Red Hat Linux 6.2: The Official Red Hat Linux Alpha/SPARC Installation Guide
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# Starting the Installation Program

Now it's time to begin installing Red Hat Linux. To start the installation, you must first boot the installation program. Please make sure you have all the resources you'll need for the installation. If you've already read through the pre-installation chapter applicable to your architecture, and through Chapter 2, and followed the instructions, you should be ready to begin.

## Booting the Installation Program

Boot the installation program according to the instructions contained in the pre-installation chapter specific to your architecture: either Chapter 3 or Chapter 4.

After a short delay, a screen containing the `boot:` prompt should appear. The screen contains information on a variety of boot options. Each boot option also has one or more help screens associated with it. To access a help screen, press the appropriate function key as listed in the line at the bottom of the screen.

You should keep two things in mind:

- The initial screen will automatically start the installation program if you take no action within the first minute. To disable this feature, press one of the help screen function keys.

- If you press a help screen function key, there will be a slight delay while the help screen is read from disk.

Normally, you'll only need to press Enter to boot. Watch the boot messages to see whether the Linux kernel detects your hardware. If it does not properly detect your hardware, you may need to restart the installation in "expert" mode. If your hardware is properly detected, please continue to the next section.

Expert mode can be entered using the following boot command:

    	  boot: linux expert

| Please Note
| If you do not wish to perform a CD-ROM GUI installation, you can choose to perform a text mode installation by using the following boot command:
    boot: text
For text mode installation instructions, please refer to the Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide. The command to start a serial installation has changed. If you need to perform the installation in serial mode, type:
    boot: linux console=<device>
Where `<device>` should be the device you are using (such as ttyS0 or ttyS1).

| Please Note
| The initial boot messages will not contain any references to SCSI or network cards. This is normal, since these devices are supported by modules that are loaded during the installation process.

Options can also be passed to the kernel.

For example, to instruct the kernel to use all the RAM in a 128MB system, enter:

    boot: linux mem=128M

After entering any options, press Enter to boot using those options.

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