CentOS, or "Community Enterprise Operating System," is a popular distribution of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform for Web servers. Supported by donations, the operating system is free and open source software, and the source code is made freely available to the public. It requires no purchase before downloading and installing, and it can also be ordered on a DVD for a fee.
Things You'll Need
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- Mac Pro personal computer running OS X
- CentOS 5.5 install disk
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Partition a Drive
Step 1
Install a hard drive on which to install the CentOS operating system.
Step 2
Boot up the Mac Pro in OS X if it is already installed, or from an install disk.
Step 3
Open the Disk Utility in OS X and select the "Physical Drive" option near the top.
Step 4
Click on the "Partition" tab.
Step 5
Under "Volume Scheme," select "2 Partitions."
Step 6
Click on "Partition 1" to highlight it, and select the MS-DOS option under "Format," and a size of 1.0 gigabyte.
Step 7
Under "Options," select "Master Boot Record."
Step 8
Type a name of your choice into the "Name" field.
Step 9
Switch to "Partition 2," and choose a "Free Space" format.
Step 10
Click the "Apply" button, then close the window.
Install CentOS
Step 1
Insert the CentOS 5.5 install disk into the disk drive, restart the computer and hold down the "C" key on your keyboard while the computer reboots.
Step 2
Press the right arrow key when the installer program appears to skip the disk scan and press "Enter."
Step 3
Click "NEXT" until the "Partitioning" screen appears.
Step 4
Click on the option to "Use Free space on selected drives and create default layout," and make sure that the box representing the hard drive on which you wish to install CentOS is checked.
Step 5
Select the option to "Review and Modify" your partitioning layout so you can see that everything is correct, and click the "Next" button.
Step 6
Click the "Next" button once more at the next screen.
Step 7
Select the GRUB bootloader at the "Bootloader" screen that follows and check the destination filepath to be sure that it "/dev/sda2."
Step 8
Check the CentOS box in the list of operating systems and uncheck all remaining boxes.
Step 9
Click "Configure Advanced Bootloader options," followed by "Next."
Step 10
Select the option to install the Bootloader Record on "/dev/sda Master Boot Record (MBR)," the partition you created earlier, in the window that appears. Click "Next."
Step 11
Enter your network settings into their relevant fields in the screen that follows, select your time zone and uncheck the box labelled "Use UTC."
Step 12
Click the "Next" button to begin the installation process.
Tips & Warnings
- To boot into Centos following installation, hold down the "Option" key during boot-up. CentOS will appear as an option called "Windows" in the Apple Start-up Manager.