Linux Tutorial - Fedora Core and Redhat Linux CD ...



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|This tutorial covers the installation and/or upgrades, configuration and basic administration of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora |

|Core 1-3, Redhat 5.0-9.0 CD-ROM distribution. |

| |

|# Configuration Options |[|

|# Hardware considerations |p|

|# Documentation on the installation CD |i|

|# MS/Windows Backup and Recovery Plan - (if something fails in dual boot installation) |c|

|# Installation |]|

|# Lilo, Grub and boot loaders |[|

|# Completing Install |p|

|# Creating a Linux intall boot floppy for Linux Installation |i|

|# Post Installation Configuration |c|

|# NVidia Graphics driver installation |]|

|# System services | |

|# Features and Changes | |

|# Pitfalls and Fixes | |

|# System Re-Configuration | |

|# Basic System Administration | |

|# Links | |

|# Books and references | |

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|Configuration options: |

You have two choices, a single Operating System (OS) or a multi-boot system.

Many desktop users like to run Linux in addition to Windows on an existing PC. An additional hard drive may be used for Linux or an existing drive may be sectioned into two or more partitions. Linux may also reside as the only operating system on the computer as is preferred by those creating a server. Using a separate drive for Linux is the easiest and the preferred multi-boot configuration because it allows the original Windows drive to remain intact.

Note: Re-partitioning a drive will destroy all data on the drive unless a tool such as partition magic or fips is used. The Red Hat CD-ROM includes the repartitioning tool "fips" in the dosutils directory. See /dosutils/fipsdocs. This tool is unsupported. Partition Magic would be a wiser choice for those pursuing this approach. For dual boot installations, MS/Windows can be re-installed allowing the Microsoft installer to repartition the drive.

For those creating a dual boot system with Microsoft Windows and versions of Fedora Core or Red Hat Linux (8/9) with the GRUB boot loader, install Windows first and then let the Linux installation handle the dual boot configuration. It's that easy.

Details: When creating a dual boot system with Windows NT or Windows 2000, the NT loader resides on the Master Boot Record (MBR). Upon boot-up, the NT loader is activated and then it loads lilo or Grub to boot Linux. (Lilo is the older Linux boot loader. Red Hat 7.2 introduced Grub as the default boot loader.) In this instance, lilo (or Grub) does not reside on the Master Boot Record (MBR) as it would for a Windows 95 or Linux only installation. Instead lilo (or Grub) will install on the first sector of the root partition. See: LDP: NT Loader HOWTO (Or boot with a floppy which has Lilo or GRUB on the MBR of the floppy. See the:

One may also use a harware drive selector which manually routes the IDE cable to one of three drives. In this way the drives are isolated as if they reside on the computer as the only drive when selected. See the Romtec Trios IDE Hard Drive Selector. This is the simplest multiboot option. Install the OS as if it is the only OS on the system.

Upgrades: I have been upgrading versions of Red Hat since 5.2. Each release can upgrade to the next. Fedora Core is the upgrade path to Red Hat 9.0.

|Hardware considerations: |

Most PC motherboard support two IDE connectors, a primary and a secondary. Each IDE connector has a ribbon cable which can support two devices. A typical PC with one hard drive and one CD-ROM can thus support two more devices. A jumper on the device will set the device to be either the master or slave device on that IDE connection. (You can't have both devices configured as master or slave on one IDE ribbon cable, you may have a maximum of one of each.)

Also check the hardware compatability list before you begin.

A tool to detect the hardware you are using is available as a DOS disk from the Ulitimate Boot Disk site.

AMD x86_64: The wonderfull thing about this hardware and a release of Linux compiled for this harware is that it runs all your old i386 32 bit applications. In order to run third party browser plugins for which there is no source (Macromedia Flash, Real Player, ...) do NOT install the x86_64 version of the browser but instead, manually install the i386 32 bit version after the OS installation. I run Fedora Core 3 x86_64 on an AMD Athelon 64 but installed and run the i386 Fedora Core 3 RPM for the firefox browser. This allows all of the 32 bit plugins to integrate with the browser and operate successfully. One can also run programs compiled for i686 (/lib/i686/). How's that for compatability!! The Fedora Core 3 Linux release has /usr/lib64/ as well as /usr/lib/. You will also find /usr/X11R6/lib64/ and /usr/X11R6/lib/ as well as compatability libraries for i386 (i.e. /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/...). The compilers gcc/g++ will compile a 64-bit executable. Given the option "-m32", the compiler will generate 32-bit executables. It's the ultimate developers platform as well!! I even have no problem running some old Red Hat Powertools 7.1 RPMs. Due to the native and highly integrated x86 32 bit processing with new 64 bit extentions, there is no 32 emulation or noticable loss of speed when running 32 bit apps. The advantage of compiled 64 bit applications running on this chip is the 64 bit addressibility (64 bits can address more memory and larger file systems) and handling of larger data chunks with a single operation.

