Minimal Installation of CentOS 8 (with screenshots)

CentOS is a free and open source operating system derived from the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). CentOS (Community Enterprise Operating System) is a community-supported distribution of Linux. CentOS 8 is the latest version of CentOS operating system and it has been released last week.

In this article, we will perform minimal installation of CentOS 8 operating system and also attach the screenshots of all the steps.

If you want to learn basics of CentOS/RHEL Linux then you should read RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide, Seventh Edition (Exams EX200 & EX300) by McGraw-Hill Education.

 

Environment Specification:

We have provisioned a virtual machine with following specifications.

• CPU – 3.4 Ghz (2 cores)
• Memory – 2 GB
• Storage – 60 GB

 

Installing CentOS 8 operating system:

Download the CentOS 8 ISO file from CentOS Project website.

Attach the CentOS 8 ISO file in the CDROM and start the virtual machine.

The system is displaying a boot menu with multiple options.

Select ‘Install CentOS Linux 8.0.1905’ option and press <ENTER>.

The CentOS 8 installer is loading now.

Choose the preferred Language to be used during CentOS 8 installation and click on Continue.

This is the Installation Summary window, we can configure many options here.

First of all click on ‘Time & Date’ to set the timezone according to your region.

Select your relevant timezone and adjust the date and time here.

Click on Done to return to Installation Summary screen.

Now, click on ’Software Selection’ to select the software packages/groups to install.

Here, select the option ‘Minimal Install’ under Base Environment section.

Click on Done to return to Installation Summary screen.

Click on the ‘Installation Destination’ to configure disks/partitions.

Select the Automatic Storage Configuration and click on Done.

If you have enough memory for use by KDUMP then skip this step, otherwise disable the KDUMP as follows.

Click on ‘KDUMP’.

Uncheck ‘Enable kdump’ option and click on Done.

KDUMP has been disabled.

The final option that we are required to configure here is ‘Network & Host Name’.

By default, the networking is not enabled for the Ethernet interface.

Enable DHCP Network configurations by click on the ON option at the right side of the screen.

Set a custom Host Name in the text box at the bottom of the screen and then click on Apply.

The final settings should be look like this.

Click on Done to return to Installation Summary screen.

All necessary settings has been configured for CentOS 8 installation.

Click on Begin Installation to start installing CentOS 8.

While installation is in progress, we can configure two more option thereon.

First, click on ‘Root Password’ to set a password for root user.

Set password for root user and click on Done.

You are required to click twice on Done, if you have set a weak password.

Now, click on ‘User Creation’ to create another user.

Click on Done to return to Installation Progress screen.

You are required to click twice on Done, if you have set a weak password.

Wait for the completion of CentOS 8 installation. It won’t be take so long, because we are installing CentOS 8 with minimal option.

Click on Reboot to restart the system.

We are now at the CentOS 8 GRUB boot menu.

Select the first option and press <ENTER>.

We are reached at the CLI login prompt of CentOS 8.

Minimal installation of CentOS 8 has been performed successfully.