Thread: Installing Linux

This is a step-by-step guide to install Linux on your hard drive. Try this on an old machine or a laptop first, before choosing to migrate Linux to your desktop. There are methods of trying out a distro before installing it, which includes using a Virtual machine like Virtual Box, which is explained later on. Another way is to try out a Live CD, or boot from the CD itself. This works for the DVD and CD isos of most modern distros, but not all. In fact, some distros are only live versions and cannot be installed. This is a step-by-step guide to install Linux Mint, but the procedure is essentially the same for most distros.

The first step in any Linux installation will be choosing a lan¬guage. Most distros ship with a number of Languages, and European languages are the most establishe4., with a large commu¬nity support base for each distro. Choose English as the language, and go to the next step.

Step 2 involves selecting a time zone. Normally a world map, with a magnifying glass appears. Click on India, and Kolkata or Calcutta will be selected automatically. Even if you live in any other city, this is the standard time zone for Indians across most of computing. Make sure that you have not selected Colombo or some other city by mistake. Also make sure that you select Kolkata after zooming in.



The next step is selecting th~ keyboard layout, which is USA-USA' for the standard QWERTY keyboard. Advanced options are available include mapping individual keys, so it is possible to take out all the keys on the keyboard, put them back in different locations, and remap the keyboard. Just because you can do it, you don't have to.

Step 4 is creating a partition table for installation. Don't worry at this step, if you have chosen to install Linux on your hard drive, you probably have backed up all the data that is important. If not, then install Linux by using Virtual Box, and skip this method. By default, Linux makes space for itself from the space available. This is done by resizing an existing partition.

Instead of this, choose Guided and use the entire disk. At this point you can click on Manual, which allows you to demolish the existing partitions and create new ones. To keep things simple, you can choose to use the entire hard disk as one partition, or split it up into two partitions.

\Linux will now show a summary of how the installation is going to change the system, and optioI).s to fine tune and edit the partition. Now a swap partition is the equivalent of virtual memo¬ry on the system. If you are installing Linux on a large hard drive, allocate a reasonable amount (less than 5 GBl of space for the swap partition. If you are using a netbookor a laptop with a small hard disk, but plenty of RAM, it does not make sense to allocate any memory to the swap 'partition. If you choose not to allocate space for a swap partition, you rriay be prompted about the decision. Ignore such prompts; and continue.