This information should also be true for the Intel EM64T architecture.

|Documentation on the Installation CD: |

Online manuals can be read from the Linux CD-ROM by any operating system. From Windows you can look at your Linux CD and open the files with a web browser.

Fedora Core:

Release notes are on the first CD. For documentation see .

RH 8.0, 9.0:

Documentation is contained on a CD separate from the 3 installation CD's.

RH 7.2:

Red Hat 7.2 has an identical layout to 7.1. Documentation is held on a dedicated CD with the same paths and files (If you substitute 7.2 for 7.1).

RH 7.1:

CDROM:\RH-DOCS\rhl-cg-en-7.1\index.html - Red Hat Configuration Guide: Dual Boot, Kickstatrt Install, Rescue Mode, RAID, Network, FTP, SSH, Samba, Apache, BIND, Printers, Linuxconf, building a Kernel, RPM, PGP

CDROM:\RH-DOCS\rhl-gsg-en-7.1\index.html - Getting Started Guide: Gnome, KDE, Web, e-mail, Audio, Video, Gimp, sh, general intro

CDROM:\RH-DOCS\rhl-ig-x86-en-7.1\index.html - Red Hat Linux x86 Installation Guide

CDROM:\RH-DOCS\rhl-rg-en-7.1\index.html - Red Hat Reference Guide: File systems, users, groups, boot, init, shutdown, LDAP, CCVS (Credit Card Verification System), Sendmail, Security, PAM, Kerberos, Tripwire, SSH, Apache, Powertools

CDROM:\FAQS\... - Frequently Asked Questions

CDROM:\HOWTOS\INDEX.html - How To documentation from the "Linux Documentation Project"

The Red Hat 7.1 release put all documents on a separate CD labeled "Documentation CD".

RH 6.2:

CDROM:\doc\gsg\index.htm - Redhat Getting Started Guide

CDROM:\doc\install-guide\index.htm - RH Installation Guide

CDROM:\doc\ref-guide\index.htm - RH Reference Guide

Note: RH 6.2 did NOT include the HOWTO section. See:

All releases contain documentation on DEC/Alpha installations in:

CDROM:\doc\alpha\

RH 6.1:

CDROM:\doc\rhinst\index.htm - Install Guide

CDROM:\doc\rhgsg\index.htm - Getting Started Guide

CDROM:\doc\rhref\index.htm - Reference Guide

RH 6.0: introduced the ``Getting Started Guide'' in:

CDROM:\doc\rhgsg\index.htm

RH 5.2/6.0:

CDROM:\doc\rhmanual\manual\index.htm - REDHAT manual.

CDROM:\doc\HOWTO\... - RH 5.2/6.0/6.1

CDROM:\FAQ\HTML\Index.htm - RH 5.2/6.0/6.1

|MS/Windows Backup and Recovery Plan: (if something fails in dual boot installation): |

For those who will be creating a dual boot computer and wish to maintain a windows partition or drive:

1. Backup important partitions.

2. Create a DOS boot floppy to restore a ``Master Boot Record'' if it gets corrupted.

3. Create DOS/Windows recovery disks for DOS/Windows partitions. (For dual boot configurations)

It would be wise to make a backup of anything important that may reside on disks or partitions you don't intend on disturbing. The Linux installation has the option of installing one of the operating system loaders Lilo or GRUB. GRUB was introduced as the default Linux boot loader in Red Hat 7.2. The boot loader allows one to boot one or more operating systems and is usually installed on the master boot record of the hard drive (boot drive). In the case of Windows NT (or variants), the Microsoft boot loader is used to launch the Linux boot loader which will then boots Linux. As a precaution, it would be wise to have a rescue plan for the Master Boot Record.

