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by Tim Parker
You have probably already installed Linux. Even so, you may not be happy with the installation, either because of poor organization or because you were experimenting with it and would like to try again with a better configuration. This chapter looks at the issues you should address when you install Linux for the first time (or reinstall it, as the case may be), and how to update your existing Linux installation with new software releases.
Bear in mind that this chapter takes a general approach to installing Linux using three of the popular versions of Linux: Slackware, Red Hat, and OpenLinux (which is based on Slackware). Depending on the version of Linux you are installing and the release version, your prompts and choices may be different. Luckily, much will be easy to figure out as all versions of Linux tend to have straightforward prompts once you get to the package installation routines.
The process for installing Linux is straightforward, although there are lots of little problems scattered throughout that can cause hassles. Don’t believe the “easy installation” claims on many packages of the distribution software! Several steps still require patience, experimentation, and a knowledge of what is going on before Linux will install painlessly. The essential steps for installing Linux follow:
We look at each of these steps in a little more detail. The process is very similar for installing from a CD-ROM and from a disk (which may have come from an FTP site, for example). Because CD-ROM is the most common form of installation, we use that process as an example in this chapter.
If you are installing from floppy and have downloaded the distribution files (or copied them from a CD-ROM), you need a DOS-formatted floppy for each disk in the distribution disk set. You can use standard DOS copy commands to copy the disk set files to the floppy, one floppy for each file in the distribution set. The files are all numbered so you know which floppy is in which set, and what their order should be.
If your hard disk already has an operating system like DOS, or one that produces a DOS window like Windows, you can try installing directly from the CD-ROM. Boot into your existing operating system, change to the CD-ROM drive, and look for a single executable program with either a .COM or .EXE extension. Some Red Hat Linux versions, for example, have an executable called RED HAT that takes care of the installation process for you. If that’s the case, issue the following command at the DOS prompt (or whatever the executable is called):
RED HAT
You are asked a series of questions by the program to help it determine the best images for the boot kernel. You can also provide any special startup installation commands during this stage.
Tip:
Do not run the floppyless installation process from inside a Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or OS/2 session. Boot your system into DOS or DOS mode and run it from there.
The floppyless installation routine guides you through the kernel determination process by displaying all possible choices on menus and prompting you for your answers. The process is intuitive and can be used by anyone who knows the type of hardware installed on their system. If you are not sure about the hardware, you can still try the floppyless installation; the worst that can happen is that you will have to try again with different settings.
If there are some hardware configuration issues the installation process detects, it may offer advice on setting parameters or making changes. These bits of advice are, for the most part, just that: advice. You don’t have to heed the advice if you don’t want. In some cases, the advice makes a lot of sense (such as resolving IRQ conflicts), in which case you should take care of the issue. (There’s a table of commonly used IRQs later in this chapter.)
Even if you are installing from CD-ROM, you still need two high-capacity floppies (either 1.2MB or 1.44MB). These are the boot and root floppies. The boot floppy holds the kernel that is used to start Linux the first time, leading to your installation. The root floppy holds a small filesystem that includes utilities needed for the installation. The two disks together form a complete and very small implementation of Linux. There is enough of a system on the two floppies to actually play with Linux, although many of the utilities are missing.
Tip:
If you have a recent system, you may not need boot and root floppies at all. Current BIOS versions allow booting from the CD-ROM drive, especially when the system is all SCSI-based. Some IDE-based CD-ROM systems allow booting from the CD-ROM drive, too. If your system supports CD-ROM booting, you need only insert the Linux CD and reboot the system. The CD software automatically selects the correct boot and root images to use.
In most cases, the boot and root floppies are copied from existing files that are called “images.” The image is a precompiled version of the system that you duplicate onto the floppies, eliminating the need to start from scratch. CD-ROM and FTP distributions have directories for several boot and root images, depending on the hardware on your system. You must select the image that matches your hardware as much as possible, copy them to the disks, and start your system with the disks.
You can do most of these steps from DOS, although you can’t use the DOS copy command to create the boot and root floppies. The floppies must be created with a utility that ignores the DOS formatting. This utility, commonly called RAWRITE.EXE, is included with most Linux software distributions.
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