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 Red Hat Linux 7.0 Installation Guidelines

Red Hat Linux 7.0 Installation Guidelines

The easiest method of installing Red Hat Linux 7.0 in a virtual machine is to use the standard Red Hat distribution CD. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing Red Hat Linux 7.0 via the boot
floppy/network method is supported as well.

Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created a directory for the new virtual machine and configured it using the VMware Workstation New Virtual Machine Wizard (on Windows hosts) or Configuration Wizard (on Linux hosts).

Note: Due to VGA performance issues installing Red Hat 7.0 with the graphics mode installer, we highly recommend you install the operating system with the text mode installer. At the Red Hat 7.0 CD boot prompt, you are offered the following choices:

To install or upgrade a system ... in graphical mode ...
To install or upgrade a system ... in text mode, type: text <ENTER>.
To enable expert mode, ...
Use the function keys listed below ...

Choose the text mode installer by typing text followed by Enter.

Note: During the Red Hat Linux 7.0 text mode installation, a standard XFree86 version 4 server (without support for VMware SVGA or standard VGA) will be installed. Do not run that X server. 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 Linux 7.0.

Installation Steps

Installation Steps

  1. Use the VMware Workstation Configuration Editor to verify the virtual machine's devices are set up as you expect before starting the installation. For example, if you would like networking software to be installed during the Red Hat Linux 7.0 installation process, be sure the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter is enabled and configured. VMware also recommends that you disable the screen saver on the host system before starting the installation process.

  2. Insert the Red Hat Linux 7.0 CD in the CD-ROM drive and click the Power On button.

  3. Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical PC. Be sure to make the choices outlined in the following steps.

  4. In Video Card Selection choose Generic VGA compatible, then click OK.

  5. Near the end of the installation, after files have been copied, you reach the Monitor Setup screen. Choose Generic Standard VGA, 640x480 @ 60 Hz, then click OK.

  6. At the Video Memory screen, choose 256Kb, then click OK.

  7. At the Clockchip Configuration screen, choose No Clockchip Setting (recommended), which is the default, then click OK.

  8. At the Probe for Clocks screen, click Skip.

  9. At the Select Video Modes screen, don't choose anything. Just click OK.

  10. At the Starting X screen, click Skip.

    Note: This is the most important step. Clicking OK runs the XFree86 version 4 server, which fails, and the installer aborts.

This completes basic installation of the Red Hat Linux 7.0 guest operating system.

VMware Tools

VMware Tools

Be sure to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. For details, see Installing VMware Tools.

Note: With a Red Hat Linux 7.0 guest, you should install VMware Tools from the Linux console. Do not start X until you have installed VMware Tools.

Installing a 16-Color X Server

Installing a 16-Color X Server

If you want to run the standard 16-color VGA X server, skip the installation of VMware Tools and instead take the following steps.

Note: If you use the standard 16-color VGA X server, you do not have the performance advantages of the accelerated SVGA X server included in VMware Tools.

  1. After you finish the basic installation of the Red Hat Linux 7.0 guest operating system and the virtual machine reboots, log on as root.

    su

  2. Set up the X server:

    ln -sf ../../usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_VGA16 /etc/X11/X

    This sets the current X server to XF86_VGA16 (the XFree86 3.3.6 16-color VGA X server).

Known Issues

Known Issues

On a Linux host with an XFree86 3.x X server, it is best not to run a screen saver in the guest operating system. Guest screen savers that demand a lot of processing power can cause the X server on the host to freeze.

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