Using the Netinst boot CD to install Red Hat Fedora Core 9 Codename Sulphur Using a URL

22 August, 2008 (18:00) | Installing Red Hat Fedora Core 9 | By: redhatfedoracore

Today: Using the Netinst boot CD to install Red Hat Fedora Core 9 Codename Sulphur Using a URL

I am installing Red Hat Fedora Core 9 on a computer that only has a CD-ROM. The computer is a Dell PowerEdge 600SC with an Adaptec 39160 SCSI card and one Seagate ST336607LW 35GB SCSI hard drive. The CD-ROM is a IDE-based.

The computer has 512MB RAM, a 2.4GHz Processor and an Intel PRO/1000 Network Adapter and it won’t load Microsoft Windows Small Business Sever for some reason. It just keeps rebooting during hardware detection, most likely due to the SCSI card driver. I decided to put Red Hat Fedora Core 9 Linux on it instead. I don’t like disc swapping and scanning discs before installing so since I am primarily a Microsoft Windows user, who just happens to really like Linux, here is what I did.

You can use a URL from the Internet, instead, if you don’t want to use a Microsoft Windows computer as part of this. I understand.

Fedora Mirror List: http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/

Internet URL Example: http://mirror.cc.vt.edu/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/

  • Boot to the Red Hat Fedora Core 9 Netinst Rescue CD
  • Highlight Install or upgrade an existing system, if it’s not already, but don’t press Enter yet.
  • You should see Press [Tab] to edit options near the middle of the screen.
  • Press the Tab key to edit options.
  • To load past the initial text based hardware detection I had to use the linux noprobe parameter.
  • > vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img linux noprobe
    • the line should probably look like above if you are having problems getting the installer to run.
  • Press Enter to continue.
    • Choose a Language --> English
  • Press Enter on OK to continue
    • Keyboard Type --> us
  • Press Enter on OK to continue
    • Installation Method --> URL
  • Press the Down arrow three times to select URL.
  • Press Enter on OK to continue
    • No driver found --> Select driver
  • Press Enter on Select driver to continue
    • Select Device Driver to Load --> Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver (e1000)
      • Use the Down arrow to scroll to whatever network interface card you have.
  • Press Enter on OK to continue
    • Configure TCP/IP --> Enable IPv4 support
      • You should know whether to use Dynamic IP configuration (DHCP) or Manual configuration. I use Dynamic IP configuration (DHCP).
  • Press the Down arrow three times
  • Press the Space Bar once to disable IPv6 support during the install.
  • Press the Down arrow once.
  • Press Enter to on OK continue.
    • URL Setup
  • Type the URL of the Fedora Core 9 installation files.
  • Type http://192.168.0.2
    • or whatever http:// based location you decide on
  • Press the Down arrow twice
  • Press Enter on OK to continue.
    • Devices --> Done
  • Press the Right arrow twice to select Add Device.
  • Press Enter on Add Device to continue.
  • Select the driver for whatever chipset your linux hard drive is plugged to
    • When I power on my computer I see Adaptec SCSI Card 39160 BIOS v2.57.2S2 on the screen. I know my hard disk drive is connected to that SCSI card.
  • The correct driver for the Adaptec 39160 SCSI card is the Adaptec AIC77XX/78XX SCSI Host Bus Adapter driver
  • Once the proper storage driver is selected press the Tab key twice to select OK.
    • If you can’t figure out which device driver to use, try booting to a Knoppix CD and pay attention as the start-up rolls by.
  • Press the Down arrow once to select Done.
  • Press Enter on Done to continue.
  • Single left-click on Next to continue the graphical portion of the setup.
    • You should now be in graphical mode.
  • A screen may come up that says Install Fedora as the default option.
  • Single left-click on Next with Install Fedora selected to continue.
  • You should just be able to single left-click on Next and leave the default settings if you are using the DHCP protocol.
    • You may also want to change the Hostname to something cooler than localhost.localdomain.
    • localhost.localdomain will work but something like fc9pc.local might be a bit more descriptive and easier to type.
  • Single left-click the check box in front of System clock uses UTC to uncheck and use local time.
    • America/New York is closest city to me, the default, select the city closest to you.
  • Single left-click on Next to continue
  • Enter a password for the root user account.
  • Press the Tab key.
  • Enter the new root password again.
  • Single left-click on Next to continue
    • If your password is weak you will get a prompt to continue with that password. I advise you don’t do that.
    • Single left-click on No to try again.
  • Installation requires partitioning
    • My computer will be dedicated to running Linux and only has one SCSI hard disk drive.
  • Remove Linux partitions on selected drives and create default layout should already be selected and is the safest option if you have a Microsoft Windows installation or FAT/NTFS partitions installed on the same drive.
  • Single left-click on Next to continue
  • Single left-click on the Write changes to disk when the Writing partitioning to disk dialog box appears.
    • Formatting / file system... should appear if all is going according to plan.
  • Single left-click on Next to continue
    • Just install the default packages for now. There are many updates and most things will have to be downloaded again anyway.
  • You should see Starting install process. This may take several minutes... appear on the screen.
  • Wait
  • Wait some more when Preparing transaction from installation source... appears.
  • Wait while the default packages are installed from the URL of the DVD ISO image file or website you entered. I see 928 packages total to install.
  • This type of local install using the Red Hat Fedora Core 9 Netinst Rescue CD begins and ends from just one CD without any media checking or disc swapping. The installation seem to move along much faster this way.
  • Eject the Red Hat Fedora Core 9 Netinst Rescue CD.
  • Single left-click Reboot to reboot and load your new Red Hat Fedora Core 9 installation.
  • Single left-click Forward from the Welcome screen.
  • Single left-click Forward from the License Information screen.
  • Single left-click in the Username: text input box.
  • Type a Username: to use as a normal user account.
  • Press Tab and type a Full Name:
  • Press Tab and type a Password: for your this new user account.
  • Press Tab and type the same Password: to confirm.
  • Single left-click Forward to continue.
  • Single left-click Forward to continue if the Date and Time are correct.
  • Single left-click Finish to not send profile information.
  • Single left-click on No, do not send unless you want to send your installation profile.
    • I already did it for this computer before.
  • Single left-click on the place where you see the Username you just created.
  • Type the Password and press Enter.

You should now see the GNOME Red Hat Fedora Core 9 desktop. Red Hat Fedora Core 9 has been successfully installed. Yum is now running in the background preparing for a system update. I’d advise that you don’t install the updates quite yet or at least run yum install yum-fastestmirror before you do.


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