I finally got Fedora 7 installed:
Note to self: use sha1 on the iso file to verify it is
good!
I had origianlly downloaded the DVD iso from a mirror
using my mozilla browser and had not checked it with sha1.
When I finally ran sha1 on the iso I saw it was not a
valid download of the iso. I used wget to download the
DVD iso again. sha1 showed it to be a valid iso.
I downloaded the DVD iso to an external firewire
hard drive. In order to run the install, I used the
instructions Conor Daly had sent me a few years ago when
I installed FC 3.
1. copy and rename initrd.img and vmlinuz to /boot
2. modify grub to see the initrd.img and vmlinuz
I modified grub.conf:
title Fedora 7 install
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-f7-install askmethod
initrd /initrd-f7-install.img
I booted and selected Fedora 7 install. I selected hard
drive and found the DVD iso. The install seemed to go
smoothly. One of the last options I remember seeing asked
if I wanted to password protect grub.conf. I said "no". I
did NOT notice anything on that screen indicating where
to see what was written to grub.conf. I do not know how
to check what is written to grub.conf from the install
process - this turned out to be a big problem. There was
a button directing me to reboot my computer, which I did.
My computer would not boot - it looped between two console
displays - one indicating hitting F2 to change the BIOS
the other indicating hitting control+S to change another
menu.
I did not have either a Toms root boot flopppy nor a grub
install floppy.
I was able to drive somewhere to get a Toms root boot
floppy.
I was able to create a grub install floppy with the expert
help of Daniel Gimpelevich over the phone.
On my iMac
wget http://gazonk.org/~eloj/files/grubbootimage.zip
unzip grubbootimage.zip
sudo invoke-rc.d nfs-kernel-server stp
I use firestarter on my iMac for my firewall:
firestarter -> policy-> inbound
allow connections from host
xxx.xxx.x.x/xx
sudo iptables -L
sudo showmount -e
sudo ifconfig eth0:1 xxx.xxx.x.y up
It looks like I did not take notes on what else I did
to create the grub boot floppy.
Once I created the grub boot floppy, I was able
to modify and correct grub.conf in /boot/grub using
grub-install /dev/sda. The problem was the installation
wrote grub.conf with root (hd1,0) instead of root (hd0,0).
Here is the corrected grub.conf:
title Fedora (2.6.20-2925.9.fc7xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz-2.6.20-2925.9.fc7
module /vmlinuz-2.6.20-2925.9.fc7xen ro root=LABEL=/1
module /initrd-2.6.20-2925.9.fc7xen.img
title Fedora-base (2.6.21-1.3194.fc7)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7 ro root=LABEL=/1
initrd /initrd-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7.img
Thanks to Conor Daly, Cameron Spitzer, Daniel Gimpelevich,
and John Reiser for their patience, support and assistance
in getting Fedora 7 successfully installed on my VA Linux
420!
Darlene Wallach
