Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Chapter 2. Installation

This section outlines the differences between Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 installation procedures. Depending on which release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 you are migrating from, not all of the options and techniques listed here will be relevant to your environment, as they might already be present in your Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 environment.

2.1. Kernel and Boot Options

  • You can perform memory testing before you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux by entering memtest86 at the boot: prompt. This option runs the Memtest86 stand alone memory testing software in place of the Anaconda system installer. Once started, Memtest86 memory testing loops continually until the Esc key is pressed.
  • The rdloaddriver kernel parameter is now needed to define the order of module loading, instead of the old scsi_hostadapter option.
  • Kernel Modesetting (KMS) is a feature that assigns the responsibility of graphics mode initialization to the kernel, and is enabled by default. KMS enables:
    • Improved graphical boot.
    • Faster fast user switching.
    • Seamless X server switching.
    • Graphical panic messages.
    KMS can be disabled for all drivers by appending nomodeset to the boot: line when booting the system.