Alpha and MILO: Installing MILO to the Hard Drive

If you're installing Red Hat Linux on an Alpha, and you are using MILO instead of SRM to boot the machine, stop when the packages you've selected are finished being transferred to the hard drive. At this point, you are prompted to install the correct X server for your machine or select your pointing device, if you didn't install X. Do NOT press the Ok button yet. Instead, use the following instructions to install MILO to your hard drive.

The installation process puts all the necessary components of the Red Hat Linux Operating System on your machine, but MILO must be installed manually. Switch to the command prompt on the TTY2 console by pressing [Alt]-[F2].

Move to the /mnt/sysimage directory and temporarily make /mnt/sysimage the root directory with these commands:

# cd /mnt/sysimage
# /usr/sbin/chroot .

Now, all you need to do is actually install MILO. First, insert your MILO disk into the floppy drive. Then you'll need to issue a command which will vary slightly in syntax, depending on your boot device. For example, if you plan to boot your Alpha from the first SCSI hard disk, issue the following command:

bash# dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/sda1

If you plan to boot your Alpha from the second IDE device, the dd command should be executed like this:

bash# dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/hdb1

The command will copy MILO (along with linload.exe) to the small MILO partition you created. Once MILO has been installed, type the following command to exit the temporary root device set using the chroot command:

bash# exit

Now switch back to TTY1 using [Alt]-[F1] and select the Ok button to continue the installation process.