Red Hat Linux 7.1 and 7.2 Installation Guidelines

VMware ESX Server 1.5
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The easiest method of installing Red Hat Linux 7.1 or 7.2 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 7.1 or 7.2 via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well. Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created a new virtual machine and configured it using the ESX Server Virtual Machine Wizard.

Install Red Hat Linux 7.1 or 7.2 using the text mode installer, which you may choose when you first boot the installer. At the Red Hat Linux 7.1 or 7.2 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 ...

To choose the text mode installer, type text followed by Enter.

Note: You should not run the X server that is installed when you set up Red Hat 7.1 or 7.2. 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 7.1 or 7.2.

Red Hat Linux 7.1 or 7.2 Installation Steps

Use the VMware Management Interface 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 7.1 or 7.2 installation process, be sure the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter is enabled and configured.
If you plan to install the guest operating system from a physical CD-ROM disc, be sure the CD-ROM drive is connected to the virtual machine.
Insert the Red Hat Linux 7.1 or 7.2 CD in the CD-ROM drive and click the Power On button. The virtual machine should start booting from the CD and the installation process will begin.
You may see a warning message that says: "Bad partition table. The partition table on device hda is corrupted." 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 Initialize button and press Enter.
Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical machine. Be sure to make the choices outlined in the following steps.
In Video Card Selection choose Generic VGA compatible, then click OK.
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.
At the Video Memory screen, choose 256KB, then click OK.
At the Clockchip Configuration screen, choose No Clockchip Setting (recommended), which is the default, then click OK.
At the Probe for Clocks screen, click Skip.
At the Select Video Modes screen, don't choose anything. Just click OK.
At the Starting X screen, click Skip.
This completes basic installation of the Red Hat Linux 7.1 or 7.2 guest operating system. Be sure to install VMware Tools in your virtual machine. For details, see Installing VMware Tools and the Network Driver in the Guest Operating System.
Note: With a Red Hat Linux 7.1 or 7.2 guest, you should install VMware Tools from the Linux console. Do not start X until you have installed VMware Tools.

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