.Maleficus.
06-30-2007, 11:31 AM
Linux in a Nutshell
Welcome to my Linux in a Nutshell. Here, I will hopefully teach you something you didn't already know about Linux, or convince you to maybe give it a spin for yourself. This is a modding forum after all, and with all the customization and tweaking you can do to the OS, it is the modder's OS ;). This will be split into a few different parts. Feel free to skip whatever you don't think you need.
Intