Setting up a RedHat Linux and Apache Web Server

Linux Installation (continued):

In General

When in doubt, first read the RedHat installation manual. If you are asked to select something such as what services you want started at boot time and you have absolutely no idea what the services do, simply choose the default. In general, this will present no problem as you can always modify these things later. Where it does matter, I will note below.

Installation Class

I always choose the Custom class so that I have full control over what packages are loaded. Also, if you choose Workstation class or Server class, data on the existing or on all partitions will be erased. This may be OK if you are installing on a new system, but if you have data you want to preserve, be careful. On my RedHat 6.0 test machine, I loaded everything except: Console Games, X Games, News Server, and SQL Server. Note, in many situations, both the News Server and the SQL Server can be quite useful.

Creating Partitions

On a previous page, I briefly described what is necessary as partitions -- minimum and my setup. I recommend that you use Disk Druid for the partitioning during installation. It is a bit weird at first, but if you read the RedHat installation pages for the Disk Druid and play with it a bit you should be able to create your partitions. In the beginning, don't worry about adding an NFS mount, if you need NFS, you can always add it later.
 
I recommend that when loading Linux for the first time you format all the partitions and check for bad blocks during the format. This takes a bit more time, but avoids lots of pain later. In any case, you must format the swap partition.

Selecting Components

If like me, you have chosen the Custom installation class, you will be able to select the components you want to install. If you don't know what you want, used the default selections, and add X Window System, Mail, WWW, File Managers, Networked Workstation, SMB (Samba) Connectivity, and DNS Name Server, Printer Support, Print Server. Optionally add C Development, Perl, Development Libraries, and anything else that interests you.

Configuring the Time Zone

The first time I installed Linux, I selected the option to set the Hardware clock to GMT. This ultimately created a number of problems, so I no longer set it. Be sure to set the correct time zone by choosing a city near you. I use Europe/Zurich since it is the closest city to where I live that is in the listbox.

Configuring a Printer

If you have never worked much with a Unix system, I recommend that you leave printer configuration to later. Actually at my site, my Linux server does not (yet) have a printer attached. It uses one of the printers on the local network connected to a Windows 98 or Windows NT machine.

Authentication Configuration

For the moment, on your first Linux machine, it will not be necessary to Enable NIS (useful for facilitating administration of large networks). However, I recommend strongly that you enable Shadow Passwords. If you don't know what it is, don't worry. I also recommend that you enable MD5 Passwords. However, be aware that some third-party software may not work properly with MD5 enabled (I haven't found any cases).

Installing LILO

You want to put LILO in the MBR (Master Boot Record) in virtually all cases, except if you want to dual boot unfriendly systems such as NT. At one point you will be asked to fill in the contents of the Boot Label. The only thing to note here is that the boot label are the characters that you actually type in when the machine is booting up (boot: prompt) to select which system (of a dual boot or experimental Linux boot) to boot. The first time that I set up a machine, for my Windows boot, I entered "Windows 98", which is a bit long to type. The second time, I used "Win98", and now, I no longer have a Windows boot.
 

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