Thread: Granular Linux

Granular Linux is an all-purpose operating system built in India and is one of the newer distributions to hit the internet. It is based on the PCLinuxOS distribution. Not too long back, a DVD version of the distribution was released which included games along with some other applications. Granular also comes with official ATI and NVIDIA drivers.

One of the packages that was provided on the DVD was the LG3D which is called Project Looking Glass. This application gives users a much more interactive and visual appealing looking interface.

Installation

Insert the Granular installation disc and boot the system. Like some other distributions, there are tests to ensure that there are no faults With -the hardware or the installation disc. To install use the Granular option and press Enter. The installer will load and you'll need to set the keyboard layout to US keyboard.

The next screen asks you to enter the login.username and password. Both the' values are root. The Granular desktop will then boot. Double-click the Install Granular icon to start the installation process.

DrakX is the partitioning tool used by Granular. Click the Use free space if you have a dedicated hard drive for the installation otherwise use the Custom disk partitioning option. You'll also see a warning window asking you to backup all of your data before the installation.

You need to create two partitions - an ext3 partition for the operating system and the data. The other partition has to be a Linux swap partition. Click the Create button to do this. If you have the entire hard drive to use with Granular Linux, simply click Auto allocate and the partitions will be created automatically.

Granular doesn't give any further options to choose the packages and categories of software. Proceeding will start the installation.

At the end of the installation, you'll be prompted to enter information for the boot loader. You can choose the interface of the boot loader and the hard drive on which you want it to be installed. There is also a delay setting which tells the boot loader how long to wait before booting the operating system.

When Granular reboots, you'll have to enter authentication information for the machine. This include the administrator passwords and the user account. You can also select a login image for your username. You'll see that the login interface is somewhat similar to Windows.