Currently we are buying our machines from Microway so the low level setup of the firmware is currently left out. We do however have specific requirements for the Microway setup. We require the SRM console to be used on machines which will not have graphics heads (graphics card, monitor and keyboard). The ARC console does not allow booting without these things, and for compute servers there is no desire to have them.
Disk partitioning is done with the tool "fdisk." Currently fdisk is limited to disks with 63 or fewer sectors per track. The 18 gig Seagate drives that we now buy have 237 sectors per track. Microway suggested that I try an old Intel fdisk trick to get around the limit of 63 sectors/track (our disks have 237 sectors / track). I did the math and came up with: Here are the physical parameters of our disks:
512 bytes/sector
237 sectors/track
20 tracks/cylinder
7501 cylinders
Here is what we tell fdisk:
512 bytes/sector
63 sectors/track
255 tracks/cylinder
2213 cylinders
Here is the console output from an fdisk session:
login as root
/sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb
Command (m for help): c
DOS Compatibility flag is not set
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 1
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 2
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 3
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 4
Command (m for help): x
Expert command (m for help): c
Number of cylinders (1-[1023]-65535): 2213
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 2213.
This is larger than 1024, and may cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software form other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Expert command (m for help): r
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-2213): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK ([1]-2213): 2213
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x
partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional
information.
And the command to layout the disk format is:
/sbin/mkfs -m 1 /dev/sdb1
("m 1" reserves 1% of the disk space for root's use)
In order to allow root logins over the net, rename the file /etc/securetty file.
Most of the system setup is done using a GUI tool named "control-panel." This requires X to be used. If you are not using X then cd to the /etc/sysconfig directory and edit the files by hand. A good reference for the /etc/sysconfig directory is here
To get on the network you will need the file /etc/sysconfig/network and /etc/sysconfig/network-scrips/ifcfg-eth0. Here is network from a typical machine:
NETWORKING=yes
FORWARD_IPV4=no
HOSTNAME=helix01
DOMAINNAME=phys.ufl.edu
GATEWAY=128.227.89.1
GATEWAYDEV=eth0
NISDOMAIN=phys.ufl.edu
And ifcfg-eth0:
DEVICE=eth0
IPADDR=128.227.89.226
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=128.227.89.0
BROADCAST=128.227.89.255
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
USERCTL=no
ypserver ligo
** Note: the NIS server must exist in the /etc/hosts file **
To create the links from /etc/rc.d/rc? to start ypbind the tool "chkconfig" (same as on SGI Irix machines) is used. Chkconfig gets its information from the /etc/rc.d/init.d/ypbind script. The correct command to start ypbind at boot is"chkconfig --level 5 ypbind on" is used, where 5 is the runlevel to turn this on at. I also turned it on at runlevel 3 and 4 with similar commands.
Check to see if the directory /var/yp exists. If not create it as ypbind requires it to start.
You can now start ypbind with the command "/etc/rc.d/init.d/ypbind start" and then test it with "ypwhich."
Get network time from one of our servers: Add the line "/usr/bin/rdate -s ligo" to the end of the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local
Use our nameservers for DNS lookups: /etc/resolv.conf should read:
search phys.ufl.edu
nameserver 128.227.64.2
nameserver 128.227.64.70
Add the hostname for the local machine, the nameservers, and the NIS server to the file /etc/hosts. Ideally the name and number of the new machine should be added to the /etc/hosts file on phys.ufl.edu and then rdisted over, but this can be done later. /etc/hosts:
# /etc/hosts file for Physics Department
# For information contact
# Last Edited 11/4/97
#
127.0.0.1 localhost loghost
# Campus name servers
128.227.128.24 name.ufl.edu
192.80.214.100 noc.sura.net
128.227.148.252 cutter.clas.ufl.edu
128.227.16.3 orange.qtp.ufl.edu orange
128.227.192.1 crunch.qtp.ufl.edu crunch
128.227.64.7 neptune-gw.phys.ufl.edu neptune-gw
128.227.24.1 neptune.phys.ufl.edu neptune
128.227.89.55 ligo.phys.ufl.edu ligo
128.227.89.??? newmachine.phys.ufl.edu newmachine
Edit /etc/fstab and add the NFS filesystems. Add the user disks and one or more temporary disks and the mail spool area from the mail server.
