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2. Installation-Related Notes
This section includes information specific to Anaconda and the installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2.
Red Hat Network can install the new and changed packages and upgrade an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 system. Alternatively, Anaconda can upgrade an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 system or perform a fresh installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2.
Note: upgrading from beta releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 to this GA release is not supported.
Further, although Anaconda provides an option for upgrading from earlier major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, Red Hat does not currently support this. More generally, Red Hat does not support in-place upgrades between any major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. (A major version is denoted by a whole number version change. For example, Red Hat Enteprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 are both major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.)
In-place upgrades across major releases do not preserve all system settings, services or custom configurations. Consequently, Red Hat strongly recommends fresh installations when upgrading from one major version to another.
2.1. All Architectures
- A version naming issue in the updated
libdhcp6clientmay cause some package upgrades to fail. To work around this, manually remove the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 version oflibdhcp6clientbefore performing an upgrade to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2. - When installing from CD-ROM or DVD-ROM on a system with an iBFT-configured network device, Anaconda will not include any iBFT-configured storage devices unless networking is configured. To enable networking for the installation, use the command
linux updates=http://[any]at the installation boot prompt. Note that[any]can be replaced with any URL.If your system requires a static IP configuration, use the commandlinux updates=http://[any] ip=[IP address] netmask=[netmask] dns=[dns]. - If you are copying the contents of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 CD-ROMs (in preparation for a network-based installation, for example) be sure to 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.The contents of theSupplementary CD-ROMand other layered product CD-ROMs must be installed after Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 is installed. - When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 on a fully virtualized guest, do not use the
kernel-xenkernel. Using this kernel on fully virtualized guests can cause your system to hang.If you are using an Installation Number when installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 on a fully virtualized guest, be sure to deselect theVirtualizationpackage group during the installation. TheVirtualizationpackage group option installs thekernel-xenkernel.Note that paravirtualized guests are not affected by this issue. Paravirtualized guests always use thekernel-xenkernel. - If you are using the Virtualized kernel when upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 to 5.2, you must reboot after completing the upgrade. You should then boot the system using the updated Virtualized kernel.The hypervisors of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 5.2 are not ABI-compatible. If you do not boot the system after upgrading using the updated Virtualized kernel, the upgraded Virtualization RPMs will not match the running kernel.
- When upgrading to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 or later from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6,
gcc4may cause the upgrade to fail. As such, you should manually remove thegcc4package before upgrading. - The
firstbootlanguage plugin has been removed, as it does not properly and completely reconfigure the system when a new language is selected. - The use of Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) during installation is not supported. As such, CHAP should only be enabled after installation.If your system boots through an iFBT device, configure CHAP in the iFBT BIOS/firmware setup screen. Your CHAP settings will then be used in the next boot.If your system boots through PXE iSCSI, configure CHAP through
iscsiadm. After configuring, usemkinitrdto ensure that your CHAP settings are used in the next boot.
2.2. PowerPC Architectures
- The minimum RAM required to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 is 1GB; the recommended RAM is 2GB. If a machine has less than 1GB RAM, the installation process may hang.Further, PowerPC-based machines that have only 1GB of RAM experience significant performance issues under certain RAM-intensive workloads. For a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 system to perform RAM-intensive processes optimally, 4GB of RAM is recommended. This ensures the system has the same number of physical pages as was available on PowerPC machines with 512MB of RAM running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5 or earlier.
2.3. ia64 Architecture
- If your system only has 512MB of RAM, attempting to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 may fail. To prevent this, perform a base installation first and install all other packages after the installation finishes.
- Using
yumto install packages from the32-bit Compatibility Layerdisc may fail. If it does, it is because the Red Hat package signing key was not imported into the RPM database. This happens if you have not yet connected to Red Hat Network and obtained updates. To import the key manually, run the following command as root:rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
Once the Red Hat GPG key is imported, you may now useyumto install packages from the32-bit Compatibility Layerdisc.Note that when installing from this disc, it is advisable to useyuminstead ofrpmto ensure that base OS dependencies are addressed during installation. - When upgrading a large number of packages with
yum update, the update process will take longer to finish than previous versions.
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