Beena, Yes, you can install Red Hat 7.2 by tape. The process you would follow is identical to what you would do for any of the other distributions. You'll need to create an unlabelled tape with the kernel, parameter file, and compressed ram disk on it, in that order.
For more documentation (false modesty prevents me from claiming it's _better_ :) ), you can take a look at Chapter 11, "Installing Red Hat Linux" in the "Linux for zSeries and S/390: Distributions" Redbook at http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg246264.html. The recently opened source version of the OSA driver have not been incorporated into their GA directories, but you should be able to use the kernel from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/rawhide/s390/images/tapekrnl.img . I'm not aware of the Red Hat distribution missing any tape drivers that are in the other distributions. As far as ease of installation, my personal experience is that installing Red Hat is about as easy as any of the others, and in at least one way, easier. Their installation scripts allow you to specify all your networking parameters in the kernel parmfile you'll be writing to tape, which means you won't be prompted for them by the installation script. So, if you're like most people, and you wind up going through the install process more than once (or twice, or 10 times), it'll save you a lot of typing, and therefore save you from a lot of typos. Mark Post -----Original Message----- From: Makhijani, Beena [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 10:04 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Red Hat 7.2 - install by tape? Hi, I am new to Linux (and UNIX) but need to do a proof-of-concept for using Linux on S390 for file and print serving. I was planning to use Red Hat 7.2 as that seems to be the only free downloadable commerical distribution with the 2.4 kernel. However, when browsing through the "Offical Red Hat Linux for S390 Installation Guide" and the README file, I do not see any mention of installing by tape. Both the SuSE and TurboLinux manuals gave clear instructions on how to do this. Can I use tape to install Red Hat 7.2? Is there better documentation out there for Red Hat 7.2? The Red Hat manual does not appear to be as clear as the other vendors'. >From reading through the archives, I also got the impression that the Red Hat distribution is missing drivers for OSA and 3490/3590 tape drives and that its installation is not as easy as SuSE's. Is that so? Any comments comparing Red Hat's and SuSE's installation would also be appreciated. Thanks, Beena
