-C H A P T E R

C H A P T E R 4

Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software on Sun Fire V60x and V65x Servers

Note - The system administration procedures in this chapter are intended for users with at least basic Linux administration experience.

This chapter is organized into the following sections.

Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software From CDs

Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software From a Network

SCSI Driver Upgrades

Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software From CDs

This section describes how to install Red Hat Linux 9 software using supplemental drivers provided at: http://www.sun.com

This procedure has been tested using the ISO distribution of the software that is available from Red Hat's ftp site at the following location:

ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/iso/i386/

If that site is busy or too slow, use a mirror that is closer to you from Red Hat's mirror list, which is available at the following address:

http://www.redhat.com/mirrors

Note - The server's USB ports are not enabled until Linux is booted and the USB drivers are installed. A PS/2 keyboard is required for initial bootup and configuration.

Installing from CD consists of the following procedures.

1. Install Red Hat Linux 9 and several optional modules. See Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software.

2. Download the SCSI driver RPMs from the Sun Web site and update the SCSI drivers. See Downloading and Updating Required Drivers

3. Configure the network connection. See Configuring the Network Connection.

Required Items

The CD installation procedure requires the following items.

A Sun Fire V60x or V65x server equipped with:

Diskette/CD-ROM combo module

PS/2 keyboard

Monitor

Red Hat Linux 9 Media CD Set

One 1.44 MB 3.5-in. diskette if you want to create a repair diskette

(Optional) A second Linux server, with Internet access. This second server is needed to download SCSI drivers if the Sun Fire V60x or V65x server is not set up with Internet access.

Note - Do not connect a mouse for the installation.

Optional Item

Sun Fire V60x and V65x Server Diagnostic CD (Sun part number 705-0602), if you want to install the service partition. Refer to the Sun Fire V60x and V65x Server User Guide (817-2023) for more information about the service partition.

Installing the Service Partition (Optional)

You can optionally install the service partition from the Diagnostics CD as the first step of the Red Hat Linux 9 software installation. The service partition has utilities that might be useful. Refer to the Sun Fire V60x and Sun Fire V65x Server User Guide for more information about the utilities provided by installing the service partition, and for instructions on installing it. If you want to install the service partition, it must be installed prior to installing Red Hat Linux 9 software.

Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software

1. Connect the keyboard and monitor to the appropriate connectors on the Sun Fire V60x or V65x target server.

Note - Do not connect a mouse for the installation.

2. Power on the server and insert Red Hat Linux 9 CD 1 into the CD tray before the boot process begins.

Note - You must complete the following step before the prompt times out.

3. When you are prompted in the initial Red Hat screen, do not press Enter. Instead, instruct the installer to use text mode by typing the following at the boot: prompt.

boot: linux text

4. After the SCSI driver is loaded, and the installer prompts you to test the CD media, choose Skip or OK, depending on your preference.

5. Read the Welcome screen and choose OK to continue.

6. Make the following selections when prompted:

Select the appropriate language

Select the appropriate keyboard type

Select No-mouse for mouse type

7. If you already have a version of Red Hat installed on your server, you will be prompted to reinstall the operating system or upgrade the operating system.

If you do not have Red Hat already installed on your system, you will not see this prompt. You can proceed to Step 8.

If you already have a version of Red Hat installed on your server and wish to continue a new installation of Red Hat Linux 9 software, choose the option to reinstall the operating system, then proceed to Step 8.

If you wish to upgrade the operating system rather than to install a new version, refer to the Red Hat Linux 9 installation instructions at www.redhat.com

8. When prompted for the Installation Type, choose Custom or the appropriate type for your system.

9. When prompted for disk partitioning in the Disk Partitioning Setup screen, select Autopartition.

The Auto Partitioning dialog box appears, prompting you to choose whether you want to keep the existing partitions.

Your choice depends on whether you installed the service partition earlier. See Installing the Service Partition (Optional).

If you installed the service partition, select the option Keep all partitions and use existing free space.

If you did not install the service partition, choose Remove all partitions on this system.

If you chose Remove all partitions on this system, a warning about data being removed from the drives is displayed. Select Yes.

10. In the Partitioning screen, tab to OK and press Enter.

11. In the first Boot Loader Configuration screen, select a boot manager of your choice, then choose OK.

For example, if you choose LILO, use the arrow keys to move the cursor into the check box for LILO. Then press the spacebar to select LILO, select OK, and press Enter.

12. In the second Boot Loader Configuration screen, add any additional arguments that you want to pass to the kernel or choose OK.

