Installation Steps for RedHat Linux 7.3

September 9, 2002

These steps are not exact, you will need to read through the screens and make some judgements. Note that if you try this on a different computer, or using a different installation method (i.e., CD instead of network), things will be a little different.

Please allow the lesser experienced group members time to sit at the keyboard and make decisions. While it is not necessary to read every screen in detail, take the time to make sure everyone in the group can follow what's going on.

Phase One: Prepare the system for booting

1. Power, monitor and network connected
2. Mouse and keyboard
3. Insert the boot floppy disk in the floppy drive (*not the Zip drive*)

Phase Two: Adjust BIOS to enable booting from floppy disk

1. Power on the system, you should get a "DELL" splash screen and progress bar as the BIOS loads
2. Before the BIOS finishes, hit the F2 key. You should get an "Entering setup" message the the top right of the screen.
3. Navigate through the BIOS configuration window (via ALT-P) to a selection to select a boot device. You will need to move devices around until the floppy drive is listed first (before the hard drive). Note: You might want to change this back at the end of the installation, so that your system boots a little more quickly.
4. ESC to exit and reboot. After the BIOS splash screen, the floppy drive should engage and boot.

Phase Three: Installation configuration

1. After some messages, you should get a "boot: " prompt. Just press return, or after a few seconds the system will assume that's what you meant. If you want to read the screen first, press a space or any other key to pause
2. You will get a long list of messages as the system boots
3. At this point, you'll be put into the configuration menu system. General tips:
   • Use the TAB or keyboard arrow keys to move between items
   • Press RETURN to select an item
   • In this "text" mode navigation, your mouse will not function
   • Use the spacebar to "select" an item in a radio button menu
4. Language: English
5. Keyboard: US
6. Installation method: HTTP
7. IP address
   • Do NOT use dynamic (DHCP), use the spacebar to uncheck. Instead, provide the IP address for your system as follows:
     152.2.81.88 mauve.ils.unc.edu
     152.2.81.91 red.ils.unc.edu
     152.2.81.92 green.ils.unc.edu
     152.2.81.94 magenta.ils.unc.edu
     152.2.81.95 cyan.ils.unc.edu
     152.2.81.96 yellow.ils.unc.edu
     152.2.81.97 black.ils.unc.edu
     152.2.81.98 white.ils.unc.edu
   • Change the netmask to 255.255.0.0 (UNC is a "class B" network)
   • Change the primary gateway to 152.2.254.254
   • Change the primary nameserver to 152.2.21.1
8. HTTP download configuration
   • Web site name: underdog.ils.unc.edu
   • Directory: /pub/linux/i386
9. You'll get a few messages and see the SCSI driver load
10. 3-button mouse
11. Change to Server setup (not workstation)
12. Select "Disk Druid" (you can use fdisk if you prefer), partition /dev/sda and remove all existing partitions. The recommended approximate setup follows. It's possible your disk will have a different size. You should not need to check for bad blocks, but can if you want (it adds some time to the formatting)
    • /boot as ext3 about 45MB (cylinders 1-6)
    • swap (no mount point) about 600MB (cylinders 7-82)
    • / as ext3 for the rest, about 8GB to cylinder 1106
13. Select "OK" to move on from disk paritioning
14. Select Grub as your boot loader unless you prefer another, install the boot loader on the MBR
15. You don't need boot options, and the boot loader configuration default should be OK
16. Don't use a Grub password (if you do, you'll need to physically be at the machine to reboot it)
17. Add the secondary name server: 152.2.253.100, the other network settings should be OK
18. The hostname should be correct, if not make it correct
19. Customize your firewall. This will leave a few arbitrary ports for experimentation during the semester. Allow these: ssh, mail, http, ftp (no DHCP, no trusted eth0), and add 443, 8080, 8081, 8082, 8083, 8084 and 8085. You can change these once your system is running using the ipchains configuration.
20. You probably don't need other languages, but add some if you intend to use different fonts or language-specific software (don't select ALL unless you really want them, as this takes up a lot of space)
21. Select your time zone
22. Select a root password. Also write it on an index card and give it to Prof. Newby in case of trouble. Your password should include upper and lower case letters and some numbers or special characters. Start with a letter. Use 6-8 characters total. Make sure everyone in the group knows this password, you are likely to want it during the semester.
23. You can add usernames for your group now, or employ useradd after the system is running. Usernames should be all lower case, 8 or fewer characters. You do not need to share your user passwords.
24. Select packages to install. If you want to see the full variety from RedHat, choose "Select Individual Packages" (this yields LOTS of choices). For a quicker process, simply select these:
    • Classic X Window System
    • X Window System
    • Gnome
    • KDE
    • NFS server
    • Please do NOT select other servers, we will install them ourselves in class (also, some of these could disrupt the campus network)
25. You should not need to change your video card configuration
26. That's all! The installation will start and will take up to an hour. Take a break, get a snack.

Phase Four: Completing the Installation

1. The installation should proceed unattended, until it prompts for a boot disk and X configuration
2. A boot floppy is a good idea (though we only need a few for the whole class, since they're all the same). You can use the same disk you used to boot from originally and overwrite it.
3. The default monitor setting should be OK
4. Under "X Customization," select Default login: text. Do NOT have the system start in graphical mode (this can cause problems if your graphics hardware changes). Instead, start in text mode. You can "startx" from the command line to enter graphics mode.
5. Eject your floppy disk as directed and reboot.

Phase Five: Confirm Things Work

1. During reboot, go ahead and let Kudzu configure any devices (sound card is likely)
2. Your system should reboot and give a login: prompt. Login as root, check that networking works (try ping www.yahoo.com, if it works you're good! ^C to quit). Logout (^D) and let everyone in the group confirm they can login.

Phase Six: Deliver Your System to the Lab

1. Login as root and shutdown the system to remove power: /sbin/shutdown -h now
2. Turn off power, disconnect all cables, make sure you took out the floppy disk
3. Bring your system unit (only) to the glassed in area of the SILS inner lab on the 1st floor, hook it into the cables there, and reboot.
4. Affix a label (index card) with tape indicating the system name (no passwords!)
5. Using the keyboard/video/mouse switch, confirm you can login from the console, and the network is active. Make sure you logout!
6. From a lab machine or laptop, login to your system remotely (using ssh, not telnet). You will be prompted to accept the new system key, this is fine.
7. ssh login is how you will do most of your work this semester.

Phase Seven: Configure and Enjoy

• You cannot login as root remotely, login as yourself, then become root.
• You can become root with "su" (then give root's password), but this is not recommended. Instead, use this method the first time, then use "visudo" to add all group usernames to the sudoers file (you need to use "vi" to do this, by default).
• Once your username is in sudoers, you can become root with the sudo command. Unlike su, sudo easily lets you run single commands, or get a root shell. To get a root shell, use sudo tcsh or sudo bash, and give your password, not root's. To run a single command, use sudo command. If you successfully use sudo, you are not prompted for your password for 5 minutes of subsequent sudo activity.
• Other exploration activities (we'll be talking about these things in class):
  • What is your shell? Do you want another instead? Change it!
  • Customize your shell
  • Explore the system with ls and cd to see what files are there; use man to read about commands you don't know
• Remember that these are experimental systems. Do not put critical items such as your mailbox or class assignments there (at least, not without a backup elsewhere).