DOS recovery disk: From DOS create a floppy:

C:\>FORMAT /U A:/S

C:\>COPY C:\DOS\FDISK.EXE A:\

C:\>COPY C:\DOS\ A:\

C:\>COPY C:\DOS\MSD.EXE A:\

This creates a boot floppy with some rescue tools. To restore a Master Boot Record, boot the PC from the floppy and enter the following shell command:

• DOS/Win9X:

• A:\>FDISK /MBR C:

• Win 2000/NT: (boot from CD and enter "Recovery Console")

• fixmbr

• Win XP: (boot from CD and enter "Recovery Console")

• bootcfg /rebuild

Explanation of MBR: The Master Boot Record is on a sector of your hard drive which cannot be seen from your file system. It is separate. Upon booting, the system reads the MBR first. This points the computer to the portion of the disk where the operating system resides and the OS is loaded from there. When running a dual boot system, LILO (or Grub) in the MBR can point to more than one operating system from which to boot.

Windows 95 recovery diskette: To create a windows ``start-up'' disk, select ``Start'' + ``Settings'' + ``Control Panel'' + ``Add/Remove Programs'' then select the ``Startup Disk'' tab. This may require your Windows 95 CD-ROM.

Red Hat re-install on an existing system: Save configuration info

• Configuration files are held in the directory /etc/. Save a backup or hard copy of the "conf" files you need to re-configure your system. The command ls -lrt will list files in a reverse time ordered fashion. The newer files are listed last and are the ones most likely changed.

• Backup or print file /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid to preserve the configuration information for up2date. See pitfall

|Installation: |

I highly recommend that you choose "Custom Installation" mode and not Server or Workstation . Server and Workstation installation modes add pre-configured disk partitions which may wipe out stuff on drives you did not intend to disturb. A server-class installation does NOT install a GUI interface nor does it install X-windows. To install everything choose the "Custom" installation option. You can always turn off or ignore services and software you don't need.

[Potential Pitfall]: (RH 7.1) A server-class installation WILL erase all partitions both Linux and Non-Linux from every one of your computer's hard drives. This method will also put Lilo (or Grub) on the MBR. (Not good for Windows NT dual boot)

The "Automatic Partitioning" option (RH 7.1 and greater) is used by workstation, server and laptop class preconfigured installtions and has the consequences of overwriting the MBR and re-partitioning all your drives. The "Manual" partition option is much more flexible.

Two manual partition tools are available:

1. "Disk Druid" - I use this one

2. fdisk

The auto option creates two partitions (/boot and /) and represents the most simple of installations. It is ideal for single user systems. A server or shared system may want to separate the users from the operating system by placing /home on a separate partition as well as /var and /opt. (More on this later)

Upgrades will be logged to the file /tmp/upgrade.log.

Linux installation is fairly intuitive except managing the disk partitions. The Linux CD-ROM is a boot disk, thus stick it in and re-boot your computer and the install menu will appear. If this does not work check your BIOS to see if your CD-ROM is in the list of boot devices. In my BIOS configuration I had to change the boot device default from A,C,SCSI to CDROM,C,A. After the installation was complete I changed it back. If you cannot boot from the CD-ROM, see instructions in section titled ``Creating a Linux boot floppy for Linux Installation'' in this guide. Most hardware is auto-detected during installation. The user is queried for the rest.

[Potential Pitfall]: (RH 7.2) RAID disk configuration requires text mode installation. Graphical GUI does NOT support RAID.

[Potential Pitfall]: (RH 6.1 and later) If the installation program presents itself as a text based console (DOS like) interface instead of a graphical based interface, chances are that the install program could not detect your graphics card and does not have the drivers for it.

Disk Druid: This is the disk partition manager. IDE drives are referred to as hda for the first drive, hdb for the second etc ... IDE uses separate ribbon cables for primary and secondary drives. The partitions on each drive are referred numerically. The first partition on the first drive is referred to as hda1, the second as hda2, the third as hda3 etc ... SCSI drives would be identified as sda, sdb ...

Linux IDE naming conventions:

|Device |Description |Configuration |

|/dev/hda |1st (Primary) IDE controller |Master |

|/dev/hdb |1st (Primary) IDE controller |Slave |

|/dev/hdc |2nd (Secondary) IDE controller |Master |

|/dev/hdd |2nd (Secondary) IDE controller |Slave |

If the CD-ROM was NOT recognized, restart from the Linux boot floppy and enter at the ``boot:'' prompt, linux hdX=cdrom, where X is a,b,c or d as described above.

