Section 4 - Installation

There are a ton of different distros of linux out there.  Some being Ubuntu, Mint, SLES, Red Hat, and even variants of each distro such as mythBuntu.  Some are for general use and others serve a specific need.  For example, SLES is made for use in servers and in the corperate setting.  While others, Ubuntu and Mint, are geared more towards home use.

The distro I am going to install is called Ubuntu.  It is one of the more popular ones for the moment and most user friendly I think.  You can download Ubuntu for free from their website http://www.ubuntu.com/.

First off, you need to download the ISO or request/buy a CD set.  Follow the instructions on the web site for either option.  Once downloaded, you need to burn the ISO image to a disk.  To do this, you can use free software like ImgBurn or if you have sonic/roxio/nero type software installed, you can use that to burn the disk.

After you have the disk successfully made, make sure you have an area to install it.  This doesn’t install like a game.  You have to dedicate an area of your hard drive to the install, and once made, you can’t change it very easily. 

Ok, reboot your machine and tell the BIOS you want to boot off of the CD, you can do this with either the one time boot option or changing the boot order.   However, if you change the boot order, make sure you change it back on the next reboot.

Now the good stuff, the install.  Now, I am going to be using VMware to install this because I don’t have enough room to dedicate to another linux install.  That, and I can take screenshots easier with VMware.  It will look the same for the most part though.  If you would like, you can download a trial version of VMware workstation to play with linux in.  If you do it this way, you can delete it all and act like nothing happened if you don’t like it.

Ok, this is the first screen you will see:

This is just the language you want to use during the setup.  Highlight the one you want with the arrow keys and hit enter. 
Now we need to tell it what we want to do.


You can choose to install it or run some diagnostics tests.  But we just want to install it.  So go ahead and select Install Ubuntu.  If you get problems like kernel panics, you may need to reboot and set the noapic option.  To do that, highlight Install Ubuntu and hit F6.  The line will change and you need to modify it to match what I have.

Now you can hit enter and start the install.  You should get a loading screen that looks like this.

Now is the easy part again, choose your language and hit next.

Next is the time zone.  Choose the city in your timezone.  You can change this later if you don’t want to set it now.

Now you need to set the keyboard you are using if it is non-standard.  Find it and then test it to make sure it works.

Ok, now we need to tell it where we want to install to.  We do this by partitioning.  If you want, you can select guided and it will take care of most all the settings.  But we are going to do the manual setting.  You will want to use this if you are installing Ubuntu on a drive with other things.  This is a blank drive so there is no other things to accommodate.

First thing we need to do, is select the physical drive we want to use.  Then hit the new partition table. 

Now we need to make the partitions.  Generally we use one for the files and another called a swap area.  The swap area is the same as a page file in windows.  It is used in case system RAM runs too low.  Lets make the main partition for our install first.  Highlight the partition table and hit the new partition button.

Set your settings, most of them stay their default value.  But you do need to save room for the swap area.  So I took off 2000 MB for it.  You need to do the same, but it doesn’t have to be 2000.  Next, set the mount point, it needs to be / because that is the root of the drive.  The file system can be changed if you want.  Every file system has its pros and cons.

Now we need to make a swap area with that space we left out from the main partition.  To do this, select the free space and hit the new partition button again.

You can leave the size at its default value because it should use all that’s left.  Next, set the ‘Use as:’ option to swap area.  The mount point will be grayed out.

Click next and finish up the partitioning and now enter your information here.

Ok, that’s about it, now we just need to look things over and set where the boot loader needs to be.  The default setting should be ok unless you have bigger ideas in mind.  Go ahead and hit next.

Ok, take a nap, eat some chips, or take the dare of going on a date with a girl.  Either way, this may take a while.

Ok, this is what it will look like when it finishes.  Now when mine finished, it blacked out and came back when I moved my mouse.  So it may do that to you as well.  Go ahead and reboot, remember to set the boot order setting back if you changed it.

Ok, this little text thing is for the GRUB boot loader.  It is used to boot up the OS.  You may need to add windows to the menu to get back to your windows install.

If all goes well, you should get to this loading screen.

The login, just so you know, the username is what you put in the second box of the personal info step (well really the computer did unless you changed it).  Note: the username IS case sensitive.

To enter the password, hit either TAB or ENTER.

Now turn up your speakers and listen to the neat-o sound that plays.  Oh, and you’re in to the desktop.

Right after I logged in, I had updates waiting for me, 160 of them.  It would be a good idea to install them.

If it doesn’t come up right away for you , go to the app like I have done in this photo.

You can go thorough and choose the updates you want if you don’t want some of them.

Now, you need to enter a password before you can do much else.  It’s your login password.  Go ahead and enter it and hit enter.  Now you can start the updates.

Now it will actually install them, and if you want some reading, click the details triangle and have a look.

After it finishes, it may ask you to reboot.  It’s a good thought to do so.

Now when it gets back, feel free to play around.  Here is how to change the screen resolution.  But there is a lot more you can do.  Look around.

Now your set, have fun, play around, and keep it working till the next section is posted.

Cheers