13. If prompted, you can choose to add a password to the boot loader.

The boot loader configuration attempts to identify what other operating systems exist on the system.

14. In the third Boot Loader Configuration screen, edit the labels for the operating system or just choose OK.

15. In the fourth Boot Loader Configuration screen, select Master Boot Record (MBR) for the boot loader configuration.

A network configuration screen for eth0 displays.

16. If you are using the eth0 port for network access, select the Activate on Boot option and take one of the following actions:

If you are using DHCP, ensure that the bootp/dhcp option is selected and choose OK.

If you are not using DHCP, fill out the network information for the eth0 port, then choose OK.

A network configuration screen for eth1 displays.

17. If you are using the eth1 port for network access, select the Activate on Boot option and take one of the following actions:

If you are using DHCP, ensure that the bootp/dhcp option is selected and choose OK.

If you are not using DHCP, fill out the network information for the eth1 port, then choose OK.

18. Make the following selections when prompted:

Select the firewall configuration that matches your preferred environment (high, medium, or no firewall).

Select any other additional languages you need to install.

Select the appropriate time zone.

19. Enter the superuser password of your choice.

Note - Ensure that you remember the password. If you forget it, you may have to reinstall the operating system.

20. Select the Authentication Configuration for your environment.

This screen will only display if you are doing a custom installation. If you don't know what to enter for authentication configuration, choose the defaults.

21. In the Package Group Selection setup screen, add and remove package groups if you have different system needs than the default.

Use the arrow keys to move the cursor, then press the Spacebar to check selections.

Note - If you want to install or update the kernel source at a later time, you will need to install the Development Tools package in this screen. This package contains the gcc compiler, which is necessary for compiling the kernel source.

22. Read the dialog box about the installation log, then choose OK.

This installation of the RPMs takes about 10 minutes, depending on what you selected for installation. When you are prompted to switch the CD, the installer automatically ejects the CD. Insert the requested CD and press OK.

You might not need CD 3, depending on which options you selected for installation.

23. When prompted to create a boot diskette, insert a diskette into the drive and choose Yes.

Follow the instructions on the screen to create the boot diskette.

24. If prompted, select the default video interface detected by the installer.

25. If prompted, identify the connected monitor and select the best match in the installer. Choose text for the default login type.

26. If prompted, select the resolution and color depth that matches the requirements of the X configuration.

27. Connect the Sun Fire V60x or V65x server to a DHCP server, if you choose DHCP for your network interface.

Connect the Ethernet cable(s) to the port(s) that you set up in Step 16 or Step 17.

28. Remove any diskettes that are in the diskette drive before the system begins rebooting.

29. Select OK in the Complete dialog box.

The system automatically reboots.

30. Continue with Downloading and Updating Required Drivers.

Downloading and Updating Required Drivers

This section describes how to download and update the server with the required supplemental drivers that are needed to run Red Hat Linux 9 software on the Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers.

This procedure assumes that you have configured the server to have Internet access. If the server does not have Internet access, download the files to a computer that does have Internet access and copy the files to the Sun Fire V60x or V65x server.

1. On the newly installed system, use a browser to go to the Sun download site for Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers:

http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v60x/downloads.htmlor
http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v65x/downloads.html

2. Navigate to the download links for Red Hat Linux 9 software and download the Adaptec SCSI Driver RPMs tar file to a /tmp/ directory on the system.

3. Extract the contents of the tar file into the /tmp/ directory by typing the following command:

# tar -zxf /tmp/filename

4. Determine the kernel level installed on the target server by typing the following command:

# uname -a

5. Install the SCSI driver RPMs to the target server by typing the following commands:

# rpm -Uvh --nodeps /tmp/rh9-aic79xx/aic79xx-1.3.10_ \kernel-version -rh9_1.i686.rpm

# rpm -Uvh --nodeps /tmp/rh9-aic79xx/aic79xx-smp-1.3.10_ \kernel-version-rh9_1.i686.rpm

# rpm -Uvh --nodeps /tmp/rh9-aic79xx/aic79xx-bigmem-1.3.10_ \kernel-version-rh9_1.i686.rpm

Where kernel-version is the version determined in Step 4.

6. Reboot the target server by typing the following command:

# reboot

7. Continue with Configuring the Network Connection.

Configuring the Network Connection

1. Log in as superuser.

2. Open the Network Configuration screen as follows:

To configure eth0 (network port labelled 2), type:

# netconfig

To configure eth1 (network port labelled 1), type:

# netconfig --device=eth1

3. In the Network Configuration screen, select Yes.

4. In the Configure TCP/IP screen, take one of the following actions:

If you are using DHCP, select Use dynamic IP configuration (BOOTP/DHCP).

