Installing Linux is easy, continued

IN PART ONE of this series, I wrote about what kind of PC configuration you need to install Linux, arguing that just about anything can be made to work, if you have some spare disk space.

CD-Based Linux
If you don't have disk space to spare or hesitate to mess with your hard disk at all (for fear of disturbing some twitchy legacy OS), or if you just want to test-drive Linux without actually installing it, there is yet another option: Knoppix is a new Linux distribution that boots and runs directly from a CD without changing your existing hard disk.

You can find Knoppix online here. In addition, the SuSE distribution of Linux offers a live evaluation version that also boots directly from the CD, which you can find here. Knoppix and SuSE evaluation CDs can also be had by mail-order, as I'll explain below.

Dial-Up Download?
First, however, I'd better address an issue brought up by a reader, who wrote to point out that downloading Linux ISO images or installing Linux over the Internet isn't practical, if one is connected to the Internet through a dial-up link. He is correct. Unless you have a rock-stable dial-up provider and the patience to let files drip down the wire at 56kb or less for days on end dial-up isn't a very viable alternative.

So, if you're on a dial-up link, you'll likely want get your Linux CDs ready-made, and of course you'll need a CD-ROM drive to install them.

If you don't have a CD-ROM drive, you can get an internal one for less than $30, external models are more expensive. If you get an IDE CD-ROM, you might need an IDE cable, too -- one that has an extra connector.

Installing Linux over a LAN is quite feasible, however, if you happen to have a LAN and a server with about 3 GB of free disk space plus a CD-ROM drive (a CD-R/RW drive is better) and/or a high bandwidth connection.

Installation Methods
Network installation aside, let's review the two typical scenarios for installing Linux and what they require in terms of PC configurations:

Base System Specifications
* 300+ Mhz Pentium-class CPU
* 128+ MB Memory (256+ MB is recommended)
* VGA or XGA Video
* 1+ GB Disk Space (more space is better)
* Keyboard and Mouse
* Monitor
* Floppy Drive (optional but recommended)

Plus...

Ready-Made Linux CDs
* CD-ROM Drive

Or...

Download and Burn Linux CDs
* Broadband Connection
* CD-R or CD-RW Drive

As if that isn't enough options, one can also install Linux directly from a hard disk partition, but that's a little advanced and difficult to outline succinctly, so I'll leave that one alone for now. If your situation prompts you to consider that, we can discuss it by email.

What Distribution?
You may ask, "What Linux vendor's distribution should I try?" Glad you asked. If you're new to Linux (and if you're not... what are you doing reading this?), you should probably choose one of the mainstream vendors such as Red Hat, Mandrake, or SuSE. Aside from a few relatively minor differences, they're pretty much all the same in terms of installation ease and initial usability. But stay away from the geekier sources like Debian, Gentoo, Slackware, Sorcerer/Source-Mage, and most of the other, lesser known Linux versions. However, a few possible exceptions to this general guidance are Windows-like vendors: Lindows, Lycoris, Xandros.

After you get accustomed to Linux, you'll likely begin to appreciate the differences between some of the major Linux distributions (or "distros" as they're called) and maybe try others. It's normal for Linux users to try out various distros -- that's all part of the fun of using Linux.

Where Can I Get Linux?
As outlined above, you have two basic options: buy the ready-made Linux CDs, or download ISO images and burn your own CDs. Both routes work.

Ready-Made Linux CDs
If you choose to buy the CDs, you can either get them by mail-order from the vendors direct (or through a discount reseller like CheapBytes), or pick up the software at your local high-street electronics retailer. In the US, even WalMart sells Linux now, as do other consumer electronics retailers such as Fry's.

The only major advantage of buying Linux in the retail boxed set is that you also get printed manuals. However, those same manuals are provided in digital format on the downloaded CDs. It is really your decision.

Download and Burn Linux CDs
If you would rather download CD image files (called "ISO" images, after the iso9660 format specification), you'll want to find a mirror site.

As the name suggests, "mirror" is just a server with a high-bandwidth connection and lots of disk space that offers FTP (File Transfer Protocol) downloads of many of the same standard Linux (and other OS and applications) files distributed by the vendors. Almost every Linux distro maintains a list of mirror sites that host copies of their ISO images and other files.

If you want to find these Linux vendors' FTP mirror sites, here are lists for Red Hat, Mandrake (plea for support, just click onward), and SuSE (mirrors in Germany are in another list).

Most Linux mirror sites are nearly always busy, so it might take you a little while to connect successfully. Be patient, within reason. Some mirror sites are faster than others, so you might want to monitor your connection throughput (if you have a way of doing that on a legacy OS), and abandon a dog-slow download in favor of hunting up a faster host.

I have a fairly fast ADSL link (1.2 Mb/sec down), so I've seen download speeds above 150 KB/sec. But even over ADSL, an ISO download will take a while. Many people download ISO images overnight while they sleep. [Do Linux geeks ever sleep? Ed.]

You should note the exact byte-count of each ISO image you download and compare the exact size of the file you get with the size advertised. (I don't know if any Windows OS supports the "md5sum" command, but that is how Linux users check the integrity of downloaded files -- mirror sites have MD5SUM files containing check-strings, which will match the output of the "md5sum " command if the file was downloaded perfectly.)

Once you get your ISO files, you can burn them onto blank CDs under that legacy OS using the CD-burning application that likely came bundled with your CD-R or CD-RW drive (often EasyCD Creator). Just click on the file name on your desktop or wherever you put it, and the CD-burning software will fire up and give you some options. Click "disk-at-once" and go.

You'll end up with two or more brand new Linux ISO CDs ready to load.

Should I Get A Book?
Linux distros come with manuals, but those are mostly about the features of the distro itself plus its GUI window-managers (like KDE, Gnome). So acquiring at least one general book about Linux is a good idea. A basic book that I keep around for reference is "Linux In a Nutshell" published by O'Reilly. Many computer book sections carry it and O'Reilly's online presence is here.

How Else Do I Prepare?
All the major Linux vendors' installation processes have been developed to the point that they auto-detect almost everything. But you may want to poke around in your "System Information" and take a few notes before starting Linux installation anyway. Note how much memory you have - in case the Linux installation kernel doesn't detect all of it. Note where your network interfaces are, in terms of IRQs (they should all be found, but it can't hurt to know). Note your monitor and printer manufacturers and models. If you have an AGP video card, note the maker/model of that too. (If you don't know, don't worry; that should be auto-detected.)

One other thing you'll need to do -- and this is important -- is defrag your hard disk. Do this several times until compression is complete.

When you install Linux, you're going to reclaim a large amount of space that's unused on your hard disk, so you want all your unused disk space at the end of the volume used by that legacy OS, insofar as possible.

Next time... partitioning, choosing packages, networking setup, etc. µ

See Also:
Installing Linux is easy, really!