1.4. Preparing for a Hard Drive Installation

	Note
	DASD installations only work from ext2 or ext3 file systems. If you have a file system other than ext2 or ext3 you will not be able to perform a DASD installation.

To prepare your system for a hard drive installation, you must set the system up in one of the following ways:

• Using a set of CD-ROMs — Create CD-ROM ISO image files from each installation CD-ROM. For each CD-ROM, execute the following command on a Linux system:

  dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/tmp/file-name.iso

  This command may raise an error message when the data at the end of the CD-ROM is reached which can be ignored. The ISO images created can now be used for installation, once copied to the correct DASD.

• Using ISO images — transfer these images to the system to be installed (or to the correct DASD).

  Verifying that ISO images are intact before you attempt an installation, helps to avoid problems. To verify the ISO images are intact prior to performing an installation, use an md5sum program (many md5sum programs are available for various operating systems). An md5sum program should be available on the same Linux machine as the ISO images.

  Make the correct DASDs accessible to the new VM or LPAR, and then proceed with installation.

Additionally, if a file called RedHat/base/updates.img exists in the directory from which you install, it is used for installation program updates. Refer to the file install-methods.txt in the anaconda RPM package for detailed information on the various ways to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as well as how to apply the installation program updates.