If you are an experienced user, you may follow the quickstart instructions
here. If you are unfamiliar with the master install process, please refer to
the detailed instructions below.
If you are setting up a master besides medusa/master001 (such as hydra/master002) or the dataserver,
edit your copy of ks.cfg on your floppy appropriately.
Plug the machine to be set up into the external network and boot the Red Hat 6.2
install CD.
Insert the floppy when the installer boot prompt appears.
Type linux ks=floppy
When the installer restarts the machine, remove the floppy and the
CD. Wait for the machine to boot up and reboot once more.
The pre-install should be performed on a machine with windows or linux
installed and configured so that it can read and write MS-DOS floppies and
access the network. This need not be the machine that you are going to install
on.
Obtain a Redhat 6.2 CD.
Make an MS-DOS floppy for storing the configuration files:
Make sure you are using a high density, 1.44 Mb floppy. Format
the floppy to using an MS-DOS file system.
If you are using a linux box use the commands: fdformat /dev/fd0H1440 mkdosfs /dev/fd0
If you are using a Windows machine, right click on the floppy
(under explorer or "My Computer") and choose "format".
Download the ethernet driver and configuration file to the floppy.
Do this by saving the two links below to floppy. If you are using
netscape for linux, right click on each link, choose "Save as..." and
save the link as source to your local disk. Then copy the files to
the floppy disk. If you have problems copying these files to the floppy,
see the instructions below.
If you are configuring another master besides medusa (master001), or
are configuring dataserver, you'll need to make a minor edit to ks.cfg.
There is a block of comments near the beginning of ks.cfg that explains what
you need to do.
The install should be performed on the machine that you wish to turn into a
bewoulf master node. It should be connected to the internet so that it can
access the machine www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu via http during the install
process. You need the Red Hat 6.2 CD and the floppy created according to the
instructions above. The install should performed with a monitor, keyboard and
mouse connected to the node. These can be disconnected after the install has
completed and you have powered down the machine.
It is assumed that the BIOS has already been configured correctly
according th the instructions elsewhere, but to avoid clock conflicts, set
the hardware clock's time correctly:
Power up the machine and hold F2 or DEL to enter the BIOS.
Go to the Main section of the BIOS. Move down to the System
Date.
Following the instructions on the bottom left of the screen,
set the date to the current time in UTC (GMT). This is CST + 6 hours
(CDT + 5 hours).
Exit the BIOS, saving these changes.
Boot the machine with the Redhat 6.2 installation CD in the drive.
When the Red Hat boot menu appears insert the floppy into the drive.
Type linux ks=floppy at the boot prompt
and hit enter.
The installer firsts formats the disk. With an 80Gb disk
formatting may take approximately five minutes. Unfortunately
there is no visual pacifier.
The Red Hat RPMS are then installed and the installer shows the
progress.
The installer the executes a post install script. This reformats
the /data partiation and updates RPMS and so takes some time.
Unfortunately there is no visual pacifier. The post install
script will take approximately five minutes. See the
notes sections below for details on how to
monitor progress at this stage of the install.
When the Red Hat 6.2 installation is done the machine will eject the CD
and reboot. Removed the CD from the tray before it closes. You have
about ten seconds or so to do this. But don't panic if you don't get it
in time.
Once the machine has restarted, remove floppy from the drive to prevent
the machine attempting to boot again from the floppy. Make sure that
you do not remove the floppy while the drive light is on. If the
machine tries to boot from the floppy, it will fail to boot with
the message "This is not a bootable floppy." Simply remove the floppy
and press any key. The install will continue unperturbed.
The machine will now load the freshly install distribution. When it
boots, you will see an error message from depmod. This only occors
once here and can be ignored.
If the install has been sucessful, a message will be displayed on the
screen and machine will then reboot once to ensure that all
configuration files have been updated.
As the machine reboots, shutting down atd will give a "failed" message.
This only occours once here and can be ignored.
If the install fails for any reason, a message will be display on the
screen. You may then log in and invesitgate the log files in /tmp
The root password that the install script sets is w@nk3r$!
You should change this when you first log in.
Note that it is safe to leave the install unattended. If the machine
reboots with the floppy and CD still in the drives, it will not be
able to boot from the floppy. It display a message saying that it
cannot boot. Simply remove the floppy and CD from the machine and press
any key. The install will then complete.
The machine is configured to get its IP address via DHCP. If there is a
DHCP server available on you subnet, networking will be configured
correctly.
The default X install uses a fail safe 640x480. Run Xconfigurator if
you wish to increase the resolution for a specific monitor.
The machine is set to automount certain directories from uwmlsc. If you
change to /home /ldas /ldcg or /usr/local the machine may hang if you
are not on the medusa subnet. You may also notice problems starting the
default X install with startx as gnome attempts to look in /usr/local.
These problems can be circumvented by running /etc/rc.d/init.d/autofs
stop
The redhat installer allows the experienced user to monitor the install
progress using virtual terminals. Pressing ALT and the approriate
function key allows the user to access different install views as
follows:
F1 Main install screen (anaconda)
F2 A root shell with a limited command set
F3 The stdout and stderr from the post install. This is
useful for monitoring the progress of the post
install script.
F4 The kernel log buffer
F5 The output of the install program
You can increase the speed of the install by running the command: /mnt/sysimage/sbin/hdparm -c1 -d1 -m16 -u1 -W1 /tmp/hda
in the root shell window. This command will only become available
during the latter part of the install. It is not reccommeded to do
this.
Download the files to the working linux machine. The locations they are
downloaded to will be referenced to as path. mkdir /tmp/floppy mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /tmp/floppy mv path/e100_2.2.14-5.0BOOT.o
path/ks.cfg /tmp/floppy umount /tmp/floppy rmdir /tmp/floppy
Two X configuration files are avaiable for monitors. These are: XF86ConfigVX1120
for use with the Gateway 21" monitors. XF86ConfigE771
for use with the old Viewsonic 17" monitors. XF86Config770TFT
for use with the SyncMaster 770 TFT flat screen monitors.
To install these log in as root to a master that has been successfully set
up and run the following command:
Source RPMS for the medusa specific packages are available from the
medusa cvs archive. These contain source code and a complete
description of how the RPMs were built.
More information on RPMs is avaiable from the RPM Home Page. The instructions below are given to get users
started, they are not a replacement for the RPM manual.
If you wish to compile an RPM, download the SRPM to the
machine that you are working on and install with rpm -ivh filename.src.rpm
This installs the RPMS sources to the usual location (/usr/src/redhat). To
rebuild the rpm go into the SPECS directory and build with rpm -ba filename.spec