Installing RedHat Linux with Windows already installed

The other day I was trying to install RedHat Linux on laptop and took some screen shots of the process involved. I will try to give each screen shot a short description for better understanding.

Step 1: Put in the DVD, boot the system from it and press "F12" to move forward



Step 2: Click "Next"


Step 3: Select the desired language and click "Next"


Step 4: Select the keyboard language and click "Next"


Step 5: If you have a subscription to RedHat please enter it here in the "Installation Number". It will by default install all the subscribed packages during the installation. In my case, I personally do not have any subscription so I selected "Skip entering Installation Number". Click "OK" to continue


Step 6: Click "Skip" to reconfirm that we do not want to enter any Installation Number.


Step 7: Select "Create custom layout" and click "Next"

If you have more than one hard disk it will be displayed here as h/sda, h/sdb, h/sdc,...'h' if it is IDE and 's' if it SATA (and each partition in the hard disk will be named as sda1, sda2, sda3,...). We have chosen the last option because we want to create our own layout and to make sure that the installation doesn't delete the Windows partition.


Step 8: By looking at the below picture we understand that my only hard disk has five partitions. sda1 = recovery partition, sda2 = Windows boot loader (created by default during Win 7 installation), sda3 = C: partition, sda4 = D: partition and Free = Free space. All these partitions are formatted using 'ntfs' except the last partition which is not formatted.

On a particular hard disk only 4 Primary partitions can be created. And to install an Operating system atleast one primary partition is required. If we analyze my hard disk all 4 primary partitions have been utilized so the only option I have is to overwrite any of the existing primary partition. (Ofcourse the 'Free' partition will remain unused. If I want to utilize that space then I will have to format that partition as ntfs and merge it with any of the existing primary partition.)

I decided to use my D: partition i.e., sad4 since I had already backed up that data from that drive.



Step 8: Once you have selected the partition and clicked "Next" the following option will let you create the root (/) partition for Linux (which is mandatory) and format it with "ext3". In Ubuntu we get the latest file system format which is "ext4". Click "OK" then "Next" to proceed


Step 9: It will now throw a warning message that the /swap partition wasn't created. It is recommended to create one with twice the size of RAM installed on the computer. In our case since we are already short of primary partitions we cannot create this partition. We will ignore the message and continue with the installation.


Step 10: Just a reconfirmation that we have selected sda4 (was D: drive before) and want to format it with ext3 format and it will be assigned as / (root) partition. Click "Format" to format the partition.


Step 11: The next step will let us install the boot loader and configure the boot sequence at the system start up. In our case there are two option already listed for us. The second option on device "sda4" is obviously for Linux. But what is the first option on device "sda2" for? If it is Windows 7, should it not be pointing to "sda3" (C: drive) where Windows is installed?

This might seem logical at first, but if we pay attention to the Step 8 above we have said that Windows 7 by default creates its own boot loader on a separate partition i.e., "sda2" in my case. Although the installation files are installed on "sda3=C: drive" the boot information that needs to be accessed at the system start up is stored on "sda2=Windows boot loader". That is why we see the device "sda2" already listed as an option. We can edit this entry (by selecting it and then clicking "Edit") and change its name to something appropriate "Windows 7 - 32 bit".

In the screen shoot I have selected Linux to be the default OS. At the system start up 5 seconds will be given to choose between these OS's. If we do not provide any option it will start the default OS.


Step 12: Select the time zone and click "Next"


Step 13: Provide the root password. Note that the "root" user has all the privileges on the system. Make sure you use a strong password.

Step 14: Select if any of the additional packages are to be installed. Office here refers to Open Office.


Step 15: Click "Next" to begin the installation








Step 16: Click "Reboot" to restart the system


Step 17: After the reboot the final configuration options are displayed. Click "Forward" to continue


Step 18: Agree to the license agreement and click "Forward"


Step 19: Here we can select the services that can be accessed from outside. We usually keep SSH service enabled for any remote troubleshooting.


Step 20: This is used at an advanced level. We may disable this option or keep the default option which us "Enforcing"


Step 21: kdump is used to capture the information if the system crashes. This is very helpful in determining/troubleshooting the problem as we will not have any access to the system resources. Click "Forward" and then "Yes" on the following screen.




Step 22: Select the date and time



Step 23: Click "Forward". You may apply the updates at a later stage.



Step 24: Create a user for regular use as we do not want to use the "root" user every time.



