Installing RedHat7
 

I,ve got a problem as a newbie that i,m sure someone can sort.

I,ve got Win 2000 on a 10GB HD as master and i want to put linux on a 10GB HD as a slave. I,ve installed RedHat before as a img on a fat32 with windows by selecting the Workstation option and mount point as /.
Now i want to dedicate a full drive to Linux and i am a little unshure about the best filesystem and selection to choose.
I read tha linux needs ex2 format so i used Part.exe in Dos and partitioned the slave (hdd) to ext2.
On installation i used Disk Druid and selected edit > mount point as /, but i could go no further as the forward key was not selected.
The only way i could install was to select the server version and auto partition, but after installion i only got the bare minimum of Linux. If i format the slave(hdd) as a fat32 the instalaltion proceeds but near the end of installation i get loadsa error messages such as:

File "/var/tmp/anaconda-7.0.1//usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 678, in run mainloop ()
File "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/gtk.py", line 2554, in mainloop _gtk.gtk_main()
and a few more.
All i really want is to install the Workstation version on a dedicated drive.

Regards
CropA

Hi
Didn't you get offered automatic partitioning in the workstation install?
I actually removed my win98 disc to be totally safe during the install, so could click auto partition with no fear, despite having little idea what I was doing!
Jim

Only option on Workstation was fdisk & Disk druid, no auto 'only on server'.

Have you got a RH boxset, or a download?
What happens if you try to use fdisk?

I,ve got my copy from PCPlus mag DVD version.
Never used fdisk on linux only DOS. I just dont know why i can only progress on Workstation selection with Fat32 unless i select server. I,m thinking of installing a version of windows and putting it on as a img again but i really wanted a dediated drive for linux.

OK
Have my Red Hat installation book here. You should go through the keyboard/mouse setup, then get a screen with install or upgrade. If you select workstation,you should then see the partitioning screen. Top option should be automatically partition and remove data. Should be the same in text mode. If this isn't appearing, I don't know why. Maybe it's because of the previous format, though I've done the RH7 install a few (!) times now, and never seen this. Maybe a full low level format would do the trick.
Jim

Well i tried again but still no luck. I decided to have a go with Mandrake 7.1 and i had no probs. Its installation is well cool and well documented with a excellent format and partition tool. I also think that Mandrake includes better features after reading a article in a mag. Only thing i need to configure is the boot up process but there seems to be so many options out there. One good example i,ve found is editing the boot.ini file in Win2k.

http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00011.asp

Looks ok but i'm looking for a simple boot program but i dont know which one to choose. boot commander, Lilo, Grub, i think i,ll try them all.

Hello CropA.

I'm a newbie too, and had trouble with this but managed it with a lot of help - see the thread Redhat, WinME, Lilo, dual boot. I am using GRUB from a floppy which is just as quick as writing to the MBR - WinME is like Win2000 because it gets upset when you overwrite the MBR - some kids just won't share ...

Without seeming facetious, shouldn't the magazine have given you some installation instructions ... ? No matter though.
First recommendation is get a good book from O'reilly like Learning Red Hat Linux - even if you're not running RH, very little in the book is exclusive to Red Hat.

If you've gone with Mandrake, that's fine. For Red Hat, I think you need to :
[list=1][*]Boot into windoze.[*]Defragment your Hard Drive, using the utility in configuration folder.[*]Make a Startup Disk (Emergency Boot Disk) in Win[*]Format another floppy in Win - ideally from a DOS prompt as Win will put superfluous stuff on the disk.[*]Ideally at a DOS prompt, copy the programs restorrb.exe and fips.exe to the floppy,[*]Reboot from your startup floppy into the minimal DOS mode (just DOS mode in Win9x),[*]Run the program fips.exe which will identify how much spare space there is left for the linux installation,[*]Split the disk into 2 partitions. When it asks you if you want to save the boot.img to disk, put (or leave) your floppy in the drive and hit enter.[*]Reboot your computer from the linux cdrom. You should be able to delete the newly created partition (not the one with Windoze on it which should be marked hda0)[*]Add a new partition of type ext2.[*]Proceed with the installation.[*]Don't forget to make a linux boot floppy
[*]If things go wrong (There have been minor glitches with 7.0 installations which are claimed to be fixed in 7.1), Boot from the emergency floppy into DOS and run restorrb.exe from the other floppy you formatted. This should ask you if you want to restore the root/boot sector from rootboot.000. Click enter. You're back at number 1 now.[/list=1]

Again, I strongly recommend getting a newbie o'reilly book - you can always sell it to someone else when you're done.:D