Anaconda

An exact description of the Red Hat 6.1 installation process can be found in the "The Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide - Chapter 8. Installing Red Hat Linux with the Text Mode Installer".

Red Hats archived manuals can be found at:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/archive.html

An online documentation can be found at:

http://www.linuxhelp.co.za/RedHat61/rhref/ch-install-tm.htm

I will here describe only the parts that were important for my first successful installation on the aero.

I said "Cancel" to the first linux-installer dialog box which asked for a driver disk, because I already had my pcmcia network card inserted and not the floppy.

I then followed the instructions.

It asked for the location of the files, I entered "hard drive" and in the fields then "/dev/hda8" and left the field for the "Directory holding Red Hat" free because the installer detects the RedHat directory automatically.

When asked for a graphics card: I choosed "Custom" - this selection can be found at the bottom of the drivers list - so just scroll till the end.

If you choose another driver X won't work. The Linux FAQ writes that the graphics card is an ET4000 but Xfree86 won't detect it correctly. So installing that driver just leads you to install the wrong Xfree server (XF86_SVGA) which won't work with the aeros display.

You then have to choose your X-Server manually. Take "XF86_VGA16" this will work with the aero.

The installer will now ask you for the software packages to install. Install whatever you need. But don't forget to check the little box "[x] Select individual packages" at the bottom of this window to go to a individual selection of the packages afterwards.

Many needed things will not automatically install. The most needed for me is the "midnight commander" (mc) a norton-commander like filemanager which is VERY usefull after the installation. You find it in some directory like system shell (I forgot the exact place).

You need also additional tools to compile and to patch software on the aero (don't panic, I am also no programmer). You need it for instance to compile and patch a new kernel which is really important for this computer.

So that's what I additional installed to compile successfully:

bison-1.28-1.i386.rpm 
byacc-1.9-11.i386.rpm 
cdecl-2.5-9.i386.rpm 
cpp-1.1.2-24.i386.rpm 
cproto-4.6-2.i386.rpm 
ctags-3.2-1.i386.rpm 
dev86-0.14.9-1.i386.rpm 
egcs-1.1.2-24.i386.rpm 
egcs-c++-1.1.2-24.i386.rpm
ElectricFence-2.1-1.i386.rpm 
flex-2.5.4a-7.i386.rpm 
gdb-4.18-4.i386.rpm 
glibc-devel-2.1.2-11.i386.rpm 
kernel-headers-2.2.12-20.i386.rpm 
m4-1.4-12.i386.rpm 
make-3.77-6.i386.rpm 
ncurses-devel-4.2-25.i386.rpm
patch-2.5-9.i386.rpm

The copying of the packages will take quite a while.

Now we come to the installation of the monitor and X:

When asked for the monitor choose "Custom" and then the first selections ("640x480 VGA 50khz") etc. You anyway have to reconfigure these settings afterwards.

Don't let the installer probe your monitor chose always "Cancel" or "Skip". The probe will fail and lead to a uncomplete installation.

When asked for configuring X choose "Skip" - you have to do it manually after the installation.

The installation process is now finished. Congratulations.

There are still several things to do after the installation. We will take a look on them in the next chapters.

A good guide for these works can also be found at:

http://yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialRedHatInstallation.html

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