Installing Red-Hat

Ok, Let me start off by saying that this tutorial will be on installing Red-Hat Linux, If you need

help instaling any other Distros try these websites below :)
SuSE - http://www.suse.de/en/support/inst_support/index.html
Mandrake - http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/doc...html/p468.html
Debian - http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual
Slackware - http://www.slackware.com/install/
Yellow Dog - http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/installation/
Caldera - http://www.caldera.com/support/docs/openlinux/

Ok, On to the tutorial.....

Getting Linux
Go here and get RedHat Linux 7.3. The files are

ISOs so you need to get a burning program like nero and burn the ISOs

to a CD... The first 3 discs are install discs, the other 2 are RPM CDs and are optional.

Installing Linux
Once you got the CDs pop them into your computer and restart it.... Your computer should boot from CD

into a menu, It will give you a few choices..... If your reading this tutorial you are probably a

newbie so just press enter to go on to installation. Next you should see a screen that asks you what

language you want to install linux in.... Choose your language and continue, then you will have to

choose your keyboard.... The default one will more-than-likely work for you so just click next... Same

thing with the mouse... Next will be a screen asking if you want to install A workstation, Server,

Laptop or a Custom install. If you have never used Linux before choose Workstation, that will have all

the featueres and a graphical XWindows system.... When you click next it will ask you how you want to

partition your hard drive to use RedHat, again, if you had no experiencer with Linux, Choose Have the

Installer Automatically partition for you and click next.... With automatic partitioning you have 3

options
1) Remove all previous Linux (ext2) partitions and install over them,
2) Remove all partitions on this system (Including Windows) and,
3) Use existing free space

If you know you dont need Windows anymore choose the second option, If you will be using Windows again

choose the third. If you have more than one hard drive3 make sure that the correct one it highlighted

in the pull-down menu.

Next is the bootloader setup.... If you chose to use all of your hard drive space for Linux then

choose GRUB as a bootloader on your Master Boot Record..... If you dont want to instyall a bootloader

click that option and click next (you will have an option to create startup disks later in the setup

process)

Now you have to setup your ethernet adapter (If you have one, if you dont, go on to the next step) If

you have DSL choose to use DHCP and activate on boot, If you have cable just choose DHCP. Now the

firewall.... If you will be hosting or providing services such as DHCP, http server, SMTP, SSH, etc

choose them in the menu, otherwise just click on medium and continue (Cable and DSL users dont forget

to make eth0 a trusted device)

The next 2 windows are language and time zone configuration, choose your time zone and language and

continue....

Now you have to set up the root account and a normal account.... The root account is the master

account in Linux so it has to have a pretty strong password and only be used when you need to make

system-wide changes. Always use alpha-numeric passwords with special characters.
For example zephyr is not a good password becayuse it is in the dictionary and it only contains

letters.

CiZA-2em
DrO7e!iq
pod-e#9s
JifRU9o!
@9u*ro8#

These are good passwords, they are mroe than 6 characters long, contain letters, numbers, and speciakl

characters. To generate some good passwords go to http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php
Also create a user account for yourself for regualr use.....

On the next screen you will be asked to configure your authentication type..... On the default tab, on

top click on use MD5 passwords and use shadow passwords, that way yopur passwords will be encrypted

and more secure... If you use Keroberos, LDAP, SMB, or NIS configure those as needed.

Next, The package selection... If you have enough hard drive space choose ALL at the bottom of the

screen, if not, just choose the items selected by default.

Next, RedHat setup will rpobe your video card, if the one selected by default is not your4 video card

try looking for you card there, if it is not there, go back to the default one.

AHHHH! Linux is installing, This will take about 2 hours, so sit back and relax.....

