Pre-Installation Checklist

You'll need to acquire or know these items before installing Fermi Linux on your system:

• (must have)Fermi Linux Install floppy v7.3.x from the PREP counter at FCC3W or from Yolanda at WH8NW. This is a specially modified install floppy for Fermi Network Installations.
• (must have)network IP address
  • DHCP
    This is where a IP address and hostname get assigned to your machine for a limited time. Most laptops work this way, where you just plug in your computer and you automatically are on the network. Not all sub-nets at the lab support DHCP.
    If you will be using DHCP during the install, you do not need to figure out your IP address, it will be detected and used automatically.
  • Static IP address
    Using a static IP address is the prefered way to network desktop and server machines. You will need to get a IP address from the DataComm Group. This generally takes a day to get into the system.
    The MAC (hardware) address of the ethernet card is needed in order to get a IP address.
    • Using the install floppy, boot the machine to the "Choose a Language" screen. Then press Ctrl-Alt-F4. Approximately 9 lines from the bottom of the screen should be line that starts with the string "<6>eth0:". Near the end of the line should be a string of 6 hexidecimal numbers separated by colons. This is the MAC address.
    DataComm will supply you with your IP address, along with other information. During the install you will need
    • The IP address (suppliedby DataComm).
    • The network Netmask (suppliedby DataComm with the IP address).
    • The network Default Gateway IP address (supplied by DataComm with the IP address).
• (sometimes needed)The type of video card in the system including make, model and amount of video memory.
• (rarely needed)The type of ethernet card you have including make and model.
• (optional)A blank DOS formatted 1.44MB floppy to create a rescue boot disk.

Installation Instructions

Use the Tab/Alt-Tab keys to navigate between elements.
The <space> key selects/deselects items.

Welcome to RedHat Linux 7.3.x

From the initial boot screen, type "text" and hit [enter] to start the install process in text mode. If your video card isn't recognized by the install program, it will automatically default to text mode installation.


Choose a Language [OK]

Keyboard Type [OK]

Installation Method [NFS image]

Configure TCP/IP

Either:

• Choose DHCP
or
• Enter the IP address (from above)
  Netmask (from above)
  Default gateway (from above)
  Primary nameserver (131.225.8.120)

[OK]




NFS Setup

NFS server name linux.fnal.gov

Red Hat directory /export/linux/732/i386

or, if you are installing 7.3.1

Red Hat directory /export/linux/731/i386

Red Hat Linux [OK]

Mouse Selection [Select and OK]

Installation Type [Select and OK]

Select which workgroup this machine will belong to. If you aren't part of a particular group choose "Fermi Generic Desktop Install"

For more information, please read about what workgroups currently exist and how they work.




Disk Setup

Select [Disk Druid]

Partitioning

You will need to create your disk partitions. At a bare minimum you should create the /, a swap partitions. The reason to create a separate /home partition is to ensure that if something bad should happen to your system (/) partition, your personal home area may not be affected. Sizes should be determined by what your need is. The workgroup page indicates the minimum space needed for the software that this workgroup has selected as part of this installation. Of course there may be other software loaded and this needs to be taken into account. I have indicated very minimum sizes below. The "Device" below is the default given for a clean install. Your "Device" name may vary.




	Mount Point	Device	Size	Type	Notes
	/	hda1	3000	ext3	required
	/home	hda6	What ever you want.	ext3	optional, but a good idea
	swap	hda7	500M	swap	required

 

• • Use "New" to create new partitions. Enter its mount point, size and type.
  • Repeat until all partitions are created.

  Hit "Ok" and "Yes" on the Save Changes screen.




Add Partition

When adding new partitions, things often go quite smoothly, but when editing existing paritions, you need to make sure that the root partition get's formated. It is always a good idea to double check the 'Filesystem Option' and make sure it says something about Formatting. If it doesn't select [Filesystem Options]

Filesystem Options

Select 'Format as:' and 'ext3'.
[OK]

Warning

If your root partition goes higher than the 1024 cylindar, then you will get this warning stating that the Boot paritition may not meet booting constraints.
Unless your machine is extremely old (100 Mhz) this is probrubly not a problem. It is safe to select [add anyway] and continue.

Format Warning [Yes]

Boot Loader Configuration(1) ['Use LILO' and OK]

Although both LILO and GRUB are good boot loaders, we recommend LILO because of backwards compatibility, and better documentation.

Boot Loader Configuration(2) [MBR and OK]

We recommend that you install LILO on the Master Boot Record and not the First Sector of the Linux partition. If you use the "First sector of the Linux Partition" you will need another boot loader in addition to lilo.

Boot Loader Configuration(3) [OK]

It is hard to predict when the LBA32 option is going to be needed. It is best to leave this option unchecked unless you are sure that you need it. It is needed mainly when your LILO or GRUB config file are on a cylindar higher than 1024.

Boot Loader Configuration(4) [OK]

Edit if necessary

Network Configuration for eth0 [Edit if necessary and OK]

Hostname Configuration [Edit if necessary and OK]

Firewall Configuration [OK]

Using anything other than "No firewall" will break NFS.

Language Support [OK]

Time Zone Selection [America/Chicago and OK]

Do not select the "Hardware clock set to GMT" option.

Root Password [Enter twice and OK]

Add User [OK]

It is best to add users after the install because you should use the Fermi assigned UID/GID and this screen does not allow for the specification of the UID/GID , so just continue.

Authentication Configuration [OK]

The Kerberos settings have been set to correctly kerberize your machine. Please do not change these. Most workgroups will set your NIS domain and server for you, so you often do not need to set that, unless you are choosing stand alone.

Package Group Selection

Various groups of packages can be selected or unselected here, depending on your workgroup. If you choose you can also select individual packages.
[OK].

Video Card Configuration [Verify and OK]

If your video card was correctly identified, then select [OK}.
If your video card was not correctly identified, then you should change the settings.
If your video card is not setup correctly here, you will be able to change it after the install.

Installation to begin [OK]

The installation will proceed.
This takes 30-40 minutes via the network and a progress bar will indicate the amount of time left.

Bootdisk [OK]

This is a good idea to create.

Monitor Configuration

If your particular monitor is not listed, there are several "generic" resolution monitors called Generic Monitor. Select the one that matches the resolution your monitor can do. Guessing wrong should not hurt anything and you can always go back and try another.

X Configuration

You should first check to see if the 'Resolution' and 'Color Depth' seem reasonable. You should then do a [Test]. If you do a test and your screen just goes blank, or goes all squiggly, just wait for 15 seconds and it will come back to this screen.
If you can't seem to get the screen right, make sure that the 'Default Login' is set to 'Text' and move on with the installation. You will be able to reconfigure your graphics after the installation, when you reboot and login.
For the majority of systems the graphical setup should work very well. It usually only has problems with very very new video cards, or very very very old video cards.
[OK]

Long Pause with just a blue screen

This is the part of the install where the post install scrip runs.
A long pause is normal, especially if you have UPD/UPS installed.
If the pause is longer than 15 minutes, be a little concerned and do Alt-F2, which brings you to a shell prompt. Then type ps ax, and look and see what is being done.

Complete[OK]

Remove the floppy from the drive.

NOTE: Although Fermi Linux 7.3.1 comes kerberized out of the box with Fermi Kerberos, if you want someone to be able to log into your machine via kerberos, you need to do the following extra steps after your machine is up.

1. * get a host key password  from here *
   
2. /usr/krb5/config/makehostkeys  * use password from step 1 *

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Send mail to us at:
E-mail alias: csi-group@fnal.gov