The easiest method of installing Red Hat Linux 6.x in a virtual machine is to use the standard Red Hat distribution CD. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing Red Hat Linux 6.x via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well.
Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created a directory for the new virtual machine and configured it. Use the VMware Workstation Configuration Editor to verify the virtual machine's devices are set up as you expect before starting the installation. For example, if you would like networking software to be installed during the Red Hat Linux 6.x installation process, be sure the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter is enabled and configured.
To install Red Hat Linux 6.x in a virtual machine:
Note: Due to VGA performance issues installing Red Hat 6.1 and 6.2 with the graphics mode installer, we highly recommend you install the operating system with the text mode installer.
Note: During the Red Hat Linux 6.x installation, a standard VGA16 X server (without support for the VMware Workstation X server) is installed. To get an accelerated SVGA X server running inside the virtual machine, you should install the VMware Tools package immediately after installing Red Hat Linux 6.x.
Note: If the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter has been enabled, the installation program auto-detects and loads the AMD PC/Net 32 driver (no command line parameter is necessary to load the driver).
Note: In the text mode installer in Red Hat Linux 6.x, a Hostname Configuration screen appears. If you are installing this guest with DHCP in a virtual machine with host-only networking, do not specify a host name. Just click OK and continue. (Specifying a host name here causes an installer error later.)
After Linux is installed, the generic X server gets replaced with the accelerated X server included in the VMware Tools package when you install VMware Tools.
At this point Red Hat 6.x boots and a login screen appears.
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