Partitions: You will add at least three partitions. The first will be unnamed as a Linux swap partition of a given size i.e. 127Mb. (I'm generous and use at least twice the value of RAM memory on my system.) Add another as /boot of type ext2 Linux native and the third as /, Linux native ext3 (Red Hat native journaled file system) or LVM (logical volume manager: allows growing a file system by adding extra drives. Introduced in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and Fedora Core) and [*] growable. The "growable" option takes whatever size is given as a minimum and actually allows the partition to take up the rest of the drive without actually specifying how much space is left. Use the space bar to toggle your choices between un-selected [ ] and selected [*]. (For RH 6.1 pick the select button.)

|Mount Point |Size |Growable |Type |

|/boot |23Mb (RH9) |[ ] |Linux native (ext2) |

| |75Mb (RHEL4) | |(no need to journal /boot) |

|_________ |512 (for 256 Mb RAM) |[ ] |Linux swap |

| |(Use RAM memory * 2) | | |

|/ |100 |[*] |Linux native (ext3 or LVM) |

The size of "/" set to 500 min. is arbitrary as the installer will use whatever is available because "Growable" is selected.

RHEL 4 defaults: boot-75Mb

RH 5.2/6.0 defaults: boot-16Mb, swap-127Mb

Descriptions:

• Swap - used for virtual memory (Use the larger value: 2 x physical memory or 127Mb. Red Hat 7.1 directions recomends at least 254Mb.

• /boot - Bootable operating system kernel is placed here. No need for a journaled file system thus you can use ext2. (ext3 will also work)

• / - All the rest of the UNIX files are placed under this directory

o /home - User directories. Server configurations often make this a separate partition so that user's disk resources are limited. Another way to limit user disk resources is to use the quota feature. See

o /opt - Optional software added to the system. (Software which didn't come with the OS. Some user /usr/local.)

o /var - Files with variable or changing state and size (log files, print spool files, etc.) Server configurations often make this a separate partition so that bloated log files, spooled print jobs, etc are limited to the amount of space they can consume.

o /tmp - Temporary space used by the system and user services.

o /sbin - System admin commands

o /bin - Binaries (commands/executables) which everyone uses.

o /etc - Configuration files.

o /usr - User binaries (commands), documentation, ...

o /... - The rest: /dev - devices, /lib - libraries, /mnt - device mount point, /lost+found - repository of corrupt but repaired files, ...

See Compaq ProLiant Server recomendations.

Server installations: It is common practice to create more partitions to isolate user, system and temporary file directories. In this way, a user would not be able to fill up a drive and lock-up the computer, nor would the installation of large software packages or the generation of temporary files or log files. Create separate partitions for /home (user space), /opt (optional, non-standard software packages) or /usr/local, /tmp, /var etc... Making /home and /opt a separate partition from / also helps Linux upgrades which can be set to write over and upgrade all partitions except /home and /opt. Separating partitions and placing them on separate disk drives can also increase performance by reducing the load on a single drive.

My Workstation: If the installation is for your very own workstation which no one else is using, you can get away with three partitions, "/boot", "/" and swap. It gives ultimate disk flexibility (all disk space is available for whatever you want) but no protection from your own stupidity is enforced.

Other partitioning tools: fdisk is another disk partitioning tool.DOS, Linux and other version of fdisk exist. I recommend Red Hat s Disk Druid .

Note: The placement of /boot is limited by the Disk Druid tool to account for BIOS limitations. Although unlikely, you may not have these BIOS limitations, in which case, use fdisk to partition the drive and no limitations will be imposed.

Note: The /opt directory is often used to create a separate directory structure for commercial and "optional" software which is not part of the base install. This way it is a separate self-contained environment which is easy to backup and restore separately from the rest of the system. The directory structure will often mimic the / directory with /opt/bin, /opt/etc, /opt/lib etc...

Specialized device drivers: If your hardware is on the bleading edge and does not have support built in with the Red Hat installation CD, then you must provide the device driver during installation. Typically the Red Hat installation software will recognize that it does not have a driver for the hardware detected. For example: Red Hat 8.0 and the Adaptec U320 SCSI driver:

• Download the host bus adapter floppy image.

• Unzip the file: gzip -d aicXX..-i686-rh8.0.img.gz

• Copy floppy image to floppy: dd if=aicXX..-i686-rh8.0.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k

The Red Hat installation program will request the missing driver. Load the floppy when asked: "No drivers found - would you like to select drivers now?". Select "yes". Press "F2" to provide the SCSI driver on a floppy and continue with the installation.

Other Installation Methods: This tutorial covers installation from a CR-ROM. It should be pointed out that Linux may also be installed from an NFS server, by FTP, SMB (a windows shared drive) and from a local hard drive.

[Potential Pitfall]: If using IDE, note that most BIOS's requires /boot be installed on a drive attached to the Primary controller. If using two IDE hard drives it might be best to place them on the primary controller and place the CD-ROM on the Secondary .

[Potential Pitfall]: When using SCSI devices, the /boot partition must reside on SCSI ID 0 or 1.

