The Linux Installation HOWTO

Eric Steven Raymond

Thyrsus Enterprises

    esr@thyrsus.com
    

Copyright © 2000 by Eric S. Raymond

Revision History
Revision 5.52001-07-11Revised by: esr
PnP cards are no longer a problem.
Revision 5.42001-06-14Revised by: esr
Added link to Post-installation HOWTO.
Revision 5.32001-03-9Revised by: esr
Fixes for various links.
Revision 5.22001-02-22Revised by: esr
LDP Styleguide markup fixes.
Revision 5.12001-01-29Revised by: esr
Minor corrections for the post-2.1 world.
Revision 5.02000-07-21Revised by: esr
First DocBook version.

This document describes how to obtain and install Linux software. It is the first document which a new Linux user should read to get started.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Purpose of this document
1.2. Other sources of information
1.3. New versions of this document
1.4. Feedback and Corrections
2. Recent Changes
3. The Easiest Option: Buy, Don't Build
4. Before You Begin
4.1. Hardware requirements
4.2. Space requirements and coexistence
5. Time requirements
5.1. Choosing a Linux distribution
6. Installation Overview
6.1. First Installation Steps: The Easy Way
6.2. First Installation Steps: The Hard Way
6.3. Continuing the Installation
6.4. Basic Parts of an Installation Kit
7. Installation In Detail
7.1. Getting prepared for installation
7.2. Creating the boot and root floppies
7.3. Repartitioning your DOS/Windows drives
7.4. Creating partitions for Linux
7.4.1. Partition basics
7.4.2. Sizing partitions
7.5. Booting the installation disk
7.5.1. Choosing Console or X installation
7.5.2. Using fdisk and cfdisk
7.5.3. Post-partition steps
7.6. Installing software packages
7.7. After package installations
7.7.1. LILO, the LInux LOader
7.7.2. Making a production boot disk (optional)
7.7.3. Miscellaneous system configuration
8. Booting Your New System
9. After Your First Boot
9.1. Beginning System Administratration
9.2. Custom LILO Configuration
10. Administrivia
10.1. Terms of Use
10.2. Acknowledgements
  Next
  Introduction