Chapter 7. Booting the Installer

You can boot the installation program using any one of the following media (depending upon what your system can support):

To start the installation program from a Red Hat Enterprise Linux DVD or from minimal boot media, follow this procedure:

To create a boot CD-ROM or to prepare your USB flash drive for booting or installation, refer to Section 2.2, “Making Minimal Boot Media”.

Insert the boot media and reboot the system.

You might need to press a specific key or combination of keys to boot from the media. On most computers, a message appears briefly on the screen very soon after you turn on the computer. Typically, it is worded something like Press F10 to select boot device, although the specific wording and the key that you must press varies widely from computer to computer. Consult the documentation for your computer or motherboard, or seek support from the hardware manufacturer or vendor.

If your computer does not allow you to select a boot device as it starts up, you might need to configure your system's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) to boot from the media.

To change your BIOS settings on an x86, AMD64, or Intel 64 system, watch the instructions provided on your display when your computer first boots. A line of text appears, telling you which key to press to enter the BIOS settings.

Once you have entered your BIOS setup program, find the section where you can alter your boot sequence. The default is often C, A or A, C (depending on whether you boot from your hard drive [C] or a diskette drive [A]). Change this sequence so that the DVD is first in your boot order and that C or A (whichever is your typical boot default) is second. This instructs the computer to first look at the DVD drive for bootable media; if it does not find bootable media on the DVD drive, it then checks your hard drive or diskette drive.

Save your changes before exiting the BIOS. For more information, refer to the documentation that came with your system.

After a short delay, the graphical boot screen appears, which contains information on a variety of boot options. Installation program automatically begins if you take no action within the first minute. For a description of the options available on this screen, refer to Section 7.1.2, “The Boot Menu”.

Alternatively, press the Esc key to access the boot: prompt, at which you can enter additional boot options as described in Section 7.1.3, “Additional Boot Options”.

The boot media displays a graphical boot menu with several options. If no key is hit within 60 seconds, the default boot option runs. To choose the default, either wait for the timer to run out or hit Enter on the keyboard. To select a different option than the default, use the arrow keys on your keyboard, and hit Enter when the correct option is highlighted. If you want to customize the boot options for a particular option, press the Tab key. To access the boot: prompt at which you can specify custom boot options, press the Esc key and refer to Section 7.1.3, “Additional Boot Options”.

For a listing and explanation of common boot options, refer to Chapter 28, Boot Options.

The boot menu options are:

While it is easiest to boot using a DVD and perform a graphical installation, sometimes there are installation scenarios where booting in a different manner may be needed. This section discusses additional boot options available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

To pass options to the boot loader on an x86, AMD64, or Intel 64 system, press the Esc key at boot time. The boot: prompt appears, at which you can use the boot loader options described below.

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