Centos Installation

Save Time in Class. Complete 1) , 2) , and 3) before we meet on Tuesday!

1) The Virtual Machine
You will be running CentOS in a virtual machine. This means you will turn on your computer and boot in the normal fashion. You
will then run a program called a virtual machine that will then run (boot) CentOS. The name of the virtual machine program is called
VirtualBox.

You can download VirtualBox here. Note VirtualBox can ruun in Windows or Mac OS X. VirtualBox will need to be on any machine
you wish to boot your copy of CentOS.

2) Formatting Your USB Drive
Your USB drive needs to be formatted. We have three cases:

    a) If your normal machine at home is Windows based, the go ahead a format the USB as you would any other drive.
    b) If your naormal machine at home is a Mac and you will be bringing your USB drive to school and booting off of University Windows based                      machines, then you should format your USB drive as FAT32.
    c) If you use a Mac at home and you will be bringing a Mac to school, then you can format the USB drive as you would any other drive.

3) Obtaining the CentOS distribution
    a) CentOS resides on the network in Roosevelt 6. However, networks are slow , especially when there are 20 people accessing the same large file.
        Instead, you will save yourself time by downloading the file yourself. You may store the file on your USB if you like (but it is not required), or
        save on your computer hard disk.
    b) Download the CentOS distribution from one of the following. You should download from the link entitled CentOS-6.3-i386-bin-DVD1.iso

                    from Central Michigan University
                    from University of Michigan Flint
                    from University of Michigan
                    from University of Maryland
                    from Michigan State


Here we go: the Install

1) Start VirtualBox
-In the upper left hand corner, select "New"
-"Welcome to the New Virtual Machine Wizard"
        hit "Continue"
-VM Name and OS Type
        in "Name" type "MyNewCentOS"
        for "Operating System" select "Linux"
        for "Version" select "Red Hat"
        hit "Continue"
-Memory
        move slider to indicate 1024 MB
        hit "Continue"
-Virtual Hard Disk
        "Start-up Disk" should be checked
        "Create new hard disk" should be selected
        hit "Continue"
-Welcome to the virtual disk creation wizard
        "VDI (Virtual Disk Image)" should be selected
        hit "Continue"
-Virtual disk file location and size   (this is important!!)
        for Location , you want to select a location on your USB drive. The default name is fine (MyNewCentos)
        but make sure to hit the folder icon on the right and place onyour USB. The default virtual disk size of
        8 GB is fine.
        hit "Continue"
-Summary
        hit "Create"

Details are a little sketchy here; I've omitted some of the obvious choices:


So far, we have created the space for CentOS. Now we must install it. In the VirtualBox screen, you will see
"MyNewCentos" in the left hand panel; it will say "Powered Off". Double click on this.

"Welcome to first Run Wizard" displays. Hit "Continue".
"Select Installation Media". Hit the file folder icon on the right of the select window. You need to specify wherever
your copy of CentOS-6.3-i386-bin-DVD1.iso is located. After you have done this, hit "Continue"

-hit "Start" ; CentOS will boot.
When presented with options, select "Install or Upgrade Existing System".

-Skip the Media Test (not needed)

-Take deafaults and obvious answers.

-When prompted for storage devices , select "Basic Storage Devices". When asked if data should be discarded, respond "Yes". You will
be asked for a hostname; call it "TigersIn2012".

-You will be prompted for a root password. REMEMBER what you specify here.

-Type of Installation
    - Use all Space
    -Write changes to disk

-When asked for what type of install, select "Desktop Installation"

Now wait. At home this took another 25 minutes; in the classroom this may take at least an hour.

When prompted , reboot the system, create a username/password. You may get a warning about "Insufficient Memory
for KDump". DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THIS.