Overview

Secrets in This Chapter

• Checking the Red Hat Hardware Compatibility List

• Repartitioning Your Hard Drive

• Starting the Red Hat Linux Installer from DOS

• Installing from the Red Hat Linux CD-ROM

• Understanding the Red Hat Installation Phases

• Installing a Boot Loader

• Selecting the Package Groups to Install

• Completing the Installation

• Troubleshooting X at the First Reboot

• Understanding the Fatal Signal 11 Error

• Installing Red Hat Linux on a Laptop

Red Hat Linux installation can be either straightforward or complicated, depending on the specific type of hardware in your PC. If your PC is relatively new and the installer detects all the peripherals such as the video card and network interface card correctly, then you can sail through the installation. On the other hand, if your PC has components that Red Hat Linux does not support, you’d have to perform additional steps to install Red Hat Linux. Typically, you are more likely to find Linux drivers for common name-brand hardware, but these drivers may not work properly for generic hardware. In all cases, if you decide to keep your existing Microsoft Windows installation and install Red Hat Linux as a second operating system, you have to go through the trouble of creating the disk partitions for Red Hat Linux.

You need some specific information about your PC’s hardware, such as the type of disk controller, video card, and network card to figure out whether you can install Red Hat Linux easily or not. The Linux operating system controls the hardware through drivers (software through which the operating system accesses the hardware), so you need to make sure that the current release of Linux includes drivers for your hardware. If your hardware is popular enough, there’s a good chance that someone has developed a driver for it. The version of Red Hat Linux on the companion CD-ROMs supports a wide variety of hardware, so all of your PC’s peripherals are probably supported.

In this chapter, you learn how to install Red Hat Linux from the companion CD-ROMs. The chapter starts with an overview of the entire installation process, then it guides you through the installation process, highlighting the critical parts and providing technical information necessary to complete these installation steps.