InstallLinux

From ElephantStaircase

1 Summary
2 Motivation
3 Introduction
4 What you'll need
5 Steps
6 Sources and inspiration
7 Further Ideas

Summary

There are many "how to install linux" tutorials out there. My goal is to make this one the best and most comprehensive. Like the name says, here we attempt to install linux on a desktop system.

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Motivation

Why linux? Well, it depends on what you're looking for. Linux is great for several reasons: it's stable, its free(perfect for those without jobs or who are too stupid to use bit torrent to get Windows), it doesn't require a huge powerful system so it's great for old computers you're not really using, it will help you learn about computers, you can do some sweet stuff like host a web server.

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Introduction

Linux can be complicated, the learning curve is steep. A big factor is which distribution or distro you choose. A very common distribution (sort of the different flavors of linux - they're all built on the same kernel and act similarly but some have different features than others) or distro is Fedora Core. While Fedora Core is great for beginning users, I often find it too cluttered and clunky for my taste. Among hardcore linux users, slackware is a must, while other popular distros include ubuntu, gentoo, and mandriva. My personal favorite is arch linux. It's optimized for the 686 architecture so its pretty stinking fast even on older boxes. The Arch Linux philosophy is to be the perfect operating system for advanced users, because of this, it really forces you to learn linux. One of the major components of this philosophy is to keep it simple and not rely on GUIs for everything. Take your pic, most linux distros have a community complete with helpful forums and install guides. Because I'm completely biased towards ArchLinux, my installation instructions will be for it. I might release a Fedora Core guide sometime, who knows, i'm sure there are a ton out there.

Arch Linux

Basic recap: the goal of this is to learn how to use Linux and to do some cool, semi-advanced stuff with it.

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What you'll need

A computer:

More specifically:

A Box/Tower consisting of a motherboard, processor, ram, harddrive, cd-drive, network card, video card. - you can borrow the cdrom drive as you may not need it after the installation

Monitor - same goes for this in terms of borrowing - you might not need it after installation

Keyboard - (can borrow)

Mouse - (can borrow)

Blank CD-R

Internet connection (DSL, Cable, Lan - something you plug into a NIC)

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Steps

1. First, you will need to obtain the base ISO and burn it onto a CD, the easiest way to do this is to find a working computer, download the base ISO from archlinux.org and then burn it to a blank CDR.

2. From now on all steps should be performed on the computer you wish to install linux on. It is possible to install a dual boot system, but to make things easier and prevent errors, I recommend unplugging all harddrives except the one you wish to install linux on and make that a purely linux harddrive. The next thing you want to do is to boot from the linux cd. Turn the computer on and put the cd as soon as possible. If you don't get it in soon enough you might have to restart. You also might have to configure your bios to boot from your CD/DVD drive if it is not set that way already. To do this, you need to enter the bios on boot - usually this means pressing delete. All bios's are different but usually the boot order can be changed in the advanced options or boot menu.

3. Once your computer boots from the CD, follow the instructions :P

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