Softpanorama

May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
Home Switchboard Unix Administration Red Hat TCP/IP Networks Neoliberalism Toxic Managers
(slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and  bastardization of classic Unix

RHEL Installation

News

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Administration

Recommended Links

Creating a bootable USB drive from ISO image

Registering a server using Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM)

 Creating a boot image that is using a remote kickstart file to install Red Hat
Modifying ISO image to include kickstart file Creating a boot ISO that is using a remote kickstart file to install Red Hat  Installing X11 and Gnome Desktop in RHEL 7   RHEL 7 install highlights RHEL 7 installation checklist
Copying config files from one RHEL server to another   Installation of Red Hat from a USB drive Creation of bootable USB with ISO for RHEL7 Kickstart Linux Disk Partitioning
Disabling useless daemons in RHEL/Centos/Oracle 6 servers Disabling RHEL 6 Network Manager Network Manager overwrites resolv.conf Creating a clone of current serv Bonding Ethernet Interfaces in Red Hat Linux Loopback filesystem
RHEL6 registration on proxy protected network RHEL5 registration on proxy protected network RHEL subscription management Burning CD and DVD on Linux Linux Swap filesystem RHEL handling of DST change
 Log rotation in RHEL/Centos/Oracle linux VNC-based Installation in Anaconda NTP configuration Managing Disks by UUID Linux Multipath Installing X11 and Gnome Desktop in RHEL
Partition labels Changing runlevel when booting with grub   Oracle Linux Installation Linux Disk Management udev
Redhat Network Configuration VNC-based Installation in Anaconda Installing X11 and Gnome Desktop in RHEL Copying config files from one RHEL server to another    
Red Hat Startup Scripts Network Manager overwrites resolv.conf RHEL NTP configuration Changing timezone in RHEL6 from the command line Installing Mellanox InfiniBand Driver on RHEL 6.5 Linux Software RAID

Booting from DVD problemMounting Linux filesystems

Restoration of RHEL

Installing X11 and Gnome Desktop in RHEL

Admin Horror Stories

Humor

 Etc

Each flavor of Linux has its own installer with its strong and weak points.  It provides you with half-dosen option for installation media:

  1. Bootable DVD (traditional method)
  2. Bootable USB drive
  3. ISO image
  4. Using boot image and some network protocol such as NFS or HTTP (FTP is also supported). 
  5. PXE boot

In all three cases you can automate installation using kickstart.  You can also install CentOS on Windows 10.

If you installing from DVD that you burned yourself, please check media before installation: it helps to prevent many nasty problems.  It is important to understand that if you have problems with installing from one source (for example DVD) it make sense to try another source. On modern computers you can always use a USB disk instead of DVD.

Please note that it make sense to use custom label for partitions if you use LVM. Also it does not make sense to put root partition on LVM -- if you screw /etc/fstab and your root partition is on LVM you are stuck.

RHEL 6.7 and higher installer (anaconda) does a couple of stupid things that you need to aware of:

Anaconda in RHEL 7 is even less flexible and provides fewer "server templates". It is also more fragile. Partially this is due to presence of systemd, partially due to desire of Red Hat to imitate Windows, which adds complexity.  Desire to automate some tasks sometimes backfire.

Here is some information about anaconda adapted from Mark Sobell's book (Practical Guide to Red Hat® Linux®: Fedora™ Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, A, 2nd Edition  2005 edition):

The boot: Prompt  You can give many different Anaconda commands at a boot: prompt. If you are installing from DVD or CD, you can press RETURN  without entering a command to start the installation. Or you can just wait; if you do not type anything for a minute, the installation proceeds as though you pressed RETURN.

Display problems If you have problems with the display during installation, try to give the following command, which turns off video memory, in response to the boot: prompt:

   boot: linux nofb

Non-CD installations If you are installing from media other than DVD or CD and that means  using FTP, NFS, or HTTP, give the following command in response to the boot: prompt:

   boot: linux askmethod

Booting As the system boots, text scrolls on the monitor, pausing occasionally. After a while (up to a few minutes, depending on the speed of the system), the installer displays a graphical or pseudo graphical display, depending on the system you are installing and the commands you gave at the boot: prompt.