/dev/sda2 / ext2 defaults 1 1
# /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy ext2 noauto 0 0
/dev/sda1 none ignore 0 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /helix01/tmp1 ext2 defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults
/dev/sda3 none swap sw
/dev/sda4 /usr ext2 defaults 1 2
#/dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 ro 0 0
# NFS mounts:
hee:/heeusers /heeusers nfs rw,bg
hee:/hee/cleo /hee/cleo nfs rw,bg
helix02:/helix02/tmp1 /helix02/tmp1 nfs rw,bg
helix03:/helix03/tmp1 /helix03/tmp1 nfs rw,bg
Create the directories and mount the filesystems using mount -a. If this a brand new machine being added to the network, we will need to add it into a netgroup in the /etc/yp/netgroup file on the NIS master server and propagate that to the entire network. It may also be necessary to explicitely export filesystems for the client to be able to mount them. This is done by issuing /etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs restart command.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Setting up Redhat 6.1 from scratch
Grab the iso distribution from somewhere. Ga. Tech, North Carolina and sometimes local cise or circa has these.
The Intel compaq servers boot from the cdrom by default. Don't need to make the floppies. If you do need to make a floppy get the rawrite and boot.img for CD based boot or network boot and use the DOS window to create floppies.
Boot it up and select language, keyboard and mouse type and then the install presents several options. Server option is not recommended for dual boot configurations as it overwrites any dos partitions you may have setup before. We select custom and make our own file systems with a large swap space using the GUI tool.
Allocate at least /, /usr, /var and swap partitions at least. Usually we have a tmp file system per machine as well on a seperate disk.
The Intel compaq servers boot from the cdrom by default. Don't need to make the floppies. If you do need to make a floppy get the rawrite and boot.img for CD based boot or network boot and use the DOS window to create floppies.
Boot it up and select language, keyboard and mouse type and then the install presents several options. Server option is not recommended for dual boot configurations as it overwrites any dos partitions you may have setup before. We select custom and make our own file systems with a large swap space using the GUI tool.
Allocate at least /, /usr, /var and swap partitions at least. Usually we have a tmp file system per machine as well on a seperate disk.
Install Linux
Allow booting from CDEnter the BIOS configuration by pressing Fn+F1 during boot. Make the CD boot before the hard drive.
Install linux from CDBoot from the first Red Hat 7.1 CD. Do the default graphical install (just press enter at the first menu). I did a "Laptop" install with manual partitioning. Leave the suspend to disk partition and the Windows partition alone. Give the free space to linux. I made a 4GB partition for / and a ~10GB (the rest of the disk) for /home. I told it to mount the Windows partition (listed as FAT32) on /win, which worked fine. Do not have it boot to X, it won't work until the NVIDIA driver is installed. Contrary to earlier versions of Red Hat, PCMCIA works fine. Lilo is put on the master boot record and has an entry to boot Windows. We'll have to move lilo in the next step.
Fix lilo and suspend to diskIn order for suspend to disk to work, the suspend to disk partition must be a primary partition, and the master boot record must not contain any boot loaders. So, boot with the WinME boot disk and run fdisk /mbr to clear lilo out of the master boot record (N.B.: do not use the fdisk on the suspend to disk floppy for this, use the fdisk on your Windows boot floppy). Edit /etc/lilo.conf to put lilo on /dev/hda2 (see my /etc/lilo.conf), rerun lilo. Use fdisk to make the linux partition that contains /boot (the 4GB / partition for me) active. Now test suspend to disk (from the console, X isn't working yet, and suspend to disk from X does not work with the current NVIDIA driver) using Fn+A. After suspending if you boot from a floppy you'll see that the suspend to disk partition is now active. If you boot from the hard drive it should restore from disk and then restore the linux partition's activeness.
