Before installing Linux, you must first gather some information about your system. This chapter presents information you need to know and tasks you need to perform before installing Linux. It helps you make certain that your IBM-compatible PC meets the minimum hardware requirements for Linux. It shows you how to document your Windows operating system configuration so you can respond to questions presented by the Red Hat Linux install procedure. It also describes the four types of Red Hat Linux installations. Finally, this chapter shows you how to prepare your hard disk for installing Linux.
Linux supports a wide range of PC hardware, but not even Linux supports every known device and system. Your PC must meet certain minimum requirements in order to run Linux. The following sections present these minimum requirements; however, for the latest and most complete information, you should check Red Hat’s hardware compatibility web site,http://hardware.redhat.com. Red Hat’s web site will also help you determine whether Linux supports the devices installed in your system. If you’re not familiar with PC hardware, check out Robert and Barbara Thompson’s PC Hardware in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (O’Reilly & Associates, Inc.), an excellent introduction and reference to PC hardware.
Red Hat Linux 7.2 fully supports the Intel i486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, and Pentium III processors; however, it does not support the Intel i386 and earlier processors. Red Hat Linux also supports non-Intel processors such as the Cyrix 6x86 and the AMD K5, K6, and Athlon. However, a few problems are unique to non-Intel processors. For example, Red Hat reports that some AMD K6 systems freeze during the Linux install. Similarly, some users have also reported installation problems with AMD Athlons, which were solved by updating their system BIOS or replacing their system motherboard.
The motherboard is the main part of a PC. It holds the CPU, RAM, and other components. The motherboard includes several buses that link the CPU, RAM, and other components. Red Hat Linux supports the standard ISA, EISA, PCI, and VESA (VLB) system buses used on most IBM-compatible PCs, as well as the AGP, USB, and IEEE 1394 (FireWire) auxiliary buses.
Your motherboard should include at least 64 MB of RAM for optimum Red Hat Linux performance. Some very determined and skilled users have managed to coax Linux into working on systems with as little as 4 MB of RAM; however, Red Hat does not recommend or support systems with so little RAM. A handful of motherboards present special problems when installing Red Hat Linux. Generally, the problem stems from a bad BIOS, for which a fix is often available. Check Red Hat’s web site, http://www.redhat.com/apps/support, for details. You’ll find a link to some quick fixes for Red Hat Linux 7.2 on that page as well.
An anonymous wag once quipped that one can never be too thin, be too rich, or have too much hard disk space. Fortunately, Linux is not extremely hungry for disk space. To install and use Red Hat Linux 7.2, you should have a minimum of 300 MB of free hard disk space. More realistically, you should have at least 1.2 GB of free disk space, particularly if you’re planning on running the X Window System.
For
convenient installation using the CDs included with this book (view CD
content online at http://examples.oreilly.com/redhat2), your
system should include an IDE or SCSI CD-ROM drive. Most recently
manufactured PCs can boot from a CD. If your PC can’t boot from
a CD, you will need to use the floppy drive to create a
boot floppy, which you can then use to install
Red Hat Linux. Instructions for how to create and use the boot floppy
are in Chapter 3.
Tip
It’s also possible to install Linux from a PCMCIA CD-ROM drive; an FTP, web, or NFS server; or a hard drive. See the Red Hat Linux 7.2 Installation Guide and Reference Guide, available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux.