Linux Installation

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Linux Installation

To install linux, you need to have preferably 1.5-2 GB of unused (unformatted) hard disk space. The more you can spare the better, though take care that you have enough space for your Windows apps. I have installed Redhat Linux 6.0 and I would recommend the same since much of software testing of Linux versions takes place using Redhat. Redhat 6.2 is a much improved version though I have heard that Redhat 7.0 is buggy.

Partitioning:
The redhat installation CD is bootable. Once booted it prompts you to start the installation process. Some preliminary questions about language used are asked. Two partitioning softwares namely FDisk and Disk Druid are available. Choose disk druid to make 2 new partitions on your hard disk. The first is the swap partition (which needs to be about 100MB in size). Its recommended size decreases with increasing size of RAM. The other is the native partition ( usually named '/') which contains all the data. One very important note here is that the boot files of linux should always be present before cylinder 1024 of the hard disk as otherwise there may be booting problems. Hard disks are divided into cylinders. The 1024 cylinder lies around the 6.5GB or later point. Your linux native partition should preferably be placed before the 1024th cylinder.
eg: The partitioning of my 10.2 GB hard disk is as follows:
1. Primary Partition: 2.5 GB (c: under windows; hda1 under linux - Linux can access your windows partitions but the reverse is not true.)
2. Extended partition:
Partition 1: 2.68 GB (d: under windows; hda5 under linux)
Partition 2: 100 MB (hda6 under linux - linux swap partition)
Partition 3: 1.5 MB (hda7 under linux ('/') - linux native partition)
Partition 4: 300 MB (hda8 under linux ('/drived') - linux native - this is just like a drive d for linux.)
Partition 5: 2.52 GB (e: under windows; hda9 under linux)

If you have already partitioned your complete hard disk for windows then you can either delete one of the partitins after moving the data or you can use windows programs like partition magic to resize one of your partition.

Monitor and video card:
Once you complete the partitioning the installation formats the linux partitions and asks you to select the applications to install. Let the defaults remain (do not select the 'all applications' option unless you have a lot of space - it takes around 1GB).

After the applications have been installed comes the most important part of installing your video card and the monitor. Follow the instructions properly. You should know the exact model of your AGP card and your monitor. If your AGP card isn't there in the list of supported cards choose Gneric vga though this means that you will be able to work only in 8bit colour mode. The default colour mode of windows is 16 bit (hi-color) or 24 bit(true-color). My AGP card (i 740 - a true classic) wasn't supported in XFree version 3.3.3.1 which appears along with redhat 6.0 and is run during installation. Hence I had to install the generic VGA drivers. Afterwards I downloaded the XFree version 3.3.5 (rpm format) from the redhat site and installed it (total size - around 37MB). Only then could I get 16 bit color in Linux.

Other points:
Apart from these the other main points in the installation are:
1. The type of mouse is asked for in the installation.
2. You are prompted to give a password. Please remember this one as you will need it to log into linux.
3. At the end of the monitor, video card and resoluton configuration, you will be asked whether the X-windows system should be started by default on booting. Reply in the affirmative as the GUI is a far beeter place to work with in Linux compared to the shell prompt.
4. Lilo should be installed in the main boot record. The OS that is to be booted by default can be changed.

Assuming now that you have installed Linux, we can move to the post-installation tasks.

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