Installation guide

Unpartitioned disk space means that available disk space on the hard drive(s) you are installing to has not been di-

vided into sections for data. When you partition a disk, each partition behaves like a separate disk drive.

Linux is no exception. When you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you may have to work with

disk partitions. If you have not worked with disk partitions before (or need a quick review of the

basic concepts), refer to Chapter 25, An Introduction to Disk Partitions before proceeding.

The disk space used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux must be separate from the disk space used

by other OSes you may have installed on your system.

Before you start the installation process, you must

• have enough unpartitioned

disk space for the installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or

• have one or more partitions that may be deleted, thereby freeing up enough disk space to in-

stall Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

To gain a better sense of how much space you really need, refer to the recommended partition-

ing sizes discussed in Section 19.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme”.

4. Can You Install Using the CD-ROM or

DVD?

Installing from a CD-ROM or DVD requires that you have purchased a Red Hat Enterprise Linux

product, you have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0.0 CD-ROM or DVD, and you have a DVD/

CD-ROM drive on a system that supports booting from it.

5. Preparing for a Network Installation

Note

Make sure an installation CD (or any other type of CD) is not in your system's CD/

DVD drive if you are performing a network-based installation. Having a CD in the

drive may cause unexpected errors.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation media must be available for either a network installa-

tion (via NFS, FTP, or HTTP) or installation via local storage. Use the following steps if you are

performing an NFS, FTP, or HTTP installation.

The NFS, FTP, or HTTP server to be used for installation over the network must be a separate

machine which can provide the complete contents of the installation DVD-ROM or the installa-

tion CD-ROMs.

Note

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program has the ability to test the integ-

4. Can You Install Using the CD-ROM or DVD?