Lab #1: Installation
Date: January 16, 2008
Points: 10
  1. Select a removable hard disk from the box.
  2. Label it with "CIT 470" and your name.
  3. Pick up a CentOS 5.1 DVD.
  4. Insert and lock your removable hard disk in a PC.
  5. Boot the PC with the CentOS 5.1 DVD.
  6. Install CentOS 5.1, with the following options
    1. Skip media test.
    2. Manually partition the removable drive. Do not modify partitions on the fixed drive, which will be either hda or sda, depending on whether it's a PATA or SATA drive. If at any time you are unsure of which device is the removable drive, ask the instructor.
      1. Uncheck the fixed drive.
      2. Select Review and modify partitioning layout.
      3. Click on Next.
      4. Remove all existing partitions on the removable drive. Do not remove any partitions from the fixed drive.
      5. Create a 10GB ext3fs root partition. Check only the removable drive as an allowable drive in the Add Partition dialog.
      6. Create a 1GB swap partition. Check only the removable drive as an allowable drive in the Add Partition dialog.
      7. Create a 20GB ext3fs /var partition. Check only the removable drive as an allowable drive in the Add Partition dialog.
      8. Leave the rest of the disk unused by any partition. We'll need this space for future labs. You'll have to re-install from scratch if you don't leave this space unused.
    3. Install GRUB bootloader on the removable drive with the default options.
    4. Configure network access with DHCP.
    5. Set the time zone to America/New York.
    6. Set the root password to the password I give you.
    7. Select "Customize now" for the software selection.
      Remove the following packages from the install list:
      1. Games and Entertainment
      2. Graphical Internet except Firefox
      3. Graphics
      4. evolution-* and planner from Office Productivity
      5. Sound and Video
  7. Reboot once the install is complete. If you encounter a problem, such as GRUB not being installed or Grub Error 17: Cannot Mount Selected Partition, reboot your system with the CentOS DVD.
    1. Enter linux rescue at the boot prompt.
    2. Follow the instructions to get a root shell.
    3. chroot /mnt/sysimage
    4. To re-install GRUB, run grub then
      1. root (hd0,0)
      2. cat /etc/passwd
      3. If that passwd file has the student user in it, then that's your removable disk. Otherwise, try setting the root to (hd1,0) and examine the passwd file again. Do not do the next step until you've set the root disk correctly. Use the same disk number you used for the root in the setup command below.
      4. setup (hdN)
      5. quit
      6. Reboot the system.
    5. To fix GRUB error 17
      1. vim /boot/grub/menu.lst
      2. Change the root to the other disk (from hd1 to hd0 or vice versa).
      3. Save the file and reboot.
  8. Post-install configuration.
    1. Enable the firewall.
    2. Accept the default SELinux configuration.
    3. Set the correct date and time.
    4. Create a user account named "student" with the password I give you.
  9. Update CentOS
    1. Run yum update to update your new CentOS installation. If you receive an error about an existing lock, read the process ID (PID) from the lock file specified in the error message and kill that PID before running yum again. Reboot after yum finishes and before attempting to install VMWare Server.
  10. Install VMWare Server
    1. Download the VMWare Server 1.04 tar.gz file.
    2. Register VMWare Server 1.04 (write down the serial number)
    3. Install packages you'll need for installing VMWare Server: yum install gcc kernel-devel xinetd
    4. Extract the tar file: tar xzf VMware-server-*
    5. Move into the directory you extracted and run vmware-install.pl
      1. Configure all 3 types of networking (bridged, NAT, host only).
      2. Use /var/vm as the directory in which to store your virtual machines.
      3. Accept defaults for all other options.
    6. Run VMWare Server from the Gnome menu to verify that it works.
  11. Submit your lab
    1. Use sftp to transfer the following files from root's home directory of your new install. Run man sftp if you don't know how to use sftp.
      1. anaconda-ks.cfg
      2. install.log
      3. install.log.syslog
    2. Create a file called readme that provides one-sentence explanations of the contents and purpose of the three files listed above. Transfer readme to kosh too.
    3. Login to kosh
    4. Use the submit program to submit the files you transferred to kosh with an assignment name of "lab1".
 

©2008 James Walden, Ph.D.