[prashant]

For initial installation of Fedora, most people get an official Fedora DVD or set of CDs. Media available for the different Fedora releases include:

1. For Fedora 6, there is a single DVD or a set of five CDs that represent the entire distribution named Fedora Core 6. You can add more packages from the Fedora Extras repository (which was only available from online repositories).

2. For Fedora 7, Fedora Core and Fedora Extras were merged into a single, online store. Different installation package sets are available for Fedora 7, such as a GNOME live/install CD, KDE live/install CD, and an installation DVD. Choose the set of media that best suits your need. Then use online repositories to download and install other packages you need.

Preparing to Install

To simply erase everything on your computer’s hard disk to install Fedora, you don’t have to prepare your hard disks in advance. If you want to keep any data from your hard disk, back up that data before proceeding. To keep existing data on your hard disk and add Fedora, you may need to resize existing disk partitions and repartition your disk.

Choosing Installation Options

All Red Hat–based Linux distributions (Fedora, RHEL, and CentOS) use the anaconda installer to initially install the system. New features in the current Fedora version of anaconda will most likely make their way into upcoming versions of the RHEL and CentOS installers as well.

NOTE: If you have a Fedora live CD, you can bypass the anaconda installer to install Fedora to your hard disk. After booting the live CD, you can select an install icon from the desktop and copy the contents of the live CD to your hard disk. You don’t have the flexibility that comes with the anaconda installer, but you get a good basic set of desktop packages installed to start with.

Starting the Install Process

Most people start the install process from the DVD or first CD in the install set. As an alternative, use boot images contained in the images directory on the CD or DVD. In Fedora, do one of the following to start anaconda:

1. CD or DVD — Insert the installation DVD or CD and reboot the computer.

2. Minimal CD boot image — Locate the boot.iso image from the images directory of CDs, DVDs, or online mirrors. Burn boot.iso to a CD and start the install from the CD, but continue from some other medium. This is useful when you’re doing a quick installation and don’t have the full media with you.

3. USB flash drive: Locate the diskboot.img image from the images directory of CDs, DVDs, or online mirrors. Copy diskboot.img to a USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive or pen drive) and start the install from that drive (provided your computer’s BIOS can boot from USB devices). From Linux, type the following (with your USB flash drive inserted and represented by /dev/sda) to copy diskboot.img to your flash drive:

# dd if=/media/cdrom/diskboot.img of=/dev/sda

Hard disk boot — If your CD drive won’t boot, you can start the install from hard disk. This procedure assumes you already have a version of Fedora installed on your hard disk and can modify the GRUB boot loader to start the new install. With the installed Fedora system running, copy the initrd.img and vmlinuz files from the isolinux directory on the CD/DVD to the /boot directory on your hard disk.

Update the /boot/grub/grub.conf file to include an entry for the initrd.img and vmlinuz files you just installed. Reboot and select that new entry from the GRUB boot screen to start the install.

PXE boot — With no CD or DVD drive, you can start an install using a PXE boot. To do this, your computer needs a PXE-enabled Ethernet card and the ability to set PXE in the BIOS’s boot order. You also need to set up an install server to support the PXE boot. The kernel and initial RAM disk needed to start the PXE boot are in the images/pxeboot directory. Tips for setting up a PXE boot server are in the /usr/share/doc/syslinux-* directory (when the syslinux package is installed in Fedora).

NOTE: There is no floppy disk image for starting a Fedora install. Since the 2.6 kernel, there is no install image small enough to fit on a floppy disk.

Choosing Where Fedora Software Is from the Boot Screen

Each of the methods just described should result in a Fedora installer boot screen appearing. With a CD or DVD install, press Enter to continue with a graphical install from that media. Type the following at the boot prompt to choose a different install type:

boot: linux askmethod

NOTE: Beginning with Fedora 7, Fedora install media use a graphical boot screen. To get to the boot prompt from that screen, press the Tab key. Then add any boot options (askmethod, text, vnc, and so on) after the vmlinuz line shown.

When prompted, select your install method from the following:

1. Local CDROM — Continue installing from the local CD or DVD.

2. Hard drive— To use this method, you must copy the DVD or CD images to a local hard disk. When asked, identify the partition and directory holding the images.

3. NFS image — To use this method, you must copy the DVD or CD images to a directory on a computer on your LAN and share that directory using NFS. When asked, identify the NFS resource holding the images.

4. FTP — You can use this method to install from an existing Internet FTP mirror, or from your own in-house install point. When asked, identify the FTP site’s URL and directory. To create your own FTP install point: copy the contents of the DVD or all CD images to a directory on your FTP server with a command such as cp –ar.

5. HTTP — Same as FTP, but using an HTTP web server (an existing Internet mirror or your own).

Choosing How Install Proceeds from the Boot Screen

To have the install proceed in different ways, you can add boot options. Here are examples of different install types you can request from the boot prompt:

boot: linux text
boot: linux vnc
boot: linux vnc vncconnect=192.168.0.20 vncpassword=99pass07
boot: linux ks=floppy
boot: linux ks=hd:/dev/hda1/ks.cfg
boot: linux ks=http://example.com/ks.cfg

Use linux text to run the install in text mode (if your graphical screens are garbled). If you use linux vnc, you can step through the graphical section of the install remotely by connecting a VNC client to the IP of the install machine. The installer will show the IP address and display to connect to after it starts the VNC server. You can also start a VNC client on your network in listening mode and point the installer to that client using vncconnect.

The three ks examples tell the installer where to find a kickstart file to guide the install process. The first looks for a ks.cfg file on the local floppy disk, the second looks for ks.cfg on the first IDE hard disk partition, and the last looks for ks.cfg in the root of the web server at example.com. A kickstart file contains information that lets the install process bypass some or all questions asked during installation. A sample kickstart file can be found in /root/anaconda-ks.cfg after a Fedora install is completed.

Using that file, you can repeat the install done on that machine on another computer.

NOTE: To learn more about kickstart, install the anaconda package, then refer to the kickstart-docs.txt file in the /usr/share/doc/anaconda-* directory.

You also have the choice of going into modes other than installation mode. For example:

boot: linux rescue
boot: linux local
boot: linux memtest86

The Fedora installer CD/DVD can be used for things other than installing Fedora. The rescue option starts a mini–Linux system in rescue mode, so you can mount file systems and fix problems from the command line. The local option bypasses the CD/DVD and tries to boot from hard disk. The memtest86 option checks your computer’s memory.

Choosing More Boot Options

Most boot options, besides those mentioned are meant to help work around problems that might occur during installation. In particular, you might need to disable certain hardware components or features that aren’t properly configured and enabled during installation.

Answering Installation Questions

Most of the screens you see during installation are quite sensitive. If errors occur during the installation, press Ctrl+Alt+F1, F2, F3, F4, or F5 to see virtual terminals containing useful information. Ctrl+Alt+F1 display the installation dialog box. Ctrl+Alt+F2 displays a shell prompt, so you can access your system during installation from the shell. Ctrl+Alt+F3 displays messages sent to the install log from the installation program. Ctrl+Alt+F4 show system-related messages. Ctrl+Alt+F5 display other messages. Press Ctrl+Alt+F7 to return to the X graphical installation screen.