Set hard drive to use DMAI followed instructions from Joel Wijngaarde. Test your hard drive speed using hdparm -T -t /dev/hda
It will take a few seconds. If you get a low speed (I got 4 MB/s), the drive is not using DMA. To enable DMA add this line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local: /sbin/hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda
With this fix I now get 17 MB/s.
Apparently there's an easier way to enable DMA: uncomment the USE_DMA=1 line in /etc/sysconfig/harddisks.
Install linux from CDBoot from the first Red Hat 7.1 CD. Do the default graphical install (just press enter at the first menu). I did a "Laptop" install with manual partitioning. Leave the suspend to disk partition and the Windows partition alone. Give the free space to linux. I made a 4GB partition for / and a ~10GB (the rest of the disk) for /home. I told it to mount the Windows partition (listed as FAT32) on /win, which worked fine. Do not have it boot to X, it won't work until the NVIDIA driver is installed. Contrary to earlier versions of Red Hat, PCMCIA works fine. Lilo is put on the master boot record and has an entry to boot Windows. We'll have to move lilo in the next step.
Fix lilo and suspend to diskIn order for suspend to disk to work, the suspend to disk partition must be a primary partition, and the master boot record must not contain any boot loaders. So, boot with the WinME boot disk and run fdisk /mbr to clear lilo out of the master boot record (N.B.: do not use the fdisk on the suspend to disk floppy for this, use the fdisk on your Windows boot floppy). Edit /etc/lilo.conf to put lilo on /dev/hda2 (see my /etc/lilo.conf), rerun lilo. Use fdisk to make the linux partition that contains /boot (the 4GB / partition for me) active. Now test suspend to disk (from the console, X isn't working yet, and suspend to disk from X does not work with the current NVIDIA driver) using Fn+A. After suspending if you boot from a floppy you'll see that the suspend to disk partition is now active. If you boot from the hard drive it should restore from disk and then restore the linux partition's activeness.
Set hard drive to use DMAI followed instructions from Joel Wijngaarde. Test your hard drive speed using hdparm -T -t /dev/hda
It will take a few seconds. If you get a low speed (I got 4 MB/s), the drive is not using DMA. To enable DMA add this line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local: /sbin/hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda
With this fix I now get 17 MB/s.
Apparently there's an easier way to enable DMA: uncomment the USE_DMA=1 line in /etc/sysconfig/harddisks.
Partition the Disk
The laptop came with a small (290MB) "free" partition at the front of the disk and the rest of the disk allocated to Windows ME. The small partition is for suspend to disk use.
Create the suspend to disk partitionBoot with the Windows ME boot disk, at the menu select Minimal Boot (option 4). At the DOS prompt A:> insert the suspend to disk floppy and run mks2d. (Note that there is another program called phdisk that should be used for other Inspiron models. The Dell knowledge base states that mks2d should be used for the Inspiron 8000.) (Note also that you should use rms2d to remove a previous suspend to disk partition if you've already created one and want to redo it.)
Make room for linuxWhile still at the A:> prompt, insert the Partition Magic floppy and run pqmagic. Now you'll see that the small free partition has been mostly taken up by a Type 84 partition (275MB). The remaining space is still free. I later installed Windows 2000 into the Windows ME partition, and it gobbled up the free space. You could use Partition Magic to add it to Windows now. In any case, shrink the Windows partition from its current 17GB to about 4GB, leaving the freed space unallocated.
Create the suspend to disk partitionBoot with the Windows ME boot disk, at the menu select Minimal Boot (option 4). At the DOS prompt A:> insert the suspend to disk floppy and run mks2d. (Note that there is another program called phdisk that should be used for other Inspiron models. The Dell knowledge base states that mks2d should be used for the Inspiron 8000.) (Note also that you should use rms2d to remove a previous suspend to disk partition if you've already created one and want to redo it.)
