In order to boot your Red Hat Linux system without a boot disk,
you usually need to install a boot loader. You can choose to install either
GRUB (selected by default), LILO, or you can choose not to install a boot
loader at all.
First, select which boot loader you want to install. If you do not want
to overwrite your current boot loader, choose Do not install a
boot loader.
 | Caution |
|---|
| | If you choose not to install GRUB or LILO for
any reason, you will not be able to boot your Red Hat Linux system
directly, and you will need to use another boot method (such as a boot
diskette). Use this option only if you are sure you have another way of
booting your Red Hat Linux system!
|
Assuming you chose GRUB or LILO, you must now determine where you want
the boot loader to be installed. You may install the boot loader in one of
two places:
- The master boot record (MBR)
This is the recommended place to install a boot loader, unless the
MBR already starts another operating system loader, such as System
Commander. The MBR is a special area on your hard drive that is
automatically loaded by your computer's BIOS, and is the earliest
point at which the boot loader can take control of the boot process.
If you install it in the MBR, when your machine boots, GRUB (or LILO)
will present a boot prompt. You can then boot Red Hat Linux or
any other operating system that you have configured the boot loader to
boot.
- The first sector of your boot partition
This is recommended if you are already using another boot loader
on your system. In this case, your other boot loader will take
control first. You can then configure that boot loader to start GRUB
(or LILO), which will then boot Red Hat Linux.
If your system will use only Red Hat Linux, you should choose the
MBR. For systems with Windows 95/98, you should also install the
boot loader to the MBR so that it can boot both operating systems.
If you wish to add default options to GRUB or LILO's boot command, enter
them into the Kernel parameters field. Any options you
enter will be passed to the Linux kernel every time it boots.
The Force use of LBA32 (not normally required)
option allows you to exceed the 1024 cylinder limit for the
/boot partition. If you have a system which supports
the LBA32 extension for booting operating systems above the 1024 cylinder
limit, and you want to place your /boot partition
above cylinder 1024, you should select this option.
Every bootable partition is listed, including partitions used by other
operating systems. The partition holding your Red Hat Linux system's
root file system will have a Boot label of
Red Hat Linux (for GRUB) or linux
(for LILO). Other partitions may also have boot labels. If you would like
to add boot labels for other partitions (or change an existing boot label),
click once on the partition to select it. Once selected, you can change the
boot label by editing the name in the Boot label text
field.
 | Note |
|---|
| | The Boot label column lists
what you must enter at the boot prompt, in non-graphical boot loaders, in
order to boot the desired operating system. Once you have loaded the GRUB boot screen, use the arrow keys to
choose a boot label or type e for edit. You will be
presented with a list of items in the configuration file for the boot
label you have selected. At the graphical LILO screen, press
[Ctrl]-[x] to exit to the
boot: prompt. If you forget the boot labels defined on your
system, you can always press [Tab] at the prompt to display a
list of defined boot labels. |
If you need to use rescue mode, there are several options available to
you.
Using the CD-ROM to boot, type linux rescue
at the boot: prompt.
By booting your system from an installation boot diskette made
from the boot.img image. This method requires
that the Red Hat Linux CD-ROM #1 be inserted as the rescue image or that the
rescue image be on the hard drive as an ISO image. Once you have
booted using this diskette, type linux rescue
at the boot: prompt.
By booting from a network disk made from the
bootnet.img or PCMCIA boot disk made from
pcmcia.img. Once you have booted using this
diskette, type linux rescue at the
boot: prompt. You can only do this if your network
connection is working. You will need to identify the network host and
transfer type. For an explanation of how to specify this information,
see the Section called Preparing for a Network Installation.
For more information, refer to the Official Red Hat Linux Customization Guide.
If you do not wish to use a boot loader, you have several
alternatives:
- Boot disk
You can use the boot disk created by the installation
program (if you create one).
- LOADLIN
You can load Linux from MS-DOS. Unfortunately, this
requires a copy of the Linux kernel (and an initial RAM disk, if you
have a SCSI adapter) to be available on an MS-DOS partition. The
only way to accomplish this is to boot your Red Hat Linux
system using some other method (for example, from a boot disk) and
then copy the kernel to an MS-DOS partition. LOADLIN is available
from
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/dualboot/ |
and associated mirror sites.
- SYSLINUX
SYSLINUX is an MS-DOS program very similar to LOADLIN. It is
also available from
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/loaders/ |
and associated mirror sites.
- Some commercial boot loaders
You can load Linux using commercial boot loaders. For
example, System Commander and Partition Magic are able to boot Linux
(but still require GRUB or LILO to be installed in your Linux root
partition).
This section is specific to SMP motherboards only. SMP, short for
Symmetric Multiprocessing, is a computer architecture providing fast
performance by making multiple CPUs available to complete individual
processes simultaneously (multiprocessing).
If the installation program detects an SMP motherboard on your system,
it will automatically create two /boot/grub/grub.conf
or /etc/lilo.conf entries (depending on the boot
loader you installed), rather than the usual single entry.
| Note |
|---|
| | IntelŪ PentiumŪ 4 systems with
hyperthreading will have an SMP kernel installed by default. |
The two entries in grub.conf will be
Red Hat Linux (kernel
version) and Red Hat Linux
(kernel versions-smp). The
Red Hat Linux (kernel
version-smp) will boot by default. However,
if you have trouble with the SMP kernel, you can elect to boot the
Red Hat Linux (kernel
version) entry instead. You will retain all
the functionality as before, but you will only be operating with a single
processor.
The two entries in lilo.conf will be
linux and
linux-up. The
linux entry will boot by default. However, if
you have trouble with the SMP kernel, you can elect to boot the
linux-up entry instead. You will retain
all the functionality as before, but you will only be operating with a
single processor.