[Potential Pitfall RH7.0 and earlier]: NOTE: The /boot partition must be completely placed within the first 1024 cylinders of the disk. This drive geometry information is presented by Disk Druid under the heading Geom. The symbols [C / H / S] represent [Cylinders / Heads / Sectors] of the drive. (This is one reason why it may be easiest to install Linux on a separate drive and place the /boot partition at the beginning of the drive.) RH 7.1 introduced a newer version of LILO with LBA32 support which corrects this limitation. Red Hat 7.2 has even fewer restrictions. In fact RH 7.2 introduces new features which allow flexibility in choosing location and placement of file systems, boot loaders and kernel on your drive.

[Potential Pitfall]: I had one installation where I selected the "Check for bad blocks" while formatting and it caused the install to lock up. On this particular system I had to skip this check.

[Potential Pitfall]: If the hard drive was 100% entirely formatted for windows, there will be no space for Linux partitions. During the install you must select the windows partition and delete it before adding new partitions and assigning percentages.

Lets Do The Install: Partitions and mount points which are already allocated, are listed at the top of the screen. Use the "Tab" key to get to "Add" if you want to create a new partition for Linux. Use the "Tab" key to get to "Delete" , if you are going to put Linux on a partition previously used for DOS and then "Add" it as a new Linux partition.

Tab to the hard drive selection box which will have all drives selected.

[*] hda

[*] hdb

Tab to the drive you don't want to use and press the space bar to un-select.

[ ] hda

[*] hdb

Now add the partitions for /boot, /root (optional), "/" and swap (and any others you wish to add) as described above.

Lilo Text Boot Options:

• boot: text - No GUI. Console text mode only.

• boot: linux text console=ttyS0 - For use with a serial terminal

• boot: linux isa - To explicitly request ISA configuration dialog

• boot: linux mediacheck - Check ISO CD integrity

Red Hat 7.2 upgrade/install: EXT3 The 7.2 upgrade allows one to upgrade the Linux EXT2 file system to EXT3. EXT3 is a journaled file system which is crash resistant, insuring the integrity of the data even if the system crashes during a system write because it journals the transaction before it undertakes a disk write. I recommend the EXT3 upgrade. The RH 7.2 EXT3 upgrade will also dissable periodic file system checks as it assumes that file system integrity is maintained. (See autofsck) Use tune2fs (-c or -i) to re-enable check. EXT3 is the default file system for a fresh Red Hat 7.2 installation. EXT3 may be installed in one of three modes:

• ordered: Default. Crash will result in a valid non-corrupted file system.

• journal: slow

• writeback: Fast but NOT crashproof.

The option is also specified in the file /etc/fstab with the string 'data=ordered'.

Also note that Red Hat 7.2 does NOT include a "Powertools" CD. Most of the "Powertools" packages have been included as part of the base installation.

|Lilo, Grub and boot loaders: |

Lilo is the Linux bootstrap loader used by the Red Hat distribution up to and including version 7.1. Red Hat version 7.2 defaults to the use of Grub as the default boot loader. Grub supports a password that controls access to a Grub shell.

Lilo and Grub are the Linux bootstrap loaders that actually loads and starts the kernel. Only one bootloader, Lilo or GRUB, is used. The Linux install will ask if you want to place lilo (or Grub) on the master boot record (MBR). The answer of course is YES (Unless you are installing Windows NT/2000. See special install section for dual booting with these operating systems). If you do not install Lilo (or Grub) on the MBR, you can boot linux from a boot floppy which can be generated during the install.

Other bootstrap loaders are available. A DOS program called loadlin can boot Linux from DOS. Loadlin can be found on the Red Hat CD under CDROM:\dosutils\. Both loadlin.exe and the Linux kernel must be loaded on a DOS partition. A commercially available software product "System Commander" from V Communications requires and partially installs in a DOS partition. See: for more information.

SCSI and lilo: The choice of selecting "Use Linear Mode" during lilo install is a little complicated. PCs running Microsoft operating systems use a SCSI BIOS based LBA mode to access drives of more than 1,024 MB. This is the default selection for most PCs. Check your SCSI BIOS if you are un-sure.

RH 5.2: Use the Linux default lilo setting of [*] "Use Linear Mode" .

RH 6.0: The default was changed to [ ] where Linear mode is un-selected. This is incompatible with most Microsoft OS's. If you are dual booting with Windows, you will probably want to set to [*] "Use Linear Mode" .

RH 6.2/7.1: The default "Use Linear Mode" is pre-selected. This is compatible with LBA mode. (It imples LBA mode).

