Linux CDs and floppies

To install Red Hat Linux, you'll need either a Red Hat CD-ROM set, or a Red Hat floppy disk to boot.

This section describes:

Places to obtain Red Hat Linux
Creating Red Hat Linux CDs
Creating a Red Hat Linux boot floppy
Installing Linux from the Internet???
Where to get more information

Places to obtain Red Hat Linux

Order it from the Red Hat web site: http://www.redhat.com
Go to your local computer store and purchase it.
Download Red Hat Linux free from a mirror site (if you have a high-speed Internet connection).

Creating Red Hat Linux CDs

Download the CD images from Red Hat's site or a mirror site such as ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/redhat/9/en/iso/i386
You need only the first 3 CD images (not all 5 that are there):
Use your CD Writing software to write/burn CD images to the CDs. Instructions on how to burn CD's if you are running a Red Hat 8.x or later are under Client Application: Burning CDs

Creating a Red Hat Linux boot floppy

Some older machines cannot boot from a CD. If your machine cannot boot from a CD, but can boot only from a floppy then you will need to create a Linux boot floppy. You can make a boot floppy on either a Microsoft Windows machine or a Linux machine. Your choices:

Make a boot floppy on a MS-Windows machine
Make a boot floppy on a Linux machine

Make a boot floppy on a MS-Windows machine

Download the following files:

bootdisk.img (the image that will be written to the floppy)
rawrite.exe (the program that will write the image to the floppy disk)

Then format the floppy and copy the boot image.
Bring up a DOS window and type:

format a:
    (no label)
rawrite -f bootdisk.img
    This is the rawrite program you just downloaded, above

Make a boot floppy on a Linux machine

Download the following file:

bootdisk.img

Then make the boot floppy:

fdformat /dev/fd0
dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k
    (This takes a few minutes)

Installing Linux from the Internet??

It's true: Let's say you live in the middle of nowhere, you don't have a CD writer, you can't wait for the Red Hat Linux CDs to arrive in the mail, and you have a high-speed Internet connection.

There is a way to install Red Hat Linux completely over the Internet:

Create a boot floppy, as described above.

Create a SECOND floppy that has the device drivers for the network devices. Download: drvnet.img
Then copy that image to the floppy disk, as described above (copy drvnet.img instead of bootdisk.img).

When you boot from the bootdisk.img floppy, you will be asked:

    What type of media contains the packages to be installed?
        FTP
        HTTP
        NFS image

Using the keyboard arrow keys, you can select FTP (an FTP site) as the "media". This means the Red Hat Linux software will be copied from an FTP site instead of a more typical install from CD-ROM media.

When asked Select Use a driver disk when you are told No driver found.... fd0 and place the drvnet.img floppy disk in the drive.

Then you will be asked for the FTP site name and directory. For the FTP site name, enter: mirror.cs.wisc.edu or another Red Hat mirror site.

When asked for the Red Hat directory, enter: /pub/mirrors/linux/redhat/9/en/os/i386 or another Red Hat mirror site. Here is an example dialogue:

    FTP site name: mirror.cs.wisc.edu
    Red Hat directory: /pub/mirrors/linux/redhat/9/en/os/i386

Warning: It could take hours to download all of Red Hat Linux over a standard DSL (1.5 megabit) connection. And if something goes wrong in the middle (a tornado breaks the Internet connection), you'll have to start all over with the installation process.

Where to get more information

Linux Quick Reference Home
Linux Migration Home