Step 25: For me the automatic detection for the sound card did not work. We may install the drivers after the installation if available.






Step 26: If you have any additional CD's, you may continue the installation or click "Finish" to complete current Linux installation and "OK" on the following screen to reboot the system.

Club Officers Training - Vice President Membership

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Minutes of July IUAD meeting

Health is more than wealth!

With this beautiful saying from the President, Mr. Seyed Jaafar, we kicked off our meeting yesterday, themed “Alternative Medicine – Homeopathy”. The president also highlighted the importance of health and thanked the guest speaker for graciously agreeing to present her talk at our alumni meeting. He then introduced the chair person as the oxygen and back bone of IUAD, Mr. Anil Kumar.

The chair person thanked the president and said that he is happy to be associated with such a group of intellectuals and like minded people. He then gave an insight into what health is all about and mentioned about the health triangle which is the overall health achieved through a combination of physical, mental, emotional and social well – being.

Since the laughing guru wasn’t available, Mr. Anil Kumar decided to have a body loosening exercises before we get started with other activities on the agenda. He himself took the lead in demonstrating the body loosening, eyes, and neck exercises which were exceptionally well followed by the audience.

The chair person then introduced the meditation guru, Mr. Raj Kumar for his meditation and relaxation session. The session was well conducted with his authoritative but warm and friendly instructions. This was well complemented with the dimmed lights in the room for the eyes and soothing music in the background to the ears. (Though, I personally didn't participate. See http://whatsonnn.blogspot.com/2009/05/reiki-and-yoga.html)

After the refreshing session, the chair person had a surprise item which was not there in the agenda and wasn’t even in the minds of the recipients too. He welcomed among the audience the two newly married couples and presented them a bouquet each. That was so kind and unique of him and the committee.

Then came the most interesting part; the talk by Dr. Mapolin on Homeopathy. The chair person introduced the speaker and welcomed her for the presentation.

The presentation started with a question “Does anyone knows about Homeopathy?” To this, there was a mixed response from the audience.

Let us now go through some of the points that I gather from this interesting presentation:

1. Homeopathy is an alternative medicine works by stimulating our own healing power
2. It also increases our immunity against diseases
3. It is the first choice of therapy because it is scientific, logical, safe, quick and effective
4. It heals patients from within
5. It works on the combination of body and mind
6. It is prepared naturally by the use of fruits, vegetables, animal products like egg, milk, etc
7. It only contains the curative power from which it is made
8. Since it is prepared naturally it is non toxic (no side effects)
9. It is ideal for children and infants
10. It has cure for almost every disease

Although there was so much more in her presentation but I wasn’t able to gather those as I was so glued to the interesting talk and preferred not to take notes.

After the presentation Dr. Mapolin was gracious enough to take on a series of questions from our audience and answered them in great detail. The interest that she took in answering the questions reflected her sincerity, affection and kind personality.

After the presentation Master Saif on behalf of IUAD presented her with a token of appreciation. We immensely thank her for taking the time out from her schedule and addressing us.

The (s)election of new office bearers was postponed until the next few meetings.

Before the conclusion of the meeting vote of thanks was presented by Mr. Kiran. He thanked the audience, Dr. Mapolin and the committee members.

The chair person then invited everyone for dinner and concluded the meeting.

PS: Those who didn’t get Dr. Mapolin business card, find below her contact details.

MIZAN NATUROPATHIC CENTRE
FLAT 204, Dubai Islamic Bank Bldg
Old airport road
Abudhabi
TEL: 02-6337838
Dr. Mapolin - 055-7801646
drfernandes2002@hotmail.com

My first car

After getting a license on Feb 12th, 2009 the search for a good car to own started. We were looking at many options, whether to buy a new one or a pre owned, 4 wheel or just 2 wheel is enough, sedan or hatch back....too many questions! I did go to as many as 9-10 showrooms but didn't get anything satisfactorily. At last we decided to go to Al Futtaim Auto Mall, a pre owned car showroom. We saw many cars and among them one car caught my attention. Honda City, Model 2008 and the run was approximately 26K. Since it was already getting too late to buy the car we decided that no more thinking now. And at that instant we finalized the deal and it took around 4-5 days to finalize the paper work and for pre servicing. Finally on Thursday evening as I was returning from office in a shuttle bus I received a call that the car is ready. Below are some pictures of my first car.