[techtalk] 1st Linux install

[Malcolm Tredinnick]

On Sun, May 07, 2000 at 04:17:36PM -0700, Clair Mooza wrote:
> Actually, the 5.2 was not a typo.  That's how much of a procrastinator I am.
> : )  Sounds like 6.2 could be a much easier install.  Is that the first
> version with LILO?

No. LILO is the standard LInux LOader for Intel x86 platforms and has been
around since the year dot (in Linux terms, at least). The point about RH 6.2
though is that it came with a very recent version of LILO (version 21.?) that
can boot from anywhere on enormous disks with recent BIOS chips. At least,
that is my understanding from reading the documentation.

> What is the most current version right now anyway? 

Of Red Hat ... 6.2. It was released a couple of months ago.

> I was worried about installing on a hard drive with existing data...sounds
> like it could be a little tricky.

It's not difficult if you don't have to shuffle pre-existing data around. Most
of the fun with installing on an already partitioned disk comes when you want
to change the size of some existing partitions without losing the data on them
(and even that is not usually too hard). The main problem in your case is
probably going to be the 1024 cylinder limit.

> Thank you very much for the info, if I just can't get it going, then I think
> I will upgrade so that I can give LILO a try and not wait over a year (or
> has it been two now?!) to get it installed this time!!  Thanks again.

If you can't get it to boot from a high cylinder, you can create a boot disk
(which I seem to recall Red Hat wants to do by default anyway -- it's a check
box on one of the installation screens, at any rate) and boot from that. Then
you can download the latest LILO (there will be an rpm of it around in a few
places) and use that to boot from the hard drive.

Cheers,
Malcolm 

-- 
Malcolm Tredinnick                 email: malcolm at commsecure.com.au
CommSecure Pty Ltd