No Znx!

I recently reinstalled my CentOS (to upgrade to 5.3) and this time I decided to use a netinstall method. The netinstall can be very useful if you have a local repository of RPM files and even then it can be nice to download a very small ISO (only 8.3Mb).

So here is how you can do it for yourself. If you require to setup any partitioning scheme before hand, I highly recommend Partition Logic as a good run-from-CD partitioning tool. You will also need to download the small CentOS NetInstall ISO.

• Boot from the ISO
• Type linux askmethod at the boot prompt
• Select the required network setup. Normally DHCP is good enough, disable IPv6 unless you plan on using it.
• Select HTTP as the installation method.
• If you have a local web server with your RPM’s on it then put in the information there. Otherwise use: mirror.centos.org and centos/5.3/os/i386.
• Finally start the installation process.

The whole thing should take no more than a couple of hours to complete. This method allows you to quickly start an installation of CentOS without the need to download all 6 of the CD’s or the DVD image.