[Potential Pitfall]: If the system boots to a prompt "LI" and a blinking cursor and is stuck, you chose the wrong option for your SCSI configuration.

Systems using Unixware or older PCs with smaller drives may NOT be using LBA and thus Use Linear Mode must be unselected. If this selection is incorrect, your machine will not boot and the Master Boot Record will have to be restored and lilo will have to be re-installed.

Adaptec SCSI card users: Press ctrl-A on boot up to enter the SCSI card BIOS set-up. This is where you chose LBA mode or not. ( > 1 Gb addressing)

[Potential Pitfall]: Adding an extra drive on which to install Linux: If the drive is a pre-formatted drive for Microsoft Windows, and if you boot Windows after installing the drive you may experience the following problem. Windows will recognize and assign a letter to the new drive and may re-assign the letters assigned to your CD-ROM and previous drives. If installing a new pre-formatted drive, DO NOT boot to Windows. It would be best to boot from the Linux CD-ROM. The Linux install will allow you to assign the new drive as a Linux drive. Thus when booted to Windows (after the Linux install), the system will not recognize the new Linux drive and therefore will not reassign your drive letters.

Pitfall Fix: If you do reboot to Windows and Windows re-assigns your drive letters for your CD-ROM, restore the settings by:

• "Start" + "Settings" + "Control Panel"

• Select "System"

• Select the tab "Device Manager" and select the CD-ROM

• Set the drive letter to the letter of your choice.

Kernel Boot Options: (see /etc/grub.conf or /etc/lilo.conf)

• nosysinfo :Disable NPL thread support. Used for RH 9.0 to fix incompatability of Java version earlier than 1.4.1.

• root=LABEL=/ :Location of root of filesystem.

GRUB: GRUB allows one to boot one of many operating systems installed on the hard drives. GRUB can hide partitions from operating systems which is important when cohabitating with a Microsoft operating system. You can use a partition to install an operating system and hide the other partitions from it. See the GRUB Mini-HOWTO Installation for more. (GNU: GRUB home page)

Grub was introduced with Red Hat 7.2 as the default boot loader. It's configuration file is /boot/grub/grub.conf. While lilo requires reconfiguration with new information loaded on the MBR for each new kernel, grub does not. Grub requires that the new kernel information be entered in the configuration file /boot/grub/grub.conf.

A Red Hat7.2 installation using lilo may be switched to grub using the command /sbin/grub-install. (i.e. /sbin/grub-install /dev/hda Specify the drive on which the boot loader will be installed on it's MBR.)

GRUB Menu:

1. Select kernel

2. Press 'e' to edit entry

3. Use arrow keys to navigate to kernel line. i.e. kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.7-1 ro root=/dev/hda2

4. Add argument 'single' to the end of the line. Then press return.

5. Press 'b' to boot.

The Red Hat 7.3 Installation/Upgrade offers three choices:

1. Update current: Update boot loader currently on the system.

2. Skip update

3. New boot loader configuration: Choose this if you wish to update from Lilo to Grub.

|Completing Install: |

[Potential Pitfall RH7.2 Upgrade]: After Grub/Lilo options have been entered the installation software examines your system for packages to upgrade. Be Patient. It may appear that the system locked up but it is just working on the upgrade. It takes a while.

Linux System Kernel Note: The default Linux kernel installed supports a multitude of devices using loadable modules. In order to keep the kernel small, maximize device support and minimize memory usage, the appropriate module is loaded at run time. The kernel may be optimized for performance by compiling in support for the specific devices needed. Video drivers are not controlled by the kernel but by the X-window application program.

Kernel boot options are set in the config file /etc/grub.conf

i.e.: kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.770_FC3 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet

• Remove "quiet" if you would like to see the kernel boot information.

• Add "vga=788" to set a larger text console at boot.

• Disable SeLinux mode, add: "selinux=0" or (prefered) set in /etc/selinux/config:

o Security policy is enforced: SELINUX=enforcing

o Security policy is disabled: SELINUX=disabled

o Print warnings instead of enforcing: SELINUX=permissive

• Graphical Boot Loader: "rhgb"

• Remove "hiddenmenu" to see Grub boot menu.

