Red Hat Knowledgebase

While it is easiest to boot using a CD-ROM 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.

For Itanium users:

To pass options to the boot loader on an Itanium system, enter the following at the EFI Shell prompt:

elilo linux option

For x86 and AMD64 users:

To pass options to the boot loader on an x86 or AMD64 system, use the instructions as provided in the boot loader option samples below.

• To perform a text mode installation, at the installation boot prompt, type:
  linux text
  
• ISO images have an md5sum embedded in them. To test the checksum integrity of an ISO image, at the installation boot prompt, type:

  linux mediacheck

  The installation program will prompt you to insert a CD or select an ISO image to test, and select OK to perform the checksum operation. This checksum operation can be performed on any Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD and does not have to be performed in a specific order (for example, CD #1 does not have the be the first CD you verify). It is strongly recommended to perform this operation on any Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD that was created from downloaded ISO images. This command works with the CD, DVD, hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO installation methods.

• Also in the images/ directory is the boot.iso file. This file is an ISO image than can be used to boot the installation program. It is a handy way to start network-based installations without having to use multiple diskettes. To use the boot.iso, your computer must be able to boot from its CDROM drive, and its BIOS settings must be configured to do so. You must then burn the boot.iso file onto a recordable/rewriteable CD-ROM.
  
• If you need to perform the installation in serial mode, type the following command:
  linux console=<device>
  
  For text mode installations, use:
  linux text console= <device>
  
  In the above command, <device> should be the device you are using (such as ttyS0 or ttyS1).
  

  For example, linux text console=ttyS0.

  Text mode installations using a serial terminal work best when the terminal supports UTF-8. Under UNIX and Linux, Kermit supports UTF-8. For Windows, Kermit ྛ works well. Non-UTF-8 capable terminals will work as long as only English is used during the installation process. An enhanced serial display can be used by passing the utf8 command as a boot-time option to the installation program. For example:

  linux console=ttyS0 utf8