You need Red Hat version 2.0 or higher and the boot and supp disks (see below). Follow instructions below but choose upgrade instead of install when the time comes. PLEASE BACK UP IMPORTANT DATA The upgrade should be fairly benign but it's better to be safe

Installing Redhat Linux

We currently only mirror the x86 version of Red Hat. This could change in the future. (It will happen faster if you bug us.

There is a great installation guide on the Red Hat web site. Please read it! This page will only cover local information you will need.

Things you will need

3 formatted 1.44 MB 3.5 in. floppy disks (the higher quality the better).
An x86 computer with a reasonably mainstream ethernet card
Network numbers for your computer including, IP address, subnet mask, and gateway
A hardware inventory (graphics card, monitor etc.) The Red Hat installation guide details how to get this infomation from Window. You did read it right?
Unpartioned free space (I think around 500MB is minimal) or a partition you can delete
BACKUPS OF ALL IMPORTANT DATA!!! A proper installation will leave existing partions intact but if it doesn't, the data is gone forever.

Step 1: Make boot disks

Get the image files boot.img and supp.img

If you are running Windows/DOS you will also need rawrite

Follow instructions in appendix B of the installation guide. Replicated here for the lazy among you.

B.1 Making a Diskette Under MS-DOS

To make a diskette under MS-DOS, use the rawrite utility included on the Red Hat Linux CD in the dosutils directory. First, label a blank, formatted 3.5-inch diskette appropriately (eg. ``Boot Diskette'', ``Supplemental Diskette'', etc). Insert it into the diskette drive. Then, use the following commands (assuming your CD is drive d:):

C:\> d:
D:\> cd \dosutils
D:\dosutils> rawrite
Enter disk image source file name: ..\images\boot.img
Enter target diskette drive: a:
Please insert a formatted diskette into drive A: and
press --ENTER-- : [Enter]
D:\dosutils>

rawrite first asks you for the filename of a diskette image; enter the directory and name of the image you wish to write (for example, ..\images\boot.img). Then rawrite asks for a diskette drive to write the image to; enter a:. Finally, rawrite asks for confirmation that a formatted diskette is in the drive you've selected. After pressing [Enter] to confirm, rawrite copies the image file onto the diskette. If you need to make another diskette, label another diskette, and run rawrite again, specifying the appropriate image file.

B.2 Making a Diskette Under a Linux-like O/S

To make a diskette under Linux (or any other Linux-like operating system), you must have permission to write to the device representing a 3.5-inch diskette drive (known as /dev/fd0 under Linux). First, label a blank, formatted diskette appropriately (eg. ``Boot Diskette'', ``Supplemental Diskette'', etc). Insert it into the diskette drive (but don't issue a mount command). After mounting the Red Hat Linux CD, change directory to the directory containing the desired image file, and use the following command (changing the name of the image file and diskette device as appropriate):

# dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k

If you need to make another diskette, label another diskette, and run dd again, specifying the appropriate image file.

Step 2: Read Red Hat Install guide

All of it. I'm serious. It would be a great idea to have another computer in the room so you can read the install guide during the install as well.

Step 3: Boot with disk with boot.img

Step 4: Follow instructions

When it prompts you for type of install chose FTP Then put in disk with supp.img

When it asks for installation class chose Workstation or Custom, once again read the installation guide. Workstation is recommended for new users. It requires you to have unpartitioned free space but will automatically partion that free space and make your machine dual-bootable if you have Windows.

DO NOT CHOOSE SERVER! Doing so will erase your harddrive and cause an installation of a lot of services you should not be running!

Choose static IP address

DNS server should be 134.173.53.8

Server name is ftp.hmc.edu

Path is /pub/mirrors/linux/redhat/current/i386/

Everything else in in the installation guide

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