Installation (including Dual Booting with MS Windows)

Each Linux distribution comes with detailed instructions describing installation. We offer some general comments here, only. For more information, see the Linux Documentation Project's Installation and Getting Started Guide.

Ease of installation of the many different distributions of Linux varies a great deal. Modern, commercial distributions such as RedHat 7.n and SuSE 7.n (also Mandrake, Caldera...) are very easy. In contrast, Debian --- the purists' GNU/Linux --- is less straightforward (for the beginner).

ISD at UMIST support only RedHat. The RedHat installation guides are available online.

You may need some information for your installation that is particular to UMIST (e.g., IP address). See the section devoted to this.

Some hardware vendors will sell you a PC with Linux loaded and ready. See below.

There are a variety of methods by which one can install (RedHat) Linux:

CD-ROM

One can install from a CD-ROM drive. CDs can be purchased as a boxed set with documentation from RedHat, SuSE, etc. (usually for around £50); alternatively some distributions (e.g, RedHat, but not SuSE) offer ISO-images for free download from their FTP sites from which one can burn a CD.

Hard Drive

One can copy all necessary files to a local hard disk and install from that.

NFS Image

One can install via NFS by exporting either the CD image or a mirror of the RedHat FTP site.

FTP or HTTP

Finally one can boot from a suitable floppy and perform the entire installation via an FTP or HTTP link to the RedHat site (or mirror). In practice one needs fast access to the Internet for this --- a modem is not suitable.

It is possible to make a machine "multiple boot", that is, install more than one operating system on a machine and choose which to load/start at boot time. (I have a quad-boot box: Windows NT, RedHat 7.2, SuSE 7.2 and OpenBSD.)

If you are not sure what you are doing get some help! Here are some good places to start:

• Linux + WinNT HOWTO;
  
  
• Debian Multiboot Installation, Linux Journal, March 2001;
  
  
• GRUB (GNU Grand Unified Bootloader), Linux Journal, May 2001.

Usually Gnu/Linux installs without a hitch. The most common problems are related to device detection and (e.g., figuring out which graphics card you have) and to finding a suitable device-driver if such is not part of your distribution.

In the past this was a particular problem for Linux as some hardware manufacturers were unwilling to work with Linux device-driver developers. This problem is fast disappearing.

If you can't persuade your distribution to talk to a particular device

• try searching the hardware manufacturer's Web site for a driver;
• if this yields nothing, try google --- chances are someone has tried before and has "pubished" their success, or otherwise.
• Try poking around linuxhardware.org.

Laptop computers often have non-standard or "unusual" devices --- in the past this has led to installation problems. Recent versions of major distributions such as SuSe 7.0 and above, RedHat 7.0 and above, seem to work well with many (most?) machines. More:

• linux-laptop.net, I quote: an index of information and documentation of interest to those who now use or are considering using the Linux operating system on a notebook or laptop computer.
  
  
• The Linux Laptop HOWTO.

Some suppliers will sell PCs with Gnu/Linux pre-installed; here are some:

• Digital Networks United Kingdom "specialists in Linux and FreeBSD hardware solutions".
• (DGC) NMS, a company based in St Helens, Merseyside.

These suppliers offer cheap (a few pounds sterling) CDs of Linux distributions:

• The Linux Exmporium;
• genesis ukpost