Projects - Installing GNU/Linux

Before

Preparation

Hackers only

HowTo

After

References

The summary for installing GNU/Linux.

Before

Preparation

Before installing GNU/Linux on your computer you should do the following three steps at least.

1. Make a copy of the detailed components list of your computer (motherboard, CPU, RAM, audio card, video card, network card, monitor, harddisk etc.). Refer to my computer list. (pay more attention to the ATA interface such as ATA or SATA)
2. Choose a GNU/Linux distribution that is suitable for your computer (according the first step) and yourself. Refer to GNU/Linux on my web.
3. Know how to partition harddisk with tools like fdisk, pqmagic, disk genius etc.

Hackers only

Want to hacker? Then you must have the following knowledge besides the above prerequisites.

• BIOS Wim's BIOS Page
• What happens when you switch on a computer?
• Primary, Extended and Logical Partitions (more information about hard disk partition)
• The usage of GRUB or LILO.¹
• GNU/Linux Shell programming.²

  top

HowTo

There are three main methods to have GNU/Linux on your computer.

• CD/DVD Installation.
• Hard Drive Installation.
• Internet Installation.³

CD/DVD

This is the easiest way to have your own GNU/Linux system. What you need is just a CD/DVD GNU/Linux distribution⁴ with a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM on your computer.

Hard Drive

It's difficult for a newbie to begin starting GNU/Linux in this way, although it can give users more knowledge and information than other two methods.⁵ After downloading the ISOs about the GNU/Linux distribution you choose, you should make different decisions according to your computer hardware as follows.⁶

• If you have a floppy drive, what you need are any software like rawrite and some floppies usable. Then write the essential files to the floppies according to the first ISO you download or the installation manual from the official home page of the chosen distribution.
• If you donot have a floppy drive, then maybe you should learn something about GRUB for DOS and use that to boot up your GNU/Linux kernel which is suitable for your chosen distribution.
• It's better to install GNU/Linux on the primary partitions of your hard disk, although it can also be installed on the logic partitions. Therefore, you need at least two primary partitions to hold / (root partition of GNU/Linux) and swap partition which is recommended double size of your RAM (I recommend the size from 100MB to 500MB). And I also strongly recommend to have the hard disk partition well prepared first before the real installation.

Internet

This is suitable for those who have a perfect internet link with the server you choose holding the GNU/Linux distribution ISOs. And if you have a task to install the same GNU/Linux on all the computers (see 8 or more) in a lab, you have no doubt to check this way out.

top

After

After installing the basic GNU/Linux system on your computer, you should configure the system according to your computer hardware, your language and your network, etc. This may be a very tough work, however, if you did once, you will have that one life.

top

References

• DistroWatch for homepages of all the dirstros.
• Linux Installation from LinuxOnline.

  top

1. According to your GNU/Linux distros. For example, Slackware Linux use LILO as its loader while Debian use GRUB as its loader.

2. Read Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide if you really want to go deep into Bash-Shell.

3. Including NFS, FTP, HTTP.

4. Burn by yourself, borrow or buy from others.

5. In fact, I got my GNU/Linux by this method and check here for sure.

6. Make Installing Red Hat Linux from a Hard Drive as your reference.

---

Updated: February 6, 2007	Home / Index / ChangeLog	Edited by Haiyong Zheng