3.1. Know your Hardware!

Understanding the hardware of your computer is essential for a successful installation of Red Hat Linux. Therefore, you should take a moment now and familiarize yourself with your computer hardware. Be prepared to answer the following questions:

• How many hard drives do you have?

• What size is each hard drive? e.g. 3.2GB.

• If you have more than one hard drive, which is the primary one?

• What kind of hard drive do you have? e.g. IDE, SCSI.

• How much RAM do you have e.g. 256MB RAM.

• Do you have a SCSI adapter? If so, who is the manufacturer and what model is it?

• Do you have a RAID system? If so, who is the manufacturer and what model is it?

• What type of mouse do you have e.g. PS/2, Microsoft, Logitech.

• How many buttons does your mouse have? 2/3 buttons.

• If you have a serial mouse, what COM port is it connected to? e.g. COM1.

• What is the make and model of your video card? How much video RAM do you have? e.g. 4MB.

• What kind of monitor do you have? Make and Model.

• Will you be connected to a network? If so, what will be the following:

• 1. Your IP address?

  2. Your netmask?

  3. Your gateway address?

  4. Your domain name server's IP address?

  5. Your domain name?

  6. Your hostname?

  7. Your types of network(s) card(s)? Make and Model.

  8. Your number of card(s)? Make and Model.