Learning Red Hat Linux, Third Edition

Start the Installation

To begin installing Linux, you must boot your system from the installation media. Most recently manufactured PCs can boot the Installation CD 1 Red Hat Linux CD-ROM. However, unless you generally boot from a CD-ROM—which is quite unlikely—you’ll need to reconfigure your PC’s BIOS so your PC is able to boot from a CD-ROM. To do so, enter your PC’s BIOS screen and look for a configuration item titled something like Boot Order or Boot Priority. Change the configuration so that the CD-ROM drive has the highest boot priority. Consult your PC’s documentation for details on entering and using its BIOS configuration screens.

Creating a Boot Floppy

If your PC can’t boot from a CD-ROM, you must create a boot floppy disk. Creating a boot floppy requires some special measures; you can’t simply copy files onto a disk and then boot it. To create a Red Hat Linux installation boot floppy by using a PC that runs Microsoft Windows, perform the following steps:

1. Format a floppy.

2. Insert Disc 1 of Red Hat Linux into your system’s CD-ROM drive.

3. Click My Computer and then your CD-ROM drive. Navigate to the \dosutils\rawritewin directory. Double-click the program rawwritewin. The RawWrite dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 3-1. Specify the floppy drive and image file (images\boot.img or other), and click Write. It takes perhaps a minute or so for the rawrite utility to create the floppy diskette.

Figure 3-1. Using rawrite to make a boot diskette

Tip

If your PC requires one or ...