There are seven steps you should perform prior to installing Red Hat Linux:
If you've purchased the Official Red Hat Linux boxed set, you're ready to go! However, mistakes occasionally happen, so now is a good time to double-check the contents of your boxed set.
In your Red Hat Linux box, there is a red and white Registration Card. On the back of that card is a list of the contents of your boxed set version. Please read over this list and check to make sure that you have all the diskettes and manuals that are available with your version.
If you've purchased the Official Red Hat Linux boxed set from Red Hat, Inc. (or one of its distributors), and you're missing one or more of the items listed, please let us know! Contact information is also available on the Registration Card.
How to identify our official boxed set: The bottom of our box has an ISBN number next to one of the bar codes. That ISBN number should be in this form:
1-58569-xx-y |
(The xx and y will be unique numbers.)
Red Hat partners with companies (international and domestic) so that we can make Red Hat Linux available to you in the most convenient form. Because of these partnerships, you might find that your Red Hat Linux boxed set may not have been actually produced by Red Hat.
If your box has a different ISBN number (or none at all), you'll need to contact the company that produced your boxed set. Normally, third-party producers will include their logo and/or contact information on the outside of the box; an official Red Hat Linux boxed set lists only our name and contact information.
If you have purchased an official Red Hat Linux 7.0 boxed set, you should register your product. Registration offers you many useful services, such as installation help support, priority FTP access, and more.
To register your product, go to http://www.redhat.com/now. You'll find your Personal Product ID on the red and white registration card in your Official Red Hat Linux boxed set. Once registered, you will be able to partake of all the extras Red Hat provides to its registered users.
For more information on registering and the scope of Red Hat's technical support offerings, see Appendix D.
Of course, not everyone purchases a Red Hat Linux boxed set. It's entirely possible to install Red Hat Linux using a CD created by another company, or even via FTP. In these cases, you may need to create one or more diskettes to get started.
For information on downloading and installing Red Hat Linux via FTP, refer to http://www.redhat.com/download/howto_download.html.
For people installing Red Hat Linux from a CD-ROM not from Red Hat, you may need a boot disk, or if using a PCMCIA device during the installation (such as a laptop), a PCMCIA boot disk. It may also be possible to start the installation directly from the CD. We'll discuss this in more detail when we outline the various installation methods.
For information on making diskettes, see the section called Making Installation Diskettes.