This guide misses out all the obvious steps to make it as concise as possible, concentrating only on the things that may confuse a Linux newbie.
If you want Windows to be on the same hard drive as Linux, then either use a clever disk partitioning tool like Partition Magic 4, or run fdisk, delete your Primary DOS Partition and recreate it with say a gigabyte less than the size of your hard drive. Then install Windows and finally use this guide to install Red Hat Linux 5.2.
Note
Before you begin resizing a Windows partition make sure you defrag it, so that no information, is lost. Also, you'll find a partition resizing utility called 'Fips' on your Red Hat CD (in the 'Dosutils' directory). I've never used it, so you're on your own here (but documentation is included).
Remember to first backup your work and have a blank disk ready to create an emergency Linux bootdisk. For this guide, I recommend leaving at least 1Gb free for the Linux installation.
- 1 -
If you're installing from CD-ROM then begin the installation program either by autobooting from CD (by temporarily changing the boot sequence in BIOS) or by restarting Windows in MS-DOS and entering:
d: cd dosutils autoboot.bat...Obviously changing 'd:' if that's not your CD-ROM's drive letter.
- 2 -
At the welcome screen, press the Enter key. Use the Enter key for all selections, the cursor keys to move about, and the Space-bar to 'tick' and 'untick' options.
- 3 -
At the 'Installation Class' screen, it's probably best to select 'custom'.
- 4 -
Unless you have a SCSI hard drive or a Parallel/External Zip drive, select no when asked if you have any SCSI adapters.
- 5 -
Select Disk Druid to set-up your hard drive.
- 6 -
Create the following partitions in Disk Druid:
+------------+-----------+--------+ | MOUNT NAME | SIZE (MB) | TYPE | +============+===========+========+ | / | 50 | Native | +------------+-----------+--------+ | /usr | 900 | Native | +------------+-----------+--------+ | /home | 50 | Native | +------------+-----------+--------+ | | 24 | Swap | +------------+-----------+--------+Note
'Swap' partitions do not have a mount name.
- 7 -
At the 'Components To Install' screen, scroll down to the bottom of the list and select 'Everything'. The next time you install Linux you can be a little more choosy.
- 8 -
Now it's time to select your monitor. Chances are, that your monitor is not on the list of directly 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 trying out 'Generic Multisync' (this works with both my monitors). This gives me a maximum screen resolution in X Windows (Linux's GUI) of 1024 x 768 and 16.7 million colours (24-bit), whilst 'Generic Monitor' only gives me a maximum of 640 x 480 and 256 colours (8-bit). If 'Generic Multisync' doesn't work for you, then you could try out 'Custom' - but make sure you first dig out your monitor's manual for the settings!
- 9 -
At the 'LiLo Installation' screen, select the Master Boot Record as the place to install the bootloader.
- 10 -
After your computer has restarted, enter:
root...as your login name and then enter the password you set during installation. This will log you on as the 'Super-User', the equivalent of God i.e. you can create anything and destroy anything, so be prepared for a few re-installs in the next few weeks whilst you get used to playing God ;)
- 11 -
Enter:
startx...to start X Windows.
Note
If this doesn't work, enter:
Xconfigurator...and set-up you monitor and/or graphics card differently.
By Laurence Hunter
laurence@thebits.co.uk
www.THEBITS.co.uk - updated daily...