Anaconda Boot Commands

All the commands should be types at the boot: prompt like. The fist word of the command is always linux. It can be followed by one of more augments  passed to Anaconda. Arguments can be combined. For example, to install Linux in text mode using a terminal running at 115,200 baud, no parity, 8 bits, connected to the first serial device, give the following command (the ,115200n8 is optional):

   boot: linux text console=ttyS0,115200n8

The next command installs Red Hat Linux in graphical mode (by default) on a monitor with a resolution of 1024x768, and get the prompt to specify the source of the installation data (CD, FTP  site, or other).

   boot: linux resolution=1024x768 askmethod

How to specify installation source in grub

To specify an installation source, use the linux inst.repo=  option in grub. For example: 

inst.repo=cdrom:device
inst.repo=ftp://username:password@URL
inst.repo=http://URL
inst.repo=hd:device
inst.repo=nfs:options:server:/path
In these examples, cdrom  refers to a CD or DVD drive, ftp  refers to a location accessible by FTP, http  refers to a location accessible by HTTP, hd  refers to an ISO image file accessible on a hard drive partition, nfs  refers to an expanded tree of installation files accessible by NFS. In RHEL 7 nfsiso  is not used as installer is capable to distinguish tree from iso file. 

For NFS installation which is probably the most flexible and simple see

New Page 1

 

ISO images have an SHA256 checksum embedded in them. To test the checksum integrity of an ISO image, at the installation boot prompt, type: linux mediacheck

Following are some of the commands you can give at the boot: prompt.

For more information see Anaconda Boot Options - FedoraProject

Red Hat has well defined remote installation process using Kickstart.

Top Visited
 Switchboard
Latest
Past week
Past month

NEWS CONTENTS

Old News ;-)

[Mar 15, 2021] CentOS - RHEL 7 - How to Install GUI The Geek Diary

Mar 15, 2021 | www.thegeekdiary.com

Installing the environment group "Server with GUI"

1. Check the available environment groups :

# yum grouplist
Loaded plugins: langpacks, product-id, search-disabled-repos, subscription-manager
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
There is no installed groups file.
Maybe run: yum groups mark convert (see man yum)
Available Environment Groups:
   Minimal Install
   Infrastructure Server
   File and Print Server
   Basic Web Server
   Virtualization Host
   Server with GUI
Available Groups:
   Compatibility Libraries
   Console Internet Tools
   Development Tools
   Graphical Administration Tools
   Legacy UNIX Compatibility
   Scientific Support
   Security Tools
   Smart Card Support
   System Administration Tools
   System Management
Done

2. Execute the following to install the environments for GUI.

# yum groupinstall "Server with GUI"
.......
Transaction Summary
====================================================
Install  199 Packages (+464 Dependent packages)
Upgrade               (   8 Dependent packages)

Total download size: 523 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]:

The above will install the GUI in RHEL 7, which by default get installed to text mode.

3. Enable GUI on system start up. In RHEL 7, systemd uses 'targets' instead of runlevels. The file /etc/inittab is no more used to change run levels. Issue the following command to enable the GUI on system start.

To set a default target :

# systemctl set-default graphical.target

To change the current target to graphical without reboot :

# systemctl start graphical.target

Verify the default target :

# systemctl get-default
graphical.target

4. Reboot the machine to verify that it boots into GUI directly.

# systemctl reboot
Installing core GNOME packages

"Server with GUI" installs the default GUI which is GNOME. In case if you want to install only core GNOME packages use :

# yum groupinstall 'X Window System' 'GNOME'
....
Transaction Summary
===========================================================
Install  104 Packages (+427 Dependent packages)
Upgrade               (   8 Dependent packages)

Total download size: 318 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]:


[Mar 15, 2021] Install-Convert A Minimal Installation Into GUI on CentOS-RHEL 6-7

Mar 15, 2021 | kapendra.com

Step 1: Install Gnome GUI

Run the following command to install GUI

For CentOS 7:

https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-1312971726265182&output=html&h=60&slotname=7232524359&adk=475810333&adf=4289060371&pi=t.ma~as.7232524359&w=468&lmt=1615834166&psa=0&format=468x60&url=https%3A%2F%2Fkapendra.com%2Finstall-convert-a-minimal-installation-into-gui-on-centosrhel-6-7%2F&flash=0&wgl=1&dt=1615834165915&bpp=3&bdt=5549&idt=275&shv=r20210309&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&prev_fmts=728x90%2C468x60&correlator=5214860735252&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=263473286.1615834166&ga_sid=1615834166&ga_hid=622691513&ga_fc=0&u_tz=-240&u_his=3&u_java=0&u_h=864&u_w=1536&u_ah=864&u_aw=1536&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=364&ady=1446&biw=1536&bih=762&scr_x=0&scr_y=0&eid=42530672%2C21066428%2C31060305&oid=3&pvsid=1400452504347324&pem=31&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fduckduckgo.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=640&brdim=1536%2C0%2C1536%2C0%2C1536%2C0%2C1536%2C864%2C1536%2C762&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CoeEbr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=8192&bc=31&ifi=3&uci=a!3&btvi=2&fsb=1&xpc=7Ex3Qs11m5&p=https%3A//kapendra.com&dtd=287

 
# yum group install "GNOME Desktop" "Graphical Administration Tools"
For RHEL 7: 
# yum groupinstall "Server with GUI"
... ... ... Step 2: Make GUI Default Mode For Every Reboot

With the upgrade of Centos/RHEL 7 from CentOS/RHEL 6 concept of runlevel has been changed to systemd so run following command

For RHEL/CentOS 7: 
ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/runlevel5.target /etc/systemd/system/default.targ

... ... ...