Note: Install output is written to five of the virtual consoles. Note these key bindings are for the installation only.

|Console # |Key |

|Output | |

|1 |Alt-F1 |Installation Dialog |

|2 |Alt-F2 |Shell Prompt |

|3 |Alt-F3 |Install Log |

|4 |Alt-F4 |System Log |

| | |(from OS kernel) |

|5 |Alt-F5 |Other Messages |

|7 |Alt-F7 |X Graphical Display (new to RH 9.0) |

After installation the X-window system will use ctrl-Alt-F1 as the system console terminal, ctrl-Alt-F2 to F6 for virtual consoles and ctrl-Alt-F7 for the X-window display. ctrl-Alt-Backspace will kill the X-Window session.

(See script to start multiple X sessions if needed.) Screen shots of the installer can be made using "Shift" + "Print Screen". Screen shots will be saved to /root/anaconda-screenshots.

Mouse: If your connector at the end of your mouse is round, you have a PS/2 bus mouse. Many UNIX programs require three mouse keys. If yours has only two, choose the three button emulation. In emulation mode, pressing both mouse buttons at the same time is the same as pressing the middle button on a three button mouse. The typical X-Window interface uses button 1 to select (i.e. text), button 2 to paste and button 3 to pull up optional menus.

Printers: Note that DOS calls your printer port "lpt1". Linux refers to your first printer as /dev/lp0. The numbering of all Linux devices starts with 0. (0, 1, 2, 3...) The printer will aslo be assigned a given name. A printer of the name "lp" will be considered the default printer. Another printer definition may be duplicated under this name to make it the default. (Create a default printer of this name "lp" and life gets easier because many applications such as Adobe Acrobat reader rely on this default.)

Upgrade Note: Some really old versions of Linux began printer numbering at lpt1. If upgraded, this would have to be changed to reflect a newer version of Linux.

Unix Time: Most web servers use UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) and an environment variable representing one's time zone as an offset and whether Daylight Savings Time is observed. This is used to calculate the displayed time. UTC is the method used by standard UNIX to measure time internally. It is the total number of seconds from January 1, 1970.

Authentication: The basic standard authentication configuration uses the installation defaults:

• "Enable MD5 passwords"

• "Enable Shadow passwords"

The other options are NIS, LDAP and Kerberos. All three rely on the configuration of an authentication server for this purpose. The MD5/Shadow configuration is a stand alone password authentication system residing on the Linux systems and is only effective for that system.

• NIS is the SUN "yellow pages" authentication server configuration which is most comonly used with the NFS file sharing infrastructure.

• LDAP uses an authentication server which holds a database of logins and passwords.

• Kerberos is MIT's high security network based authentication scheme.

Sample Network Configuration:

• IP address: 192.168.100.101

• netmask: 255.255.255.0

• Network address (lowest): 192.168.100.0

• Broadcast address (highest): 192.168.100.255

The networking addresses beginning with "192.168." are reserved for private local networks.

|Post Installation Configuration: |

Post Install: (perform these functions as root user)

Login:

• Upon boot (if text mode) the loader (LILO) will show the prompt "boot:". Press Return to take the default or type ? or tab to see all possible selections then type the selection. i.e. type linux to boot Linux or dos (default name given for the Microsoft partition), or win95" if that is the name you gave for MS/Windows 95 upon Linux partitioning and install. The defaults and configuration of lilo may be altered. See the section on lilo and /etc/lilo.conf.

• At the Login: prompt, enter the user id root and give the password you chose during install. This will log you into the system in command console mode. (If set to text mode init level 3)

X-Windows:

• startx : This command start the graphical user interface X- windows system.

• If X windows fails:

o RH8.0: Use the X windows configuration tool /usr/bin/redhat-config-xfree86. This will edit the configuration file /etc/X11/XF86Config

o RH7.3-: If this fails one can reconfigure X windows with the command Xconfigurator. (or you can also use XF86setup or xf86config which performs a similar function) This produces the same graphics setup interface as the installation. Xconfigurator generates the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config (This is linked to /etc/X11) (See /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/README.Config)

• The /etc/X11/XF86Config file holds X-windows configuration information about the graphics card, monitor, mouse and keyboard.

• For my 17 inch monitor (1280x1024 resolution) I configured X-Windows for a resolution of 1024x768 for better readability.

• If you find that the text and other details on the screen are too small, use Xconfigurator to set up a configuration file using a lower resolution. You can save multiple configuration files and rename them to /etc/X11/XF86Config when needed.

• To exit out of X-windows and the GNOME interface gracefully, select the GNOME Start icon (left side of tool bar) and select log out . Changes to the XF86Config configuration file will not be implemented by X-windows until it is halted and restarted. This can be done by rebooting the system (shutdown -h now) or logout and go to a console terminal (ctrl-alt-F5) and login as root. The command "init 3" (Red Hat systems) will bring the system out of X-Window mode. The command "init 5" will bring it back.

