3. Installation-Related Notes

The following section includes information specific to installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Anaconda installation program.

Note

When updating from one minor version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (such as 4.6 to 4.7) to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8, it is recommended that you do so using Red Hat Network, whether through the hosted web user interface or Red Hat Network Satellite.
If you are upgrading a system with no available network connectivity, use the "Upgrade" functionality of Anaconda. However, note that Anaconda has limited abilities to handle issues such as dependencies on additional repositories or third-party applications. Further, Anaconda reports installation errors in a log file, not interactively.
As such, Red Hat recommends that when upgrading offline systems, you should test and verify the integrity of your upgrade configuration first. Be sure to carefully review the update log for errors before applying the upgrade to your production environment.
In-place upgrades between major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (for example, upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8) is not supported. While the "Upgrade" option of Anaconda allows you to perform this, there is no guarantee that the upgrade will result in a working installation. In-place upgrades accross major releases do not preserve all system settings, services, and custom configurations. For this reason, Red Hat strongly recommends that you perform a fresh installation when planning to upgrade between major versions.

3.1. All Architectures

Important

If you are copying the contents of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 CD-ROMs (in preparation for a network-based installation, for example) be sure you copy the CD-ROMs for the operating system only. Do not copy the Supplementary CD-ROM, or any of the layered product CD-ROMs, as this will overwrite files necessary for Anaconda's proper operation.
These CD-ROMs must be installed after Red Hat Enterprise Linux is installed.
Bugzilla #205295
The version of GRUB shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (and all updates) does not support software mirroring (RAID1). As such, if you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a RAID1 partition, the bootloader will be installed in the first hard drive instead of the master boot record (MBR). This will render the system unbootable.
If you wish to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a RAID1 partition, you should clear any pre-existing bootloader from the MBR first.
Bugzilla #222958
When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 in Text Mode on systems that use flat-panel monitors and some ATI cards, the screen area may appear shifted. When this occurs, some areas of the screen will be obscured.
If this occurs, perform the installation with the parameter linux nofb.
Bugzilla #445835
When upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6 to this release, minilogd may log several SELinux denials. These error logs are harmless, and can be safely ignored.
Bugzilla #430476
Previously, in the Anaconda kickstart documentation (located at: /usr/share/doc/anaconda-<anaconda-version>/kickstart-docs.txt), the section detailing the --driveorder option in a kickstart file stated: 
Specify which drive is first in the BIOS boot order.
However, the --driveorder option actually requires a list of all drives on the system, with the first boot device appearing first in the list. With this update, the documentation has been clarified and now reads: 
Specify which drive is first in the BIOS boot order.
The ordered list must include all the drives in the system.
When using the --driveorder option in a kickstart file The ordered list must include all the drives in the system.