Red Hat Linux 7.2: The Official Red Hat Linux Alpha Installation Guide
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# Do You Have Enough Disk Space?

Nearly every modern-day operating system (OS) uses disk partitions, and Red Hat Linux is no exception. When you install Red Hat Linux, you may have to work with disk partitions. If you have not worked with disk partitions before (or need a quick review of the basic concepts) read Appendix E before proceeding.

If Red Hat Linux will share your system with another OS, you will need to make sure you have enough available disk space on your hard drive(s) for this installation.

The disk space used by Red Hat Linux must be separate from the disk space used by other OSes you may have installed on your system, such as Windows, OS/2, or even a different version of Linux. At least two partitions (`/` and `swap`) must be dedicated to Red Hat Linux.

Before you start the installation process, one of the following conditions must be met:

- Your computer must have enough unpartitioned disk space for the installation of Red Hat Linux.

- You must have one or more partitions that may be deleted, thereby freeing up enough disk space to install Red Hat Linux.

# Installation Overview

Installing Red Hat Linux on an Alpha system is slightly more complex than installing Red Hat Linux on an x86 machine because a variety of Alpha machine architectures exist. In general, the sequence of steps to a successful installation are the following:

1. Use SRM commands to identify system information that you will need to boot the installation program and Red Hat Linux.

2. If you can not boot from the CD-ROM, make diskettes from the boot image and RAM disk image files provided with Red Hat Linux.

3. Using the SRM console and the `aboot` bootloader, load and run the kernel, and boot into the Red Hat Linux installation program.

   | MILO Is Not Supported
   | As a resource for the Linux and Alpha communities, information that might be useful for MILO users is provided in Appendix B. Before you use MILO to boot your Alpha, however, you should realize that MILO is not supported by Red Hat, Inc.

## Disk Space Requirements

Before you begin the installation, be aware that you will need certain amounts of free disk space to install Red Hat Linux on an Alpha.

- At minimum, you will need 64 MB of RAM and 700 MB of free hard disk space to install Red Hat Linux.

- You should have 128 MB of RAM and 4.5 GB of free hard disk space on your machine for a full installation of Red Hat Linux. Swap space twice the size of memory is also recommended.

You may need a 3.5-inch diskette drive — referred to by Red Hat Linux as `/dev/fd0` (known as the A: drive in certain circles). Note that many modern Alphas can boot the installation program from the CD-ROM drive.

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