Before you even try to install Linux (regardless of distribution)
on a machine, it is helpful to know what's in it first. I strongly suggest
that you take note of the following hardware specifications:
- Processor. You don't have to know the sub-variant, but knowing
the family is important. For example, P4, Athlon-XP, P3 are
several processor families.
- Hard disk controller. At least identify the type of controller.
For older servers, you may encounter SCSI controllers. Newer
servers probably use SATA (serial ATA). Home machines may use
IDE (ATA) or SATA. Knowing the exact chipset of the controller
is helpful, but it is usually not required.
- Network Interface Card (NIC). Most NICs are now integrated onto
a chipset, which makes it difficult to identify. If possible,
look up the documents to find out what kind of NIC you have
in a system.
- Graphics card. This is not too important for servers. Nonetheless,
it doesn't hurt to know the chipset of the graphics card.
- Hard disks. Identify the ID of the hard disks and CD-ROM
drives. For hard disks, you need to know at least the following:
controller, channel, size. For CD-ROM drives, you need to know
whether it can read DVD, which controller it is connected to,
and the channel.
If you cannot determine details of a machine, and want to confirm that
can run Linux, you should consider using a ``live CD'' to test the
machine. Specifically, consider to use Knoppix (either CD or DVD) to
boot the system. Knoppix is a Debian-based live CD distribution of
Linux. Although Knoppix tends to include more recent hardware drivers,
having a machine boot and function properly in Knoppix is significant
assurance that it'll probably work in Debian. Furthermore,
you can also use various programs in Knoppix to properly identify
components of the system.
Note that Knoppix can be used as a diagnostic and repair tool as well.
If, for any reason, that your server refuses to boot, you can use
Knoppix as a rescue CD to at least find out what went wrong, and
possible recover the system.
Knoppix can be downloaded from http://www.knoppix.net.
Copyright © 2006-07-13 by Tak Auyeung
