| Red Hat Linux 7.2: The Official Red Hat Linux Itanium Installation Guide | ||
|---|---|---|
| Prev | Chapter 2. Before You Begin the Installation Process | Next |
Before you start to install Red Hat Linux on an Itanium, you'll need a basic understanding of the EFI Shell, what it does, and the information it can provide.
The EFI Shell is a console interface used to launch applications (such as the Red Hat Linux installation program), load EFI protocols and device drivers, and execute simple scripts. It is similar to a DOS console and can only access media that is FAT16 (vfat) formatted.
The EFI Shell also contains common utilities that can be used on the EFI system partition. These utilities include edit, type, cp, rm, and mkdir. To see a list of utilities and other commands, type help at the EFI Shell prompt.
The EFI Shell contains a bootloader called elilo. Additional information on EFI can be found at the following URL:
http://developer.intel.com/technology/efi/index.htm |
The map command can be used to list all devices and filesystems that EFI can recognize. When your Itanium system boots into the EFI shell, it probes your system in the following order:
LS-120 drive (if it contains media)
IDE hard drives on the primary IDE interface
IDE hard drives on the secondary IDE interface
SCSI hard drives on the SCSI interface
CD-ROM drives on the IDE interface
CD-ROM drives on the SCSI interface
Shell>map |
For example, output of the map command might look like the following:
Device mapping table fs0 : VenHw(Unknown Device:00)/HD(Part1,Sig00000000) fs1 : VenHw(Unknown Device:80)/HD(Part1,Sig00000000) fs2 : VenHw(Unknown Device:FF)/CDROM(Entry1)/HD(Part1,Sig00000000) blk0 : VenHw(Unknown Device:00) blk1 : VenHw(Unknown Device:00)/HD(Part1,Sig00000000) blk2 : VenHw(Unknown Device:80) blk3 : VenHw(Unknown Device:80)/HD(Part1,Sig00000000) blk4 : VenHw(Unknown Device:80)/HD(Part2,Sig00000000) blk5 : VenHw(Unknown Device:80)/HD(Part3,Sig00000000) blk6 : VenHw(Unknown Device:80)/HD(Part3,Sig00000000)/HD(Part1,Sig725F7772) blk7 : VenHw(Unknown Device:FF) blk8 : VenHw(Unknown Device:FF)/CDROM(Entry1) blk9 : VenHw(Unknown Device:FF)/CDROM(Entry1)/HD(Part1,Sig00000000) |
In this example, there is an LS-120 diskette in the LS-120 drive as well as a CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.All the listings beginning with fs are FAT16 file systems that EFI can read. All the listings beginning with blk are block devices that EFI recognizes. Both the filesystems and block devices are listed in the order they are probed. Therefore, fs0 is the system partition on the LS-120, fs1 is the system partition on the hard drive, and fs2 is the system partition on the CD-ROM.
For additional information on how to determine which devices EFI recognizes, visit this website:
http://developer.intel.com/software/idap/tech/video/efi/efi_shell_3.htm |
When partitioning your hard drive for Linux, you must create a system partition that is FAT16 (vfat) formatted and has a mount point of /boot/efi. This partition will contain the installed Linux kernel(s) as well as the elilo configuration file (elilo.conf). The elilo.conf file contains a list of kernels from which you can boot your system.
Your Itanium system will probably be able to boot the Red Hat Linux installation program directly from the Red Hat Linux CD 1. If your Itanium cannot boot the installation program from the CD-ROM (or if you want to perform a hard drive, NFS image, FTP, or HTTP installation) you'll need to boot from a diskette. See the section called Booting the Installation Program from an LS-120 Diskette for more information on booting from a diskette.
To boot from Red Hat Linux CD 1 follow these steps:
Remove all media except Red Hat Linux CD 1.
From the Boot Option menu choose EFI Shell.
At the Shell> prompt, change to the filesystem on the CD-ROM. For example, in the above sample map output, the system partition on the CD-ROM is fs1. To change to the fs1 filesystem, you would type fs1: at the prompt.
Type elilo linux to boot into the installation program.
Go to Chapter 3 to begin the installation.
If your Itanium will not boot from Red Hat Linux CD 1, you will need to boot from an LS-120 diskette. If you want to perform a hard drive, NFS image, FTP, or HTTP installation, you'll need to boot from boot LS-120 diskette.
You will need to create an LS-120 boot image file diskette from the boot image file on CD 1: images/boot.img. To create this diskette in Linux, insert a blank LS-120 diskette and type the following command at a shell prompt:
dd if=boot.img of=/dev/hda bs=180k |
If you aren't using the Red Hat Linux CD, the installation program will start in text mode. You will need to choose a few basic options for your system and then you will need to select which installation method you would like to use. See the section called Package Group Selection in Chapter 3 for more information on the different installation methods.
If you are using the CD-ROM to load the installation program, follow the instructions contained in Chapter 3 to install Red Hat Linux.
To boot from an LS-120 diskette follow these steps:
Insert the LS-120 diskette you made from the boot image file boot.img. If you are performing a local CD-ROM installation but booting off the LS-120 diskette, insert the Red Hat Linux CD 1 also. If you are performing a hard drive, NFS image, FTP, or HTTP installation, you do not need the CD-ROM.
From the Boot Option menu choose EFI Shell.
At the Shell> prompt, change the device to the LS-120 drive by typing the command fs0:, using the example map output above.
Type elilo linux to boot into the installation program.
Go to Chapter 3 to begin the installation.
To pass options to the boot loader, enter the following at the EFI Shell prompt:
Shell>elilo linux option |
Acceptable options that can be passed to the installation program are as follows:
text — use text mode installation program
lowres — use 640 x 480 resolution
dd — use a driver disk
expert — expert mode