This document describes a way of installing RHEL. It is suited to use
on systems that are not VGA/X11 capable, but is also appropriate when
you want to do as much of an install as possible remotely.
BTW, you can also do this kind of install on Fedora Core 2, as well as
Fedora Core 3. I once did a Fedora Core 3 install using PalmVNC. :)
The main downside to this install method appears to be that you end up
typing your root password over an insecure channel.
Another relatively minor downside, is that the install will likely give
you a strange video config. You can set change this later though.
This document takes the form of a list of differences from Duncan's RHEL
install doc
Telling the install to use VNC: Use one of the following two choices,
depending on what kind of install media you're using:
- Where it says to use:
...instead use:
linux askmethod vnc vncpassword=whatever
- Another possibility is that you're using a multiboot cd, with options
for a bunch of different versions of RHEL. In this case, you most
likely won't get a "boot:" prompt; instead you'll probably get
a list of RHEL variations to choose from. Instead of simply hitting
enter on one of them, instead go to the variation you want, hit "e" for
edit on the kernel line, and then when you are in the context for
editing that line, add at the end of the line:
askmethod vnc vncpassword=whatever
Finally, hit "b" for boot. (Actually, the "askmethod" part may not
be necessary in this case, but it shouldn't hurt. If you're feeling
curious, please try it without askmethod, and let me and/or Duncan
know how it goes)
Then follow the directions that the installer gives you for connecting
to anaconda (the Redhat install program) over VNC.
When the VNC install is done, and the system has rebooted, ssh -X to the
host as root, setting up X11 tunneling over ssh.
Upon logging in, do the following:
...then using the port that vncserver told you to use, do something
like the following:
Then wait for an xterm to come up, and run the following in it:
- On RHEL 4, but not RHEL 3:
while : ; do echo $DISPLAY | tr -d '\012' > /etc/rhgb/temp/display ; date; done
- /etc/rc5.d/S95firstboot start
...this should give you a GUI in which you can finalize the redhat-coded
portion of the install.
Finally:
wget http://halfdome.nac.uci.edu/rhn/update_up2date
chmod 755 update_up2date
./update_up2date
...or you can just do it the way described in the original install doc,
since running mozilla should be possible.