Step 3: Reboot the Server 
# reboot
Few Short Cut Commands

GUI to CLI : Ctrl + Alt + F6
CLI to GUI : Ctrl + Alt + F1


Kapendra http://kapendra.com Love to write technical stuff with personal experience as I am working as a Sr. Linux Admin. and every day is a learning day and Trust me being tech geek is really cool.

[May 21, 2011] TipsAndTricks-InstallOnExt4 - CentOS Wiki

This tip allows to use Ext4 on RHEL 5.6 and derivatives.

To allow anaconda to manipulate ext4 filesystems, it is enough to start the installer using the "ext4" parameter on the command line: 

linux ext4

[*] Of course, any other additional options can be added to the command line.

Subsequently the ext4 filesystem will be presented by Disk Druid among all other filesystems. Mind that because of GRUB limitations, it is mandatory to use a separate /boot partition formatted as ext2 or ext3 if your root ( / ) partition is ext4.

For kickstart based installations, just use ext4 instead of ext3 as filesystem. No other change is necessary.

[May 20, 2005] Red Hat Linux Step-by-Step Installation by Mark G. Sobell

May 20, 2005 | InformIT

This chapter steps through the process of installing either Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Fedora Core. Frequently, the installation is quite simple, especially if you have done a good job of planning. Sometimes you may run into a problem or have a special circumstance; this chapter gives you the tools to use in these cases.

IN THIS CHAPTER

Chapter 2 covered planning the installation: requirements, an upgrade versus a clean installation, classes of installations, planning the layout of the hard disk, how to obtain the files you need for the installation including how to download and burn ISO (CD) images, and collecting the information about the system you will need during installation. This chapter steps through the process of installing either Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Fedora Core. Frequently, the installation is quite simple, especially if you have done a good job of planning. Sometimes you may run into a problem or have a special circumstance; this chapter gives you the tools to use in these cases.

[Jan 7, 2000] Linux Article -- Kickstart

  • Your company just bought 30 new machines, and it’s your job to install Linux on them. If you’re using Red Hat Linux, the kickstart install process can save you a lot of time.

    Kickstart automates the install process, so that it becomes as simple as putting the floppy in, turning the machine on, and coming back 15 minutes later. Kickstart is especially useful if you have a number of machines with similar configurations. In the simplest case, all you need is an up-to-date boot floppy, a kickstart config file, and an installation CD-ROM. For trickier installs, you might also need a DHCP or bootp server, an NFS server, and a DNS server.

    A kickstart installation requires that you predefine all necessary installation data in a kickstart config file. The kickstart config file can be split into three parts — the preinstall, the packages, and the post-install.

    The preinstall section of the config file is used to answer the questions that are usually asked before the install starts. The options, which will be described below, are: lang, network, {nfs|cdrom|url|harddrive}, {device|noprobe}, keyboard, zerombr, clearpart, part, {install|upgrade}, mouse, timezone, {xconfig|skipx}, rootpw, auth, lilo. See “Configuration Options” for a description of the preinstall section options.

    http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/KickStart-HOWTO.html

    Recommended Links

    Google matched content

    Softpanorama Recommended

    Top articles

    Sites

    Chapter 9. Installing Using Anaconda

    E-books

    Josh's Linux Guide -- contains several useful essays

    1. Configuring and Troubleshooting X
    2. Linux Commands
    3. Installing Software Packages
    4. Introduction
    5. Linux Basics and Tips
    6. Modifying Your Partitions and Help on LILO
    7. Using 'chmod'
    8. Using RPM

    Linux Notes by

    Linux Installation and operation

    TCP/IP

    Communications

    Crypto and security

    Other notes

    HOW-TOs

    Configuration

    Upgrades

    Ethernet

    • Usenet

    Keyboard and Shell

    See also:

    Net

    Home Server with Linux - document that explains how to share a modem and printer with a Windows 95 machine

    How-TOs

    Hardware

    X installation and configuration

    Other Useful mini-HOWTOs

    The following mini-HOWTOs are available:

    Internet forums

    Etc

    Society

    Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

    Quotes

    War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

    Bulletin:

    Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

    History:

    Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

    Classic books:

    The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

    Most popular humor pages:

    Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

    The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

    Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.

    FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.

    This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...

    		 You can use PayPal to to buy a cup of coffee for authors of this site

    Disclaimer:

    The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.

    Last modified: March 15, 2021