How to Install RedHat Linux on MS Win98. (fwd)

[gzf at gbr.msd.ray.com (Jerry Feldman {75562})]

John Abreau wrote:
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 11:30:39 IST
> From: Venkat Reddy. M <venkat8 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: How to Install RedHat Linux on MS Win98.
> 
> Hi John,
> 
> 1.How do I install Redhat Linux 5.1 on a MS Windows 98 system.
> 
>   Please give the step by step procedure.
> 
> 2.Which is the latest version of the Red Hat linux?
> 
> 3.Is there any other version available rather than Redhat.
> 
> Looking forward for ur mail
I'm not going to go through a step-by step procedure of installing Linux,
but I will attempt to answer your questions.
First, there are several Linux distributions, such as Red Hat
(http://www.redhat.com). 6.0 os their most current release. 
SuSE (http://www.suse.com). 6.1 is their most current.
Debian (http://www.debian.org). 2.1 is their latest release.
Low cost CD-ROMs are available at:http://www.cheapbytes.com.
I would suggest that you get a good book on Linux. If you buy the Red Hat
boxed set or SuSE, you should be able to install using their books.
O'Reilly's Running Linux, 3rd Edition is scheduled for release this month.
Lar Kauffman, one of the authors, is a member of BLU. 
The first thing you need to do is do determine how you are going to split up
your disk for Windows98 and Linux. Let's assume that you have an 8GB IDE
hard disk, which you currently have set up as your Windows 98 disk. I would
purchase a copy of Power Quest's Partition Magic, which you can use to set
up your partitions. It is available at most computer stores or directly from
Power Quest (http://powerquest.com). To make things simple, lets make
partition 1 a 4GB Partition (Windows 98). We'll make the second partition
120MB, Linux Swap, and the 3rd patition for the rest of the disk will be
Linux Native. You Can do this in a single operation with Partition Magic.
(Note: make the 2 Linux partitions primary partitions, not extended
partitions).

Your next decision before you install, is what you are going to do for a
boot manager. You can either use a floppy to boot Linux, The Linux Loader
(LILO) to boot either, or you can use Loadlin to boot Linux from Windows, or
you can use Partition Magic's boot manager. Let's assume that you will use
either a floppy or Partition Magic's boot manager. 

At this point, you have 3 partitions. Now, you should have the floppy disks
that came with your distribution. If not, you can make them from Windows.
There are some variations depending on what distribution. First, there are
some utilities that come with Linux. The most important is rawrite.exe. This
should be on the dosutils directory of your distribution root. Copy this to
your windows system. Normally, in Windows, I have a directory, C:\bin or
c:\tools that contains various and sundry DOS programs. Format 4 floppy
disks. Make sure they do not have any bad sectors. 
(One of these is to create a rescue (or boot) floppy during installation.

You then need to copy a Linux kernel, a Linux Root, and possibly a Linux
modules to the three floppies. These are located in the images directory on
the Red Hat distribution, but are in different places on other
distrubutions. Check the docset for the system you are using. There is
normally a README file. SuSE 6.1 uses 3 images. Debian's names are:
resc1440.bin - Rescue kernel for a 1.44MB disk
root.bin     - Root file system
drv1440.bin  - Drivers (or modules)
Red hat has a boot.bin.
You copy each of these from a floppy using rawrite.exe. Once these are
copied, you then would shut down windows, and boot from the boot floppy.
Note that Debian's boot floppy can be used as a recue floppy where Red Hat's
is for installation only. 

Once you have successfully booted you will be prompted to load the
appropriate second and third floppy. These are different depending on the
distribution. 

Once the installation program is running, you can skip the section on
partitioning your disk. The next step is to assign mount points to
partitions. To make things simple, just assign root to your third partition.
For IDE drives, assuming the single 8 MB drive, the names are:
/dev/hda1: Windows FAT or FAT32
/dev/hda2: Linux SWAP - If asked, assign your swap partition to this
/dev/hda3: Assign the Linux root (eg. / ) partition to this. 

Once this is done, the distributions have different procedures. In SuSE, you
would then select your packages (You can take a default, such as a typical
network server, or development system, or you can select individual
packages). The package manager is supposed to make sure that when you select
a package, if it is dependent upon another package that it will either
assign the other automatically or complain). The "base" system is what you
need to run a minimal system. Go trough the installation until you come to
LILO or until you come to making a rescue floppy. Make a rescue floppy so
that you can boot your system without having to configure a boot manager.
When you come to the LILO step, do not install LILO on the master root
partition unless you want to use LILO as you system boot manager.
Once you have created the rescue (or boot) floppy, you can complete the
installation. At some point you will be instructed to boot the system. At
this point, insert your rescue floppy and reboot. Your Linux system should
come up. Depending on the distribution, you may be instructed to make a user
account if you did not already do so earlier.  (I have avoided discussing X
Windows as this can be done after you have a running system, and is very
dependent on what hardware you have).


-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
http://www.blu.org
-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).