Red Hat Linux 6.2 Installation Guidelines

Red Hat Linux 6.2 Installation Guidelines
The easiest method of installing Red Hat Linux 6.2 in a virtual machine is to use the standard Red Hat distribution CD. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing Red Hat Linux 6.2 via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well. Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created a new virtual machine and configured it using the ESX Server Virtual Machine Wizard.

Caution: Red Hat Linux 6.2 does not run on Pentium 4 processors. It also does not run on Xeon processors that are branded Xeon, with no qualifier, or Xeon-MP (Pentium III Xeon processors are OK).

Install Red Hat Linux 6.2 using the text mode installer, which you may choose when you first boot the installer. At the Red Hat Linux 6.2 CD boot prompt, you are offered the following choices:

To install or upgrade a system ... in graphical mode ...

To install or upgrade a system ... in text mode, type: text .

To enable expert mode, ...

Use the function keys listed below ...


Choose the text mode installer by typing text followed by Enter.

Note: During the Red Hat Linux 6.2 installation, a standard VGA16 X server (without support for the VMware ESX Server X server) is installed. To get an accelerated SVGA X server running inside the virtual machine, you should install the VMware Tools package immediately after installing Red Hat Linux 6.2.


Red Hat Linux 6.2 Installation Steps
1.Use the VMware Management Interface to verify the virtual machine's devices are set up as you expect before starting the installation. For example, if you would like networking software to be installed during the Red Hat Linux 6.2 installation process, be sure the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter is enabled and configured.
If you plan to install the guest operating system from a physical CD-ROM disc, be sure the CD-ROM drive is connected to the virtual machine.

2.Insert the Red Hat Linux 6.2 CD in the CD-ROM drive and click the Power On button. The virtual machine should start booting from the CD and the installation process begins.
3.Follow the installation steps as you would for a real PC.
Note: If the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter has been enabled, the installation program automatically detects and loads the AMD PC/Net 32 driver (no command line parameter is necessary to load the driver).

4.During the Linux installation, select the standard VGA16 X server. Select the Generic VGA compatible/Generic VGA card from the list in the Choose a Card screen. Select the Generic Monitor entry from the list in the Monitor Setup screen. Select the Probe button from the Screen Configuration dialog and select OK from the Starting X dialog.
After you finish installing Linux, Be sure to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. For details, see Installing VMware Tools and the Network Driver in the Guest Operating System. When you install VMware Tools, the generic X server is replaced with the accelerated X server included in the VMware Tools package.

5.Finish installing Red Hat Linux 6.2 as you would on a physical machine.
At this point Red Hat 6.2 boots and presents a login screen.

Windows XP Installation Guidelines

Windows XP Installation Guidelines

You can install Windows XP Home Edition or Professional in a virtual machine using the corresponding Windows XP distribution CD.

Note: To use SCSI disks in a Windows XP virtual machine, you need a special SCSI driver available from the download section of the VMware Web site at www.vmware.com/download. Follow the instructions on the Web site to use the driver with a fresh installation of Windows XP. If you have a virtual machine with a SCSI virtual disk and a Windows 9x, Windows Me, Windows NT or Windows 2000 guest operating system and want to upgrade it to Windows XP, install the new SCSI driver before upgrading the operating system.


Installation Steps
If you want to run Windows XP Home Edition or Professional in a VMware Workstation virtual machine, be sure you have a full installation CD for the operating system.

Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created a new virtual machine and configured it using the VMware Workstation New Virtual Machine Wizard (on Windows hosts) or Configuration Wizard (on Linux hosts). Make sure you selected Windows XP as your guest operating system.

Now, you're ready to install Windows XP Home Edition or Professional.


Installing the Guest Operating System
1.Use the VMware Workstation Configuration Editor to verify the virtual machine's devices are set up as you expect before starting the installation. For example, if you would like networking software to be installed during the Windows XP installation, be sure the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter is configured and enabled. VMware also recommends that you disable the screen saver on the host system before starting the installation process.

2.Insert the installation CD in the CD-ROM drive.

3.Power on the virtual machine to start installing the guest operating system.

4.Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical machine, except as noted in the following steps.

5.After the system reboots, a message balloon asks if you want Windows to automatically correct your screen resolution and color depth setting. Do not make the change at this time. You cannot change resolution and color depth until you have installed the VMware SVGA driver - part of the VMware Tools package.

6.Run the VMware Tools installer. For details, see Installing VMware Tools.

7.When the guest operating system reboots, allow it to change the screen resolution and color depth setting.