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Click Next.

5. For name, enter your last name first initial as in zappaf for Frank Zappa. The storage location of the virtual machine will automatically be updated, do not change the location. Click Next.

6. Select Use bridged networking and Next.

7. For diskspace, use 8.0 GB (should default to this) and Allocate all disk space now, click on Finish.

8. The disk image will be created. This takes a couple of minutes. Start reading the textbook material and/or the installation course notes. You should have time through this lab to read all of this material.

9. Once the disk image has been created, you will be taken to the main VMware window where you will have a number of options. From here, select “Start this virtual machine” (or click the green triangle).

NOTE: if you are installing VMware at home, you will be prompted to enter a serial number. If you downloaded the software from the VMware website, you will be asked for the serial number here. If you obtained a copy from us, we will have given you a serial number.

At this point, you will install CentOS 5.3 into your VMware. Continue with step 10.

Installing CentOS 5.3:

10. You will see a bunch of installation information scroll by. This will take a couple of minutes. You will then be sent to a blue screen where you will start interacting with the installation software. The first step is the CD Media Test. All of these DVDs have already been tested, so you should be able to skip this step. Press the key to select “Skip” and press .

11. At the next screen, click the Next button. Select English, Next and then select U.S. English, Next. These should be defaults. You will receive a warning pop-up window that the partition table is unreadable. Click Yes to continue, at this point, you will repartition the hard disk. In VMware, you are actually repartitioning the sectioned off portion of the machine’s harddisk, not the entire harddisk. But on another computer, you will be erasing, partitioning, and then writing to the entire harddisk. So if you are installing CentOS outside of VMware, make sure you proceed with caution by specifying the proper harddisk.

NOTE: the following choices may not make sense to you. In a little while, you will have to sit and wait while CentOS is physically installed from the DVD. During this time, you will read in the installation notes and the textbook about these concepts.

12. At the next screen, select Remove linux partitions on selected drives and create default layout (this should be the default) and then click in the Review and modify partitioning layout checkbox. Click on Next. A warning pop-up window appears, click Yes to continue.

13. You will see how your hard disk is currently partitioned with LVM Volume Groups (which consists of VolGroup00), and Hard Drives (which consist of /dev/sda). Select VolGroup00 and click on the Delete button. A warning pop-up window will appear after each deletion asking to confirm the deletion, do so. Next, delete /dev/sda by doing the same thing. After deleting, you will see that the entire /dev/sda consists of free space of 8GB. You will now create 4 partitions for your Linux system. For each of these, start by clicking New and then filling out the pop-up window.

a. Mount Point: select / (root), size of 4000 (that’s 4 GB), fixed size, click on Ok.

b. Mount Point: select /var, size of 1000, fixed size, click on Ok.

c. Select File System Type: swap (do not select a Mount Point), size of 1000, fixed size, click on Ok.

d. Mount Point: select /home, rather than specifying a size, click on Fill maximum allowable size, click on Ok.

Near the top of this window, you will see how you have partitioned your disk. It should be divided into four sections of size 4000 MB, 1000 MB, 1000 MB and 2196 MB (approximately). Once done, click Next to partition the hard disk.

14. At this next screen, you will be asked what boot loader to use. GRUB should already be selected, if not, select it to be installed on /dev/sda. Click Next.

15. For network devices, you should not have to change anything but make sure “automatically by DHCP” is selected for Hostname. At the next screen, America/New York should be selected for the time zone, click Next.

16. You are asked to supply a root password. This password will be used by the system administrator (you) every time a system administration chore is required such as creating an account, installing software, or whatever. You want to use a password that you will never forget (if you forget the root password, you may very well need to reinstall the OS, thus wiping out all previous saved work!) For this course, we will use cit370 as the password so that you won’t forget it. Use lower case letters.

17. At the next screen, you can specify what software should automatically be installed with CentOS. Desktop – Gnome should already be selected. This is the only software we will install for now. Also make sure Customize Later is selected. Click Next. The installation is ready to begin, select Next to start the installation. The installation takes a while (20+ minutes typically). While the installation is taking place, read the installation course notes and pages 328-335 and 348-367 of your textbook (or as much of these materials as you can). Occasionally look at the screen to make sure that the installation is proceeding.

18. When installation is done, the CD ROM drive will open. Remove the DVD from the drive. Now, to complete set up, click on Reboot. This takes a few more minutes. NOTE: do not reboot your computer, you are rebooting the virtual machine. If you have installed this outside of VMware, then you will need to reboot your computer.

Finishing up:

19. Once the machine has rebooted in CentOS, click Forward to finalize the installation process. You are asked about a Firewall. Select the defaults (enabled, trust ssh) and click forward. Respond Yes if a pop-up window appears. Similarly, stick with the defaults regarding SELinux (enforcing secure Linux). These may be useful for your home computer depending on the restrictions placed on your Internet service provider.

