Linux Installation

SW Distributions

• Red Hat: 5.x - 8.1 beta Kernel 2.4.x
• Mandrake: 8.x - 9.1 beta Kernel 2.4.x
• Caldera (OpenLinux): 2.3
• TurboLinux: 6.x
• SlackWare: 2.x (very very old - I recalled that I used to feed 60+ floppies into my poor DecPC when I was at Digital in early 90s'.)

Pre-installation

• Video card (chip-set), memory, color depth (number of bits: 8, 16, or 24)
• Monitor Horizontal/Vertical Refresh rate and maximum resolution
• CD-ROM Controller (ATAPI)
• Keyboard/Mouse (PS/2)
• Hard drive controller (IDE/SCSI) and disks
• Modem: Winmodem won't work
• PC cards: laptop for Ethernet/Modem
• Sound card: (IO address, IRQ)
• Ethernet adaptor, IP address, Gateway, DNS server and hostname

Installation Steps

Background

• PartitionMagic
• BootItNG
• fips

The installation steps are varied slightly among different distributions of Linux. All Linux distribution provide Graphics User Interface (GUI - X window system) and CLI installation tools, All versions require at least 16 MB (mega bytes - for very old PCs like 486 and even 386) of RAM and 500 MB hard disk (it is hard to locate a 1GB disk these days :-). StarOffice, OpenOffice, and other goodies require more disk space, of course. But one should get a hard driver at least with 1GB (it is hard to locate a 1GB disk these days :-). Linux can be installed via network if the system connected to a network where Linux distributions can be fetched. Typically Linux is installed from local CD-ROM. For older systems, it requires to boot from a floppy. Newer system can boot from the CD-ROM directly. Basically the installation procedures are self explanatory, except if you like to customize it. This is a prefer method, if are doing multiboot. Be extremely cautious to whcih disk drive/partition can be overriden with Linux.

The following steps are for RedHat linux: (Note: Refer to this link for installing OpenLinux.)

1. Power on the system while inserting Linux bootable floppy and system CD-ROM.

2. Press Enter or type in text for GUI installation or text mode respectively.

   Text mode might be needed when GUI mode fails (older PCs like 386). Under text mode, use tab for moving cursor to different buttons; arrows for moving cursor in a menu; space bar for selection, and enter to proceed.

3. Wait until a screen with a Next or OK button shows up. Keep clicking on Next or hit OK button until the Automatic Partitioning screen comes up.

   Basically the installation program will select the default software packages such as Gnome (default) or KDE which are X window system (which is similar to MS-Windows) desktop. OpenLinux only comes with KDE.

4. Select Manual Partition and click on Next button.

   Although, one can install Linux into one single partition like MS-Windows. Multiple partitions are recommended for easy maintenance. Typically, one should select the designated hard drive and partition the disk as follows: (Note: this example is for a one GB disk and the mount points are required. The mount points are / and /usr.)

   /: this is root partition (80 MG - which has to be within 1025'th cylinder)
   swap: swap partition is used as secondary memory. The rule of thumb is to set it about 2 to 3 times of the system's RAM.
   /usr: this is for commands, utilities and X window system (800 MG or more if you have plenty of disk space)

   Commands for disk partition are:

   Add: specify mount point (lower case), size, and partition type which is Linux native or swap. Remember to click on grow to fill disk for the last partition.
   Edit: allow you to make changes if any of the above item is incorrect.
   Delete: for partition deletion

   The GUI disk partition tool may not show the correct partitions layout on RedHat 6.1. You may have to switch to text mode or use OpenLinux's installation program (i.e. Lizard) to partition the disk then reboot to switch back to RedHat installation. fdisk is reliable for partitioning a disk. It is recommended when installing RedHat 6.0. Some of the commands under fdisk are:

   m: help
   p: print out the partitions table
   n: create new partition (Primary and Logical)
   d: delete existing partition table
   t: set partition type (swap partition should be set to type 82)
   w: write down the partition table into disk

   Note: Be sure to save the partition table when prompted for confirmation under text mode.

5. Choose partition to format: click on Next to proceed for making new file systems.

6. Time Zone: select Eastern time zone (or wherever you like to be :-)

7. Hostname: pick a short string that you prefer. All Linux systems have their host names.

8. Account Configuration: this is for creating root and user's accounts.
   Enter root password twice (at least 6 characters).
   Create a new user with password

9. X Configuration: this step selects video card and monitor resolution. Click on test only button for GUI mode, then click on Next until Installing Packages screen comes up. If testing fail, then click on Skip X Configuration. For text mode, simply select OK and hit Enter to proceed.

10. Installing Packages:

    This step install the selected packages including kernel, utilities and applications. Kernel will be installed under /boot. Utilities and applications will be installed under /etc, /lib, /dev, /bin and /usr. You may sit back, and read on. The lights of CD-ROM drive and disk drive will blink. If it stops blinking for a long time say 5 minutes, something is wrong and the installation has to be restarted from step one.

Configuration

• For connecting to the network (such as connecting PCs with a hub), the ip address, netmask, gateway, dns server, and hostname are required.

• X server: check this list to locate the correct xserver for your video card. If you cannot locate it, try the latest release which is XFree86 4.3. (for older PCs, choose 3.x) You may use Xconfigurator or XF86Config to configure your X server. You may also need to use a program named xvidtune to tune your display properly.
  For server probing, try:
  X -probeonly > /tmp/X.out 2>&1

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