If you are not using DHCP, fill in the network information for the appropriate port.

5. Select OK to exit the Network Configuration tool.

6. Restart the network by typing:

# sh /etc/init.d/network restart

Your Red Hat Linux 9 software installation is complete.

Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software From a Network

This section describes how to create a PXE install image on a Linux server and initiate the request from the target Sun Fire V60x and V65x server to download the image through the PXE server. The PXE server then transfers the boot image file to the target server using TFTP. This boot image file is used to boot the target server.

The tasks for installing Red Hat Linux 9 software from a networked PXE server consist of the following procedures.

1. Configure your network to support PXE installation. See Preconfiguring Your Network to Support PXE Installation. These procedures apply to all Red Hat versions covered in this guide.

2. Create a PXE install image on a system that will be the PXE server. You will download the software to other systems (PXE clients). See Creating a PXE Install Image on the PXE Server.

3. Install the Red Hat software to the PXE clients from the PXE server. See Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software From a PXE Server.

4. Install the correct SCSI drivers, if necessary. See SCSI Driver Upgrades.

Required Items

The PXE network installation procedure requires the following items.

A Sun Fire V60x or V65x server equipped with:

Diskette/CD-ROM combo module

PS/2 keyboard

A Linux server configured as shown in Preconfiguring Your Network to Support PXE Installation.

Monitor

Red Hat Linux 9 Media CD Set

Note - Do not connect a mouse for the installation.

Optional Item

Sun Fire V60x and V65x Server Diagnostic CD (Sun part number 705-0602), if you want to install the service partition. Refer to the Sun Fire V60x and V65x Server User Guide (817-2023) for more information about the service partition.

Installing the Service Partition (Optional)

You can optionally install the service partition from the Diagnostics CD onto the Sun Fire V60x or V65x server as the first step of the Red Hat Linux 9 software installation. The service partition has utilities that might be useful. Refer to the Sun Fire V60x and Sun Fire V65x Server User Guide for more information about the utilities provided by installing the service partition, and for instructions on installing it. If you want to install the service partition, it must be installed prior to installing Red Hat Linux 9 software.

Creating a PXE Install Image on the PXE Server

Note - Before you start this procedure, verify that your network has been configured to support PXE installation, as described in Preconfiguring Your Network to Support PXE Installation.

This procedure describes how to create a PXE install image on the same system that is your DHCP server, so that it will also act as your PXE server. The PXE server provides the operating system files to your PXE client.

1. Insert Red Hat Linux 9 CD 1 into your server and copy its contents to your PXE server, by typing the following commands:

Note - You can use a different target directory than the /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/ directory shown below. The examples in this procedure use this directory.

# mkdir -p /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

# cp -a /mnt/cdrom/RedHat /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

2. Remove CD 1 from the server after you type the following command:

# umount /dev/cdrom

3. Insert Red Hat Linux 9 CD 2 into your server and copy its contents to your PXE server, by typing the following commands:

# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

# cp -a /mnt/cdrom/RedHat /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

Note - If you are prompted whether to overwrite any existing files, type y to overwrite the files.

4. Remove CD 2 from the server after you type the following command:

# umount /dev/cdrom

5. Insert Red Hat Linux 9 CD 3 into your server and copy its contents to your PXE server, by typing the following commands:

# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

# cp -a /mnt/cdrom/RedHat /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

Note - If you are prompted whether to overwrite any existing files, type y to overwrite the files.

6. Remove CD 3 from the server after you type the following command:

# umount /dev/cdrom

7. On your PXE server, determine whether the anaconda-runtime package is already installed on the server by typing the following command:

# rpm -qa | grep anaconda-runtime

If the anaconda-runtime package is listed, go to Step 8. If the package is not listed, perform the following steps:

a. Install the package from Red Hat Linux CD 2 by typing the following commands:

Use CD 2 for the version of Red Hat Linux that is installed on the PXE server.

# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

# rpm -ivh /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/anaconda-runtime*

b. Remove CD 2 from the server after you type the following command:

# umount /dev/cdrom

8. Copy the SCSI drivers from the temporary directory to the directory shown below:

#cp /tmp/rh9-pxefiles/aic79xx* \ /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/RedHat/RPMS/

The temporary directory /tmp/rh9-pxefiles/ is the one that was created during the procedure in Downloading the Required Support Files, when you preconfigured your PXE server.