20. Set the Date & Time as needed although the date should be correct (time may be wrong, use military time, so for instance 3 pm is actually 15). Click Forward.

21. Now you are asked to create an initial user. Use your username (same as your CIT 370 username, which should be lastname first init (like zappaf for Frank Zappa) and use cit370 as your initial password. Click Forward.

22. Leave the soundcard settings as is and click Forward. Skip the additional CDs step by clicking on Finish. NOTE: if your virtual machine hangs at this point, click on the Stop button (the red square) and then click on start your virtual machine.

23. Log in to the account that you created in step 21. NOTE: you could also log in as root but this is typically unsafe in the GUI environment. You will instead only log in as root by opening up a terminal window from time to time. Play around with the GUI to familiarize yourself with it.

24. If you have a home printer, see installing a printer below. NOTE: if you do not plan on printing from Linux, skip this step.

25. Start the Firefox Web Browser (under the Applications menu, select Internet and then Firefox). Go to and save this file. Edit this file in either vi or a text editor and answer the questions. Once done, print the file (if in the lab) or use Firefox to log onto your email server and email your answers to your instructor. Exit Mozilla and any other applications in your CentOS environment.

26. Shut down your virtual computer through the CentOS shutdown menu (not your real computer!) This will shut down the virtual computer. Once it is shut down (it takes a few moments), close your VMware window. Now you can do other things or log off.

All future labs will be done in your CentOS virtual machine.

If you wish to install CentOS 5.3 at home, there are two possibilities.

1. Use a window’s computer that you no longer want to use for windows. This will WIPE OUT anything that you previously had on the computer, so this is not recommended unless it is an older computer that you know you will not use again for another purpose. If you wish to do this, borrow a CentOS 5.3 DVD, take it home, and insert it into your computer’s optical drive. From this point, follow the instructions starting at step 10 above. NOTE that you need at least 8 GB of hard disk space. When you partition the disk, if your hard disk is larger than 8 GB, then you will have a larger amount of space for /home.

2. OR Use sftp (if you do not have this on your home computer, you can download WinSCP which runs sftp) to connect to ast361-server.hh.nku.edu. Log in using your AST361 account (user name and password). You will be placed in your home directory. Move up two levels and then go to /images/vmware. Copy VMware-server-installer-1.0.8-126538.exe to your home computer. NOTE: If you are a Vista user, VMware Server may not run because of IIS, so you should download VMware-workstation-6.5.1-126130.exe instead (or in addition). Once downloaded you can exit sftp. Now run the installation program. At one point of the installation process, you will be asked for a registration number. If you are installing Server, use A258M-14H69-2110P-5KJHM and if you are installing Workstation, use A000T-2URFK-W403N-49QHE. Go through the installation steps 2-9 above.

3. OR You can also install the software from the VMware website although there is a time restriction of 30 days usage. Go to to download VMware Server Console 1.0.8 or VMware Workstation. If you are a Vista user, VMware Server may not work correctly because of IIS. If your VMware server installation fails, use VMware Workstation instead. During the download process, click on Yes to agree with the licensing agreement and from the next screen, register for your serial number (registration is free). You will have to answer a number of questions about your intended use for VMware. When prompted, respond that it is to be used “for class”. Include NKU as your company name. Once done registering, copy and paste the serial number provided into a text file as you will need it later in this process. Click on the VMware Server for Windows (or Workstation) .exe files and save it to your computer. Execute that file to install the VMware program. Go through the installation steps 2-9 above.

Installing a printer on your home computer:

1. Go to the System menu, select Administration submenu and then Printing. Since installing a printer requires system administrator access, you will be asked for the root password. Enter it. A Printer Configuration window appears.

2. For the first page, you are asked to enter English descriptions of the printer. You can leave the default values or enter whatever makes sense to you. Click Forward. You are now asked what connection you want to use for your printer. Select the proper connection. NOTE: if you connect through a USB port, this will probably not work as CentOS does not seem to acknowledge USB ports. If you have connected through a serial port or the LPT port, select it. You will next have to specify the make of printer (e.g., HP) and then the specific model in order to have the proper printer drivers installed. When done specifying the information, click on the Apply tab.

3. You will find that the printer, under the name you gave it in the first step, is now listed under Local Printers. To see the specific information on the printer, click on the name in the Local Printers list. From the properties list, you can change the device’s URI (not recommended) or other information. You can also print a test page or make this your default printer. NOTE: if you try a test page and it doesn’t work, you should delete this printer (while it is selected, click on the Delete button). If you were successful, you should be able to print to this printer using lp –p name (where name is the name you gave it) or the print selection of the various application software. When done, close the printer installation window.

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