Now, If you didnt install a bootloader or want to be on the safe side, grab an empty floopy and label

it linux boot disk, this floppy will ghelp you boot your linux in case your bootloader goes haywire ;)

Next choose your monitor (if it is not there go to the selected one), In the next screen you will have

a chance to configure X (Linux's GUI) I reccomend 1024x768 resolution 16bit color depth and KDE as

your GUI, IMO KDE is easier to use and more user frinedly. Choose graphical login from the radio

buttons and go on.

THATS IT! You now have Linux installed on your system... Just restart your computer and login to your

brand new OS :D

Excellent tutorial ac1dsp3ctrum, great work. I am sure this will help lots of people wanting to break free of windows. :)

Yea, nice idea for a tutorial. I was thinking of an original idea. And GNOME is the default red hat manager right? People have to pick KDE. And one more thing, for those of you without computer who can boot from cd, i.e. poor bastards such as myself, though my new comp is on the way, you need to write a boot disk to load the cd-rom. Yoy can probably find an online site that will let you download rawrite.exe and an image to do that. Good idea for a tutorial, maybe people won't have to rely on a book for installing red hat. I'm gonna write a tutorial on partitioning for linux installation. Thanks for the idea acid.

To make a boot disk:

Insert CD 1 into the drive under Windows open a DOS prompt and do the following:

cd \path\dosutils
rawrite
\path\images\boot.img
A

(I included rawwrite)

Awesome tutorial man. I need to go to the debian site cause Im having problem's installing debian.

just a few points i encountered while installing red hat ...... make sure you have a linux compatible modem or that you have the proper modem drivers or your outa luck gettin online, if your using 56k...(i actually had to replace my modem) make sure the boot loader you select is the one you want to use or you have to fdisk to replace it. grub loader can be pass protected to add aditionial security to your kernel, not so with lilo....i found that setup passwords for root and user arent that important as you can change them at anytime...ive found that setting the firewall to high security causes no problems for me, setting up a workstation... but the main thing ive discovered is that mandrake is a heck of a lot easier to install and use for newbies than red hat lol one more thing ,red hat can be a processor hog so if your on a slow processor choose the lowest eye candy setting while installing then use the control panel to adjust the settings to an optimal point.


http://www.undisker.com is where to get undisker a cool program for workin with iso files without the need to burn

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make sure you have a linux compatible modem or that you have the proper modem drivers or your outa luck gettin online

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There was a winmodem linux guide published a long time ago, there is therefore no point in posting anything like that here.

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grub loader can be pass protected to add aditionial security to your kernel, not so with lilo

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Most linux users don't need that kind of protection as many red hat users are new to linux and will move on to greater things when they learn more. A sysadmin might, but a sysadmin would have gone to university and would know all about that.

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ive found that setting the firewall to high security causes no problems for me

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Count yourself lucky, I had to use an old ip chains firewall script and modify it to let me browse the web. Maybe my installation of linux screwed up.

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but the main thing ive discovered is that mandrake is a heck of a lot easier to install and use for newbies than red hat lol one more thing

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A matter of preference. Red hat has a nice install GUI and is extremely easy to install, as long as you know a couple of things about your system. But you need to know about your system for any linux distro installation.

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http://www.undisker.com is where to get undisker a cool program for workin with iso files without the need to burn

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Why not get the original? Isobuster is easy to use, fast and easy to setup. All you gotta do is extract and run.

Thanks for the help. I have been interested in installing Linux for a while and now will be able to do it.

just a few points i encountered while installing red hat ...... make sure you have a linux compatible modem or that you have the prope modem drivers or your outa luck gettin online, if your using 56k...


The best way to avoid compatibuility problems is to get an external modem vs internal modem card it's
guaranteed to work on any Linux box :)

Sharky

Hi Ac1d,
When I've tried installing Redhat 7.3, I've chosen the 3 button PS/2 mouse option (And I'm sure
this is the right option for my mouse). However, this doesn't seem to work. I can't use the middle
scroll button on my mouse. Do you know how to fix this? Does yours work? (My scroll button
works fine under Mandrake 8.2).