9. Place Red Hat Linux 9 CD 1 into the CD drive, and copy the following files to the PXE image with the commands shown below:

# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

# cp /mnt/cdrom/isolinux/initrd.img /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

# cp /mnt/cdrom/isolinux/vmlinuz /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

# umount /dev/cdrom

10. Copy the kickstart file ks.cfg from the temporary directory to the following directory:

# cp /tmp/rh9-pxefiles/ks.cfg /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

11. On your PXE server, edit and save the kickstart file /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/ks.cfg so that the nfs line reads as follows:

nfs --server n.n.n.n --dir /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

Where n.n.n.n is the IP address of your PXE server. Double check that the location at --dir is pointing to the top level of your image.

12. Run the following command so that the installation knows about the SCSI and Network drivers:

# /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/genhdlist /home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/

This command generates the hdlist file. This is accomplished through the program genhdlist.

13. On your PXE server, modify and save the file /home/pxeboot/pxelinux.cfg/default to add the following entry to it:

Note that you should type the text block from "append ksdevice" through "ks.cfg" as one continuous string with no returns.

Note - If the first three lines are already in the file, you do not need to add these lines. The remaining lines must added to the default file.

display motd prompt 1 default SunFire_9

label SunFire_9 kernel SunFire_9/vmlinuz append ksdevice=eth0 console=ttyS1,9600 console=tty0 load_ramdisk=1 initrd=SunFire_9/initrd.img network ks=nfs:n.n.n.n:/home/pxeboot/SunFire_9/ks.cfg

Where n.n.n.n is the IP address of your PXE server.

14. On your PXE server, modify and save the file /home/pxeboot/motd to add the following entry to it:

PXE Server: Please report any problems with these images to PXE SERVER ADMIN <admin@domain.com>

Current Default is: SunFire_9

Builds: SunFire_9 - RH 9 - 2.4.20-8 kernel, 1.3.10 aic driver

Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Software From a PXE Server

This procedure describes how to initiate the request from the target Sun Fire V60x or V65x server to download the boot image file from the PXE/DHCP server, and to install the Red Hat Linux 9 software onto the target server.

Note - This procedure assumes that you have already preconfigured your network and PXE server install image as described in Preconfiguring Your Network to Support PXE Installation and Creating a PXE Install Image on the PXE Server.

1. Connect the PXE client (the target server to which you are installing Red Hat Linux 9 software) to the same network as the PXE server, and power on the PXE client.

2. When the PXE client prompts you for a network boot, press the F12 key.

The PXE client connects to the PXE server and attempts to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server.

3. Press the F8 key.

The text that you used for the label value in Step 6 of Installing and Configuring the neopxe Boot Server Daemon displays.

4. Select the displayed Linux option.

5. When you are prompted at the boot: prompt, press Enter.

The Red Hat Linux 9 install image downloads onto the target Sun Fire V60x or V65x server.

6. To configure the Red Hat Linux 9 operating system for your server, refer to the documentation available at the following site:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux

7. Continue with SCSI Driver Upgrades, if needed.

SCSI Driver Upgrades

This section applies for both PXE and CD media installations.

If you install the latest Red Hat Linux 9 software kernel upgrade, the kernel update might downgrade the drivers that were installed during the initial installation of the operating environment. Updating the drivers ensures proper system performance.

1. Log in as superuser to the Sun Fire V60x or V65x target server on which you have installed Red Hat Linux 9.

2. Use a browser to go to the Sun download site for the Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers:

http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v60x/downloads.html

http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v65x/downloads.html

Note - If your server does not have Internet access, you will need to download the files to a computer that does have Internet access and copy the files to the Sun Fire V60x or V65x target server.

3. Navigate to the download link for the Red Hat Linux 9 SCSI driver and download the SCSI driver bundle to the /tmp/ directory on the target system.

4. Uncompress the download file with the following command:

# tar -zxf /tmp/filename

5. Determine the kernel level installed on the target server by typing the following command:

# uname -a

Use the kernel version shown to determine which driver version to use for the commands in Step 6.

6. Install the SCSI driver RPMs to the target server by typing the following commands:

# rpm -Uvh /tmp/rh9-aic79xx/aic79xx-version.rpm

# rpm -Uvh /tmp/rh9-aic79xx/aic79xx-smp-version.rpm

# rpm -Uvh /tmp/rh9-aic79xx/aic79xx-bigmem-version.rpm

For example, with the aic79xx-bigmem version 1.3.10, kernel version 2.4.20-8, and Red Hat Linux 9, the driver name would be:

aic79xx-bigmem-1.3.10_2.4.20_8-rh9_1.i686.rpm

7. Reboot the target server by typing the following command:

# reboot