User's Manual

Section 2.2:The EFI Shell 21
2 Before You Begin the Installation
Process
2.1 Installation Overview
Installing Red Hat Linux on an Itanium system is different from installing Red Hat Linux on an x86
or Alpha machine. In general, the sequence of steps to a successful installation are the following:
1. Boot into the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) Shell.
2. If you can’t boot from the CD-ROM, make an LS-120 diskette from the boot image file provided
with Red Hat Linux.
3. Using the EFI Shell and the ELILO bootloader, load and run the kernel, and boot into the Red
Hat Linux installation program.
2.1.1 Disk Space Requirements
Before you begin the installation, be aware that you’ll need certain amounts of free disk space to install
Red Hat Linux.
• At minimum, you’ll need 512 MB of RAM and 1 GB of free hard disk space to install Red Hat
Linux.
• You should have 1024 MB of RAM and 4 GB or more of free hard disk space on your machine
for a full installation of Red Hat Linux.
Depending upon what type of installation you are performing, you may need an LS-120 diskette.
2.2 The EFI Shell
Before you start to install Red Hat Linux on an Itanium, you’ll need a basic understanding of the EFI
Shell, what it does, and the information it can provide.
The EFI Shell is a console interface used to launch applications (such as the Red Hat Linux installation
program), load EFI protocols and device drivers, and execute simple scripts. It is similar to a DOS
console and can only access media that is FAT16 (vfat) formatted.
The EFI Shell also contains common utilities that can be used on the EFI system partition. These
utilities include edit, type, cp, rm, and mkdir. To see a list of utilities and other commands, type
help at the EFI Shell prompt.