1. Copy the three Red Hat images (rh1.iso, rh2.iso, rh3.iso) onto your Windows partition.
2. Extract the 'dosutils' directory from rh1.iso to the Windows partition using any ISO image extraction utility such as UltraISO (
www.ultraiso.com), WinISO (
www.winiso.com), ISO Buster (
www.isobuster.com), WinRAR (
www.rarlab.com/).
3. Next, boot into the MS-DOS mode (screenshot 1), and run the autoboot.bat file from the extracted dosutils directory. This batch file contains a 'loadlin' command that redirects to the initrd.img in the dosutils/autoboot directory. To boot into MS-DOS mode in Windows 98, go to Start > 'Shut Down...' and select 'Restart in MS-DOS mode' in the dialog box that comes up.
Since you cannot boot into true DOS mode in Windows XP, you need to create an MS-DOS bootable floppy. To do so, insert a blank floppy into the floppy drive, right-click and select 'Format...'. In the dialog box that appears, select the 'Create an MS-DOS startup disk' checkbox before formatting.
4. After booting into MS-DOS mode, go to the dosutils directory (using the 'cd' command) and type 'autoboot.bat' at the command prompt. (screenshot 2)
5. This brings up the text-based install of Red Hat Linux.
6. Start by choosing ‘English’ as the installation language and a ‘us’ keyboard type. Next, select ‘Hard drive’ as the installation media (screenshot 3). The next most important step is to specify the location of the directory storing the ISO images. Select the partition listed in the standard Linux format (/dev/hdaX). The simplest method is to copy the images onto the C: drive, since this is normally listed as /dev/hda1. Assign the path to the directory containing the ISO images after selecting the partition. For example, if the ISOs are in the 'C:\images' directory, name it as 'images' after selecting /dev/hda1. (screenshot 4)
7. The rest of the installation steps are similar to those in the graphical installation of Red Hat Linux 9.