• The key sequence -- will allow you jump out of a mis-configured X-windows session and go to a console. If the X-window session is inoperable you can kill the process from this new console. The command ps -a will reveal the startx process id (PID). Then kill . Your initial console upon boot is ctrl-Alt-F1. Use ctrl-Alt-F7 to return to the X-window session. The simplest and recommended method to kill the X-Window session is to use the key sequence ctrl-Alt-Backspace.

Leaving the system: (UNIX text console commands)

• exit : This is the command to logoff. This allows one to re-login as new user

• /sbin/shutdown -h now : shutdown the system. (Must beroot) Wait for the message:

o RH 5.2: System halted .

o RH 6.0+, FC: Power Down .

o Do NOT turn the power off without doing this first.

Red Hat 9.0: Support dropped for wu-ftpd (use vsftpd instead), Window Maker and sndconfig.

Red Hat 8.0: Nautilus application and system configuration tool is invoked with the "Start here" icon. RH 8.0 introduces a new default printer manager: cups. See config files /etc/cups/.... Man pages exist for most of these config files. (i.e. man printers.conf) The older lpd can still be optionally installed.

Red Hat 7.2 upgrade: After X login, a dialog box asks the user if they wish to upgrade their file manager to Nautilis. (your choice) Nautilis is a very MS/XP like interface which provides a combined file and system manager GUI tool with a web like interface. Nautilis is invoked with the "Start here" icon.

•

|System Services: |

After installation of Linux one should determine which system services one needs. Each available service has a start script in the directory /etc/rc.d.init.d/. It is easiest to use the Red Hat GUI tool:

• Fedora Core 3: /usr/bin/system-config-services

• Red Hat 8/9, FC 1: /usr/bin/redhat-config-services

Recommended basic services include: anacron, atd, autofs, cron, gpm, iptables, keytable, kudzu, microcode_ctl, network, random, rawdevices, syslog and xfs.

|Features and Changes: |

• Fedora Core 5:

o FC5 includes Mono and Mono applications.

o FC5 includes mySQL5, the Geronimo J2EE server.

o FORTRAN 90/95 upgraded from FORTRAN 77

o Changes to the SELinux reference policy.

o Wireless support for Broadcom 43xx wireless chipsets.

o Changes FC4 to FC5

• Fedora Core 4:

o Introduces gcc version 4, Eclipse IDE with CDT and valgrind.

o Introduces Evince (and poppler libraries) to replace gv and xpdf.

o No Mozilla, gv (ghostscript front-end), fvwm2 desktop, cdp (CD player, introduces apolos)

o Changes FC3 to FC4

• Fedora Core 3: Stable (similar to RHEL4)

o Ships with SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) which works.

o Introduces Firefox browser. Previously Mozilla only.

• Fedora Core 2:

o System configuration GUI tools name changes from redhat-config-xxxx to system-config-xxxx.

o SELinux introduced. Needs work.

o Ships with Linux kernel 2.6 and ALSA (sound)

o No longer ships with XFree86. Now shipping with Xorg release of X-Windows.

• Fedora Core 1:

o Name changes to Fedora Core and confuses the Linux world.

• Red Hat 9.0: Stable (similar to RHEL3)

o Introduces vsftpd. Was wu-ftpd.

o Introduces Apache 2.0, Subversion CM.

o LDAP default configuration changes. May require database dump and reload.

o NPL: Native POSIX Thread Library

o Networking now uses /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-interfacename rather than /etc/sysconfig/static-routes.

o CUPS print spooler is default.

• Red Hat 8.0: Stable

o They stop shipping LDAP admin tool gq.

o Ships with OpenOffice

o Apache RPM is now called httpd.

o Netscape browser no longer ships with OS.

o Introduces UML (User mode Linux)

o No longer ships with xmms MP3 plugins. Find and load.

• Red Hat 7.3: Stable

o Introduces CUPS print spooler.

• Red Hat 7.2:

o Kernel 2.4

• Red Hat 7.1:

o Linux Firewall: Introduces iptables. Earlier version used ipchains.

o Introduces DNS bind 9. Previous versions used bind 8.

o Introduces LDAP 2.0.

• Red Hat 7.0:

o Introduces xinetd. Previously used inetd.

o Default web server directory changes from /home/httpd/html/ to /var/www/html/.

• Red Hat 6:

o Introduces Gnome desktop.

o Linux Firewall: Introduces ipchains. Earlier version used ipfwadm.

o Red Hat 6.2 introduces Judzu for device discovery and initialization.

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