The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) has announced General Availability (GA) of it’s maiden Rocky Linux Version 8.4 and it’s available for x86_64 and aarch64 architecture with three ISO variants i.e. Minimal, Boot and DVD. Rocky Linux is started by Gregory Kurtzer co-founder of CentOS after Red Hat announced and shifted focus from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream. Rocky Linux, the name Rocky was chosen as a tribute to CentOS Co-Founder Rocky McGaugh. It’s complete binary-compatible release using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code. Rocky Linux is a community-driven and open source enterprise operating system managed by “The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation“. This guide walks you through installation steps of the Rocky Linux 8.4 codename “Green Obsidian”.
Download ISO Image of Rocky Linux 8.4
Rocky Linux 8.4 is available to download from the official Rocky Linux Download page in three ISO image variants. That is Minimal, Boot and DVD. Downloading ISO Image of DVD approx. size of 9GB.
Create Bootable Media
You can use the utilities like Etcher , Unetbootin, & Rufus. Create a bootable media once the ISO image is downloaded, insert and boot from the installation medium (Optical disk, USB flash drive, and so on). Rocky Linux 8 welcome splash screen will be shown as below.
Note: Configure / Setup UEFI or BIOS to boot from the correct bootable media before starting the Rocky Linux Installation.
Choose option “Install Rocky Linux 8” and press “Enter” key to proceed for installation.
Select prefer Language and click on “Continue”.
The Installation Summary roughly divided into the following sections:
Localization: (Keyboard, Language Support and Time & Date)
Software: (Installation Source and Software Selection)
System: (Installation Destination and Network & Hostname)
On the screen, following are the indications:
. Warning Symbol – Yellow triangle with an exclamation mark, requires your attention.
. Greyed out – Currently installer configuring it and must wait till it finishes.
. Black and no warning symbol – No attention is required, still you can change the settings.
Time & Date
This screen allows to configure time and date setting for your system. Click on “Done” which will take you back to the Installation Summary Screen.
Software selection
Installation Summary presents with the section of the installation from where you can pick and choose the exact software packages that get installed on the system. This section is divided into:
Base Environment : Server, Minimal Install, Custom Operating System, Workstation, Virtualization Host.
Additional software for Selected Environment area : This section on life side presents related additional software that can be installed. Click “Done” button at the top of the screen.
Set the Root Password
Click on Root Password under User Settings to set a strong password for the root user. Click on “Done“.
Installation Destination
From the Installation Summary screen, click on Installation Destination which will show the drive listed under Local Standard Disks with check mark beside it. Clicking on the disk icon will toggle on or off the disk selection check mark. Under the Storage Configuration section, there are two options “Automatic” & “Custom“.
Automatic – This option will create partitions automatically by installer for you.
Custom – This option to create custom partitions.
In this post, we are selecting Custom to create partitions manually. Click on “Done” will take you to the screen below to create partitions. Here, we are selecting Standard Partition. Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is the tool to manage disks or volume which includes allocating disks, striping, mirroring and resizing logical volumes.
Click on + sign to create partition with Mount Point and Desired Capacity. In this post, we are creating “/boot“, “/” and “SWAP” partitions.
“/boot” Partition
“/” Partition
“SWAP” Partition
Partition Summary
Click on “Done” if you are good to go with partitions.
In this next screen, you need to Accept Changes to write into the disks.
This option will detect network interfaces available on the system. For each interface you can configure IP address using DHCP or Manually, be sure to have all the IP details handy. Also you have option to set system name or hostname, set hostname and click on “Apply“. Click on “Done” button which will take you to the Installation Summary page.
Now, all the required setting is done and good to start Rocky Linux 8 installation. Click on “Begin Installation“.
Sit back and relax for sometime…as we can see below, installer started writing partitions on the drive and started installing the required software packages.
Installer prompt to reboot the system once installation is done. Remove bootable media and click on “Reboot System“.
Post installation tasks
Initial Setup screen, Click on “LICENSING“, You have to accept the End User License agreement.
Accept the License Agreement and click on “Done“.
Create a User Account
Next click on User Creation field under User Settings to Create a User. This is allows to create a privileged or non-privileged user account on the system. We’ll create a regular user, filling the required details and complete it click on “Done“.
Finish Configuration
Click on “Finish Configuration”.
Login Screen
You will be prompted for following login screen, click on Login User Icon and enter the password that we have set during user creation steps above.
Finally, here is the Rocky Linux GUI
That’s it. This is end of the Rocky Linux 8.4 installation steps. Please share it with others and use comment box below to raise a query if any. Also follow us on tecluesdotcom Facebook Official Page.
