Page 22
If you have any NFS filesystems to mount, you need to choose the Add NFS button at the bottom of the screen. A second dialog box is brought up that asks for the address of the NFS server, the NFS path, and the mount point, as shown in Figure 2.11.
The installation program now asks you which partitions you want to format. You should format them all unless there is some data you want to keep on any of them. It is a good idea to check the Check for bad blocks during format box also.
After the partition(s) are formatted, you are ready to select the packages you want to be installed and start the installation. You first have to choose which system components you want to install (see Figure 2.12). Choose the components, and then you can go through and select or deselect each individual package of each component (see Figure 2.13).
Page 23
Sometimes, certain programs depend on others to work properly. These are called dependencies. If the installation program detects that some packages are missing that will be needed for another package, it brings up a dialog box that enables you to add the missing packages, as shown in Figure 2.14.
After the packages are installed, you need to configure your mouse, X Window (if installed), networking, printer, and clock.
The next dialog box asks what type of mouse you have. Most of the newest Microsoft mice use the Logitech protocol. If you choose a serial mouse, you are prompted for the COM port in which the mouse is plugged. If you have a mouse plugged in the PS/2 type port, you must select PS/2 Mouse, regardless of the type of mouse you have.
If you installed the X Window System, the installation program will start Xconfigurator. First, it prompts for your video card. If you don't see your video card and you have all the information on the card, you can select Unlisted Card and try to configure it yourself.
Page 24
Second, Xconfigurator gives you a list of monitors from which to choose. Pick a monitor that will match yours exactly. If it does not match exactly, there is a possibility that you could destroy it by running it at a higher frequency than it was designed for. If you can't find your monitor and you know the frequencies of the monitor, you can select Custom and enter them yourself.
Next, you are asked about the amount of memory on your video card. Then you are presented with a menu of different video modes. Simply select the modes you want to be able to run in and press Enter. This information is written to /etc/X11/XF86Config.
After you have your X server configured, the installation program asks whether you want to configure networking. If you do not plan to connect your machine to a network, choose No. Otherwise, choose Yes and you will be presented with a dialog box that asks for your IP address, netmask, default gateway, and primary nameserver. You are then asked for your domain name, hostname, and any additional nameservers.
After you finish the network configuration, you are asked whether you want to set up a printer. (You don't have to install the printer at this time; it can be set up later.) The installation program asks what type of printer connection you are creating: Local, Remote, or LAN-Manager. You are then asked for the name of the queue you are creating, the name of the spool directory, the make and model of your printer, the size of paper your printer uses, and the depth of color you want to use if your printer is color.
If you are configuring a local printer, you also need to give the port to which your printer is connected.
If you are configuring a remote printer, you need to give the IP address of the host to which the printer is connected and the name of the queue in the remote host.
If you are configuring a LAN-Manager printer, you need to supply the name of the host to which the printer is connected, the IP number of the host, the name of the printer, the username you will use to access the printer, and the password.
You are now presented with a dialog box to set your clock. The program asks what time zone you are in and whether you want to set your CMOS clock to Greenwich Mean Time (also known as GMT or UTC). If you set the clock for local time, both Linux and another operating system (such as Windows 95) will use the clock. (Note that Windows 95 will reset your clock when your local time changes.) If you set the clock to UTC, Linux will handle time changes, but Windows 95 won't.
After you finish configuring the clock, you need to give your system a root password. The next dialog box asks for that password. It must be at least six characters long and should contain a mixture of upper- and lowercase letters and numbers. The password should not be based on anything that someone could guess (your name, phone number, birthday, and so on). You are
Page 25
asked to enter the password twice for verification that you typed it correctly. Do not forget this password, or you will not be able to log in to your system.
After you set the root password, you are presented with a series of dialog boxes to set up LILO (see Figure 2.15). For details on this, see Chapter 3 on configuring and installing LILO.
After you install LILO, the installation program reboots your system. Press Enter at the boot: prompt. Enter root when prompted with login:, and enter the password you created during the installation when prompted with password:.
If you want to add packages to your Linux system in the future or upgrade current packages, you can use the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM). RPM technology is a very easy way to manage package installs and uninstalls. It keeps track of what is installed and any dependencies that are not met, and then it notifies you of them. There is also a graphical interface to RPM that can be accessed through the Control Panel while running X Window.
The basic usage of the rpm command to install a package is the following:
rpm _I packagename.rpm
To uninstall a package you use the following:
rpm _u packagename.rpm
There are many other options available for RPM, but these two are the most commonly used options.
Packages for use with RPM are available at ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/current/i386/RedHat/RPMS/ or any mirrors of this site.