SOLVED: RedHat 4.0 FTP install blues

[Sven N. Thommesen]

This message is forwarded to this list
as a service to those of you who use
Linux and who might be thinking of
upgrading to the newly released
Redhat Linux 4.0 (with a 2.0.18 kernel).

The rest of you may safely send it to
the big bit bucket in the sky!          :-)

The problem to which this is a solution is with the
FTP installation method offered. (CDs will be
available in a week or so.)

If one tries to install all packages, or a large 
subset, the process hangs with various error
messages just at the end; in most cases the
resulting root partition is unusable.

Read on:

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>Resent-Date: Sat, 5 Oct 1996 04:46:33 -0400
>Date: Sat, 05 Oct 1996 03:47:11 -0500
>From: Sven Thommesen <address@hidden>
>Reply-To: address@hidden
>Organization: Auburn University
>To: address@hidden
>Subject: SOLVED: RedHat 4.0 FTP install blues
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>In the absence of instant solutions from the
>Redhat team (who are probably soundly asleep right
>now, like sensible people) to the seriously broken
>FTP installation of "Everything", here is a 
>procedure I have found to work (your mileage may
>vary):
>
>a) boot the boot + supp disks and give the requested
>information; choose your favorite ftp mirror;
>
>b) in package selection, choose ONLY 'network
>workstation' and 'X-windows'. Do NOT select
>individual packages.
>
>c) the packages download and install;
>
>d) in the LILO installation step, if you choose to
>install to the root of a floppy be aware that the 
>install script will blithely OVERWRITE YOUR SUPP
>DISK! (So make an extra copy before you start.)
>Note that you cannot yank the supp disk out and 
>put a blank disk in -- your install will grind to
>a halt with all sorts of nasty error messages :-(
>
>e) Reboot and log in as root. 
>
>f) use ncftp to log in to your ftp mirror. Then:
>
>       get -R ../i386/RedHat
>and    get -R ../updates/i386
>
>to a disk of your choice. (Assumes you have about 200Mb free ...)
>
>NOTE: for the steps below, it's useful if the partition you
>put these files on ends up with this directory structure:
>
>       RedHat/base
>       RedHat/RPMS
>       updates/i386
>
>g(1): use rpm or Glint to install the missing packages you just 
>installed; or
>
>g(2): re-boot the install+supp disks and do a clean installation
>from harddisk: now you can select "Everything" and all goes
>well! (This is where the partition containing the downloaded
>packages must have the indicated directory structure, otherwise
>the install script cannot find anything.)
>
>h) Reboot and log in as root.
>
>i) Use rpm or Glint to Upgrade the packages in /update/i386
>that you downloaded. Done!
>
>Note: Running df after all is done, procedure g(1) says
>352,300 blocks are used, while g(2) has 370,638 blocks used.
>Perhaps g(2) is safer? I haven't run a detailed comparison.
>
>Now onto doing something useful ...
>
>Happy Linuxing!
>
>--Sven
>
>
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