Make room for linuxWhile still at the A:> prompt, insert the Partition Magic floppy and run pqmagic. Now you'll see that the small free partition has been mostly taken up by a Type 84 partition (275MB). The remaining space is still free. I later installed Windows 2000 into the Windows ME partition, and it gobbled up the free space. You could use Partition Magic to add it to Windows now. In any case, shrink the Windows partition from its current 17GB to about 4GB, leaving the freed space unallocated.
Installing Red Hat 7.1
Preparation
Create a suspend to disk floppyDownload rh7s2d.exe from Dell's support site (just search for "rh7s2d.exe"). Unzip it (by executing it) and follow the directions to create the floppy.
Create a Windows ME boot diskIn Windows ME, go to ControlPanel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk.
Create a Partition Magic floppyI used Partition Magic 4.0. Don't install Partition Magic. Run it from CD and choose the "make rescue disk" option. Ignore errors about not working properly on Windows ME. While making the rescue floppy, Partition Magic will mess up when trying to write system files to the disk. Ignore this. The disk will not be bootable, but you can boot from the Windows ME boot disk and then run Partition Magic from this disk.
Create a suspend to disk floppyDownload rh7s2d.exe from Dell's support site (just search for "rh7s2d.exe"). Unzip it (by executing it) and follow the directions to create the floppy.
Create a Windows ME boot diskIn Windows ME, go to ControlPanel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk.
Create a Partition Magic floppyI used Partition Magic 4.0. Don't install Partition Magic. Run it from CD and choose the "make rescue disk" option. Ignore errors about not working properly on Windows ME. While making the rescue floppy, Partition Magic will mess up when trying to write system files to the disk. Ignore this. The disk will not be bootable, but you can boot from the Windows ME boot disk and then run Partition Magic from this disk.
Corporate Learning Solutions
Enterprise migrations to Red Hat Linux tend to pay for themselves in many ways: the low licensing costs of Red Hat Linux and other Red Hat open source enterprise applications frees up budgeted funds so that you can invest in your most valuable resource: your people.
And the best way to invest in your people for increased ROI and reduced TCO is to provide serious hands-on training and performance-based certification, such as the Red Hat RHCE Program.
Training and certification from Red Hat insures that your IS staff is ready for serious Red Hat Linux deployments. It also insures that your company will realize the full value of Red Hat-based solutions.
Red Hat can help you identify who in your IS staff requires training,and precisely what level of training. Red Hat Global Learning Services consultants are available to help you assess your team's readiness for Red Hat based solutions, and then craft a custom Corporate Training Plan to meet your group's needs.
Red Hat Global Learning Services has defined and customized Learning Solutions suitable for corporate departments, units, or enterprise-wide.
And the best way to invest in your people for increased ROI and reduced TCO is to provide serious hands-on training and performance-based certification, such as the Red Hat RHCE Program.
Training and certification from Red Hat insures that your IS staff is ready for serious Red Hat Linux deployments. It also insures that your company will realize the full value of Red Hat-based solutions.
Red Hat can help you identify who in your IS staff requires training,and precisely what level of training. Red Hat Global Learning Services consultants are available to help you assess your team's readiness for Red Hat based solutions, and then craft a custom Corporate Training Plan to meet your group's needs.
Red Hat Global Learning Services has defined and customized Learning Solutions suitable for corporate departments, units, or enterprise-wide.
Red Hat Linux 7.1 Install on Dell Inspiron 8000
This document describes how I installed Red Hat Linux 7.1 on a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop with an NVIDIA graphics card.
The order that you do things in does not really matter. My laptop came with Windows ME on it. I left ME there and installed RedHat 7.1, using Partition Magic to make room for it. Later I created the suspend to disk partition, and later still I replaced ME with Windows 2000. It is not critical that any one thing be done before another.
The order that you do things in does not really matter. My laptop came with Windows ME on it. I left ME there and installed RedHat 7.1, using Partition Magic to make room for it. Later I created the suspend to disk partition, and later still I replaced ME with Windows 2000. It is not critical that any one thing be done before another.
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