IBM s/390 ThinkPad, Linux installation, Partition Manually Partition, Mount Point, Device, Actual

2.2 ThinkPad

Before installing Linux, we installed all our ThinkPad options: additional memory, internal Ethernet port, the CD-ROM drive, and a 32 GB disk drive6 in the standard disk position. We did not install our Ethernet PCMCIA card at this time. (In fact, we never used the PCMCIA adapter because we could successfully share the integrated Ethernet adapter between Linux and OS/390 TCP/IP.)

We started the system and selected F1 for BIOS setup. Working with BIOS functions, we verified that we had 512 MB of memory and that the internal Ethernet adapter was recognized. We set the time and date. In the Startup section, we verified that the Boot device List F12 Option was enabled; this lets us temporarily select the CD-ROM as a boot device. Our normal Boot List contained Removable Devices (that is, a diskette) followed by Hard Drive.

After exiting the BIOS setup function and performing power-off/power-on functions, we had an initial prompt to provide a temporary boot device list. Pressing F12 provided this list. The CD-ROM was the third element in the list and this is needed to start Linux installation.

2.3 Linux installation

We purchased a Red Hat Linux 7.1 standard package in a local store. (They also had a Deluxe version and a Server version; we selected the basic version.) This consists of four CD-ROMs. The first two contain the system; the third contains Linux source code and the fourth contains documentation.

We booted from the first Linux CD (using the ThinkPad F12 option to select a temporary boot device). This produced a Red Hat logo screen and offered the choice of graphics mode or text mode installation. We selected text mode, primarily because it was easier to document for this redbook. We then went through a number of installation prompts:

Language: English

Keyboard: US

Welcome to Red Hat Linux: OK

System Type: Custom System

(Possible message about “Bad Partition Table”; if so, select Initialize)

Partition: Manually Partition

Select partition tool: Disk Druid

You can select fdisk instead of Disk Druid, and you should use whichever one you find most comfortable. We found that the Linux fdisk was just different enough from DOS fdisk to be confusing, so we used Disk Druid.

Our ThinkPad disk had no installed partitions and was 100% available for allocation. Using Disk Druid, we allocated four partitions:

Mount Point	Device	Requested		Actual		Type		Purpose
/boot	/hda1	32	M	36	M	Linux	native	boot partition
/	/hda5	3000	M	3000	M	Linux	native	Linux system
	/hda6	150	M	155	M	Linux	swap
/s390	/hda7	1	M	26123	M	Linux	native	for S/390 volumes
OK (to exit from Druid)
Save changes: yes		(If this message appears)

6Business partners providing ThinkPad/EFS systems were switching to 48 GB drives at the time of writing. This change has no effect on the comments here, except that it makes a single-disk system more attractive.

Chapter 2. System and Linux installation 9