Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4: Installation Guide for the IBM® POWER Architecture
Prev | Chapter 1. Steps to Get You Started | Next

# 1.8. Preparing for a Hard Drive Installation

| Note
| Hard drive installations only work from ext2, ext3, or FAT file systems. If you have a file system other than those listed here, such as reiserfs, you will not be able to perform a hard drive installation.

Hard drive installations require the use of the ISO (or CD-ROM) images. An ISO image is a file containing an exact copy of a CD-ROM disk image. Because Red Hat Enterprise Linux has so many packages included with its distribution, there are several ISO images available. After placing the required ISO images (the binary Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROMs) in a directory, choose to install from the hard drive. You can then point the installation program at that directory to perform the installation.

Verifying that the ISO images are intact before you attempt an installation will help to avoid problems that are often encountered during a hard drive installation. To verify the ISO images are intact prior to performing an installation, use an md5sum program (many md5sum programs are available for various operating systems). An md5sum program should be available on the same server as the ISO images.

To prepare your system for a hard drive installation, you must set the system up in one of the following ways:

- Using a set of CD-ROMs — Create CD-ROM ISO image files from each installation CD-ROM. For each CD-ROM, execute the following command on a Linux system:

      dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/tmp/file-name.iso

- Using ISO images — transfer these images to the system to be installed.

  Verifying that ISO images are intact before you attempt an installation, helps to avoid problems. To verify the ISO images are intact prior to performing an installation, use an `md5sum` program (many `md5sum` programs are available for various operating systems). An `md5sum` program should be available on the same Linux machine as the ISO images.

| Note

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program has the ability to test the integrity of the installation media. It works with the CD, DVD, hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO installation methods. Red Hat recommends that you test all installation media before starting the installation process, and before reporting any installation-related bugs (many of the bugs reported are actually due to improperly-burned CDs). To use this test, type the following command at the `boot:` prompt:

    linux mediacheck

iSeries system users must remember to add boot options, as are listed in this manual for other operating systems, by first logging into an OS/400 system as an iSeries user and then setting any IPL parameters within their partition's NWSD.

Additionally, if a file called `RedHat/base/updates.img` exists in the directory from which you install, it is used for installation program updates. Refer to the file `install-methods.txt` in the `anaconda` RPM package for detailed information on the various ways to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as well as how to apply the installation program updates.

Prev | Home | Next
Preparing for a Network Installation | Up | Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux