Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 documentation covers information on how to install the operating system in a virtual machine. For additional information about the operating system, refer to the instructions included in the installation media.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 documentation includes the following topics:
- Installation Instructions
- VMware Tools in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 Guest
- Knowledge Base Articles for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1
- VMware Compatibility Guide
Installation Instructions
To install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 in a virtual machine you can use the standard Red Hat distribution CD or the boot floppy/network method. The following installation instructions are for standard distribution CD.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, verify that the following tasks are complete:
- Read General Installation Instructions for All VMware Products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 WS on VMware ESX Server. Use Update 6 or higher to eliminate conflicts with the network and SCSI adapters and installation problems on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 WS guest operating system.
- If you do not install Update 6 or higher, use one of the following configurations for the network and SCSI adapters:
- vlance network adapter-Use an LSI Logic SCSI adapter.
- vmxnet network adapter-Use an LSI Logic SCSI adapter or BusLogic adapter.
- Do not run the X server that is installed when you set up Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1. Instead, to get an accelerated SVGA X server running inside the virtual machine, you should install the VMware Tools package immediately after installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1.
- With many Linux guest operating systems, various problems have been observed when the BusLogic virtual SCSI adapter is used with VMware virtual machines. VMware recommends that you use the LSI Logic virtual SCSI adapter with this guest operating system.
- For additional information on using uniprocessor and multiprocessor kernels with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 virtual machine under VMware ESX Server, see the release notes at www.vmware.com/support/esx21/doc/releasenotes_esx213.html.
Installation Steps
- Insert the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.
- Power on the virtual machine.
- At the boot prompt, type text and press Enter.
- Follow the prompts to complete the installation.
- Select the language and keyboard.
- In the Installation Type screen, select either Advanced Server or Custom for the installation type.
- In the Mouse Selection screen, choose one of the following options.
- Generic - 3 Button Mouse (PS/2) and select the Emulate 3 Buttons option for three-button mouse support in the virtual machine.
- If you have a wheel mouse, you can choose Generic Wheel Mouse (PS/2).
- VMware ESX Server, VirtualCenter, or vCenter Server if installing to an ESX Server machine without virtual SMP. In the Individual Package Selection screen, use the arrow keys to navigate to System Environment/Kernel and press Enter. Be sure that the following kernels are deselected (no asterisk should appear between the brackets):
- kernel-enterprise
- kernel-smp
- kernel-summit
- If you are installing a multiprocessor virtual machine, be sure kernel-smp is selected.
- If you are installing a uniprocessor virtual machine, be sure the following kernels are deselected: kernel-enterprise, kernel-smp and kernel-summit.
- In the Automatic Partitioning screen, allow automatic partitioning.
You might see a warning that says:
The partition table on device sda was unreadable. To create new partitions, it must be initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on the drive.
Would you like to initialize this drive?
This does not mean that anything is wrong with the hard drive on your physical computer. It simply means that the virtual hard drive in your virtual machine needs to be partitioned and formatted. - Select the Yes button and press Enter.
sda appears in the message as the device name if the virtual disk is a SCSI disk. If the virtual disk is an IDE drive, hda appears in the message as the device name instead. - (Optional) If your computer is connected to a LAN that provides DHCP support, in the Network Configuration screen, select the option Use bootp/dhcp.
- In the Video Card Configuration screen, select Generic SVGA.
- Install VMware Tools.
VMware Tools in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 Guest
Do not start the X server in the guest operating system until you install VMware Tools.
For information on VMware Tools, see Knowledge base article 1014294, General VMware Tools installation instructions, at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1014294.
Knowledge Base Articles for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1
The following link refers to knowledge base articles on operating system specific issues. See VMware Knowledge Base for a list of known issues about the operating system.
VMware Compatibility Guide
The VMware Compatibility Guide Web site lists supported guest and host operating systems and provides related support information.