Learning Red Hat Linux (3rd Edition) [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

2.2 Collecting Information About Your System

Before you launch into the installation
process, you should collect some basic information about your system.
Generally, Red Hat's installer will successfully
probe your system and discover its configuration, but when it fails
to do so, you must be prepared to supply the required information.
Otherwise, you'll be forced to terminate the
installation procedure, obtain the information, and then start all
over again.

2.2.1 Information You Need

Table 2-1 specifies the configuration information
you need and gives you space to conveniently record the information
as you gather it. If your system currently runs Windows, you can
obtain much of the needed information by using Windows utilities, as
explained in the next section. To obtain the remaining information,
you can consult your system documentation and the documentation for
any devices installed by you. If your documentation is missing or
incomplete, you may need to contact your hardware vendor or
manufacturer. Alternatively, you may be able to find the needed
information on the manufacturer's web site; use a
search engine such as Google (which is powered by Linux) to discover
the URL of the web site.

Sometimes, you'll need to examine your
system's
BIOS
settings or open your system's case and examine the
installed hardware; consult your system documentation to learn how to
do so. Finally, if you're installing Linux in a
large organization such as a business or a university, your system
administrator might be a sympathetic (or not always sympathetic)
source of the information you need.

2.2.2 Collecting Configuration Information from Windows

If you run Windows
95/98, 2000, or XP, you can obtain much of the information needed to
install Linux by using the Windows System Properties dialog box,
which you can launch by using the Control Panel. Get the information
as follows:

Click on the Start menu. A pop-up menu appears.

Select Settings on the pop-up menu and click on Control Panel in the
submenu. The Control Panel appears.

Double-click on System. The System Properties dialog box appears.
If necessary, click on the General tab, so that the dialog box
resembles the one shown in Figure 2-1.

The General tab of the System Properties dialog box shows the type of
your system's processor and the amount of installed
RAM.

Figure 2-1. The General tab of the System Properties dialog box

Click on the Device Manager Tab (Windows 95/98) or
Control Panel Administrative Tools
Computer Management Device
Manager (Windows 2000/XP) tab. The path you use to find the Device
Manager may vary a bit, depending on your operating system and its
configuration. The Device Manager appears, as shown in Figure 2-2.

You can double-click on an icon (or single-click on the Plus key
adjacent to an icon) to obtain additional information.

Figure 2-2. The Device Manager

You can gather the following information from the Device Manager tab:

The number and type (IDE or SCSI) of your system's
hard drives

The make and model of CD-ROM drives

Some installed CD-ROM drives do not appear in the Device Manager tab of the System Properties dialog box. Often the C:\CONFIG.SYS file will contain clues that help you learn more about such drives.

The make and model of SCSI adapters, if any

The make and model of the video adapter

The type of mouse installed

The make and model of multimedia adapters, such as sound cards, if any

The make and model of network adapters, if any

When you've recorded the information provided by the
Device Manager tab, click Cancel to exit the System Properties dialog
box.

Red Hat Linux supports
dial-up networking, as explained in
Chapter 10. But the installation program
doesn't configure dial-up networking, so you
don't need to collect information about dial-up
networking prior to installation. However, if your computer is
attached to a network, you should collect information describing your
network adapter:

In the Control Panel, double-click Network or Network and Dial-up
Connections to launch the Network and Dial-up Connections dialog box,
as shown in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3. The Network and Dial-up Connections dialog box

Double-click your Ethernet adapter and then the associated Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) entry,
launching the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box, shown
in Figure 2-4. This dialog box tells you the IP
address and subnet mask (netmask) of your system. If the
"Obtain an IP address
automatically" button is selected, the IP address
and subnet mask will be blank. In that case, you
don't need to be concerned about them because a DHCP
server on your network supplies the network configuration
automatically; Red Hat Linux can obtain its network configuration
from this same server.

Figure 2-4. The Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box

Click the Advanced button and then the DNS tab of the Advanced TCP/IP
Settings dialog box. This tab, shown as Figure 2-5,
provides the Host (hostname), Domain (domain name), and DNS Server
information you'll need during installation.

Figure 2-5. The DNS configuration tab

Finally, click Cancel once to close the Advanced TCP/IP Settings
dialog box and again to close the TCP/IP Properties dialog box.
Clicking Cancel again closes the Network dialog box.