The following section includes information specific to installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Anaconda installation program.
When updating from one minor version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (such as 4.5 to 4.6) to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7, 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 4.7) 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.
If you are copying the contents of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 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.
In this update, the 64-bit Intel Itanium2 architecture includes runtime support for 32-bit applications through the use of Intel's IA-32 Execution Layer.
The IA-32 Execution Layer is provided on the Extras disc for the Intel Itanium2 architecture. In addition, a set of 32-bit libraries and applications are provided on a separate 32-bit Compatibility Layer disc. The IA-32 Execution Layer and 32-bit compatibility packages together provide a runtime environment for 32-bit applications on the 64-bit native distribution.
To install the IA-32 Execution Layer and required 32-bit compatibility packages, follow these steps:
Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 for the Intel Itanium2 Architecture.
Insert the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Extras CD, which contains the ia32el package.
After the system has mounted the CD, change to the directory containing the Extras packages. For example:
cd /media/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/
If you have pdksh installed, uninstall it now.
rpm -e pdksh
Install the ia32el and ksh packages:
rpm -Uvh ia32el-<
version>.ia64.rpm ksh-<version>.ia64.rpm
where <version> is the respective versions of the ia32el and ksh packages to be installed.
Eject the Extras CD:
eject /media/cdrom
To verify the installation of the 32-bit compatibility layer and libraries after installation, confirm if the /emul directory exists and contains files.
To verify that the 32-bit compatibility mode is in effect, type the following in a shell prompt:
service ia32el status
At this point you can install compatibility libraries by inserting the 32-bit Compatibility Layer disc. You may choose to install all of the packages available on the disc or choose the particular packages required in order to provide runtime support for your 32-bit applications.
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.
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.
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.