Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - FOR X86-ITANIUMTM-AMD64 AND INTEL EXTENDED MEMORY 64 TECHNOLO, Installation Manual

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Appendix A. Upgrading Your Current System 63
If you are installing a boot loader, you should create a password to protect your system. Without
a boot loader password, users with access to your system can pass options to the kernel which can
compromise your system security. With a boot loader password in place, the password must first be
entered in order to select any non-standard boot options.
If you choose to use a boot loader password to enhance your system security, be sure to select the
checkbox labeled
Use a boot loader password
.
Once selected, enter a password and confirm it.
To configure more advance boot loader options, such as changing the drive order or passing options
to the kernel, be sure Configure advanced boot loader options is selected before clicking Next .
A.3.2. Advanced Boot Loader Configuration
Now that you have chosen which boot loader to install, you can also determine where you want the
boot loader to be installed. You may install the boot loader in one of two places:
The master boot record (MBR)
This is the recommended place to install a boot loader, unless the MBR already starts another
operating system loader, such as System Commander. The MBR is a special area on your hard
drive that is automatically loaded by your computer’s BIOS, and is the earliest point at which the
boot loader can take control of the boot process. If you install it in the MBR, when your machine
boots, GRUB (or LILO) presents a boot prompt. You can then boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux or
any other operating system that you have configured the boot loader to boot.
The first sector of your boot partition
This is recommended if you are already using another boot loader on your system. In this case,
your other boot loader takes control first. You can then configure that boot loader to start GRUB
(or LILO), which then boots Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Caution
If you have a RAID card, be aware that some BIOSes do not support booting from the RAID card. In
cases such as these, the boot loader should not be installed on the MBR of the RAID array. Rather,
the boot loader should be installed on the MBR of the same drive as the
/boot
partition was created.