## JOLIET RED HAT 5.0 INSTALLATION

LAST REVISION: 1/24/98
BY: Rod Smith, rodsmith@fast.net

#### WHAT'S NEW

The original release of this boot floppy was in late December, 1997. Since then, I've modified a few details in the text of these web pages and added VFAT support to my boot floppy. The VFAT support is intended to allow for installation from FAT-32 partitions, and I've run a quick test installation to be sure that it does this. On 1/24/98 I added some further download tips.

#### INTRODUCTION

When Red Hat 5.0 was first released, there appeared a smattering of queries on the Linux newsgroups concerning installation of this new release from Joliet-format CDs. For those not "in the know," Joliet is the new CD-ROM filesystem from Microsoft that supports long filenames, among other things. It's very common to see Win95 CD-R burning software that supports Joliet, but it's the rare Win95 package that supports the Rock Ridge system needed by the standard Red Hat installation routines. Hence a project for me: Find a way to install Red Hat on an Intel-architecture system via Joliet. As a side effect, this project also allows installation from a FAT-32 partition.

For the impatient, I have a link below to the main result of my effort: A replacement for the standard Red Hat installation boot floppy. Get it, write it to a 1.44MB floppy, and install. This floppy image only works on Intel-architecture machines. I'm sure similar hacks are possible for other architectures, but I don't have the hardware to even try to make one.

I *STRONGLY* recommend that you read the documentation first, however; there are potential pitfalls that you probably want to avoid! The documentation and other notes have separate links from this page.

I am officially calling this the beta-2 release of this floppy image. It works for me on my system, using either a Plextor 12/20Plex CD-ROM driven by an NCR/Symbios 53c825 adapter or an older 8x Creative Labs EIDE drive, with the target being SCSI hard drives attached to the same adapter as the Plextor. I've not tested it with EIDE hard drives, older proprietary-interface CD-ROM drives, or other SCSI adapters; but I've included what I believe to be all the drivers necessary for such attempts to work. If you have problems, feel free to report them to me. Please include any error messages you get, including anything relevant-looking when you hit the "Alt-F3" key. Also be sure to tell me what CD-R burning software you used (for Joliet CD installations), whether or not it worked; if I get enough reports, I'll create a table of software that does and does not work for this purpose. (Just a note up front: In my tests, Adaptec's Easy CD Creator 3.01 looked like it did not work!)

#### CONTENTS

1. Download joliet.img, the 1.44MB disk image file. Write to floppy with Unix/Linux dd, DOS/Win95 RAWRITE.EXE, or OS/2 LOADDSKF.EXE. Apparently some web browsers have problems downloading .img files; if you run into this, you might try getting it in zipped format instead. Remember to download the file, not view it. In Netscape, this can be done by hitting the "Shift" key while clicking on the link. I'm also uploading the zip file to sunsite.unc.edu; try http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/rh50joliet-0.2.zip or http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/install/rh50joliet-0.2.zip; it should move from the former to the latter sooner or later.
2. Basic instructions. Read this!!!!
3. FAT-32 comments. Read this if you intend to install from a FAT-32 partition.
4. A discussion of how I created this boot disk. This might be of interest if you're trying to do something similar, or if you need to modify my floppy.
5. Download inode.c, a (slightly) hacked file from the Linux source tree (linux/fs/isofs/inode.c). This file was hacked to force all non-Rock Ridge volumes to be mounted with execute permission on all files. It's derived from the Joliet-patched 2.0.32 source tree. You do not need this just to use the install floppy!
6. Acknowledgements and copyright.

I am making every attempt to keep these web pages viewable from any web browser. Of course, not all browsers support all features used by these pages, but I've tried to make such items harmless to these browsers. These pages have been checked using weblint, as well as with a variety of browsers. If you encounter a problem accessing these pages from your browser, please notify me.

Copyright © 1997, 1998 Rod Smith, rodsmith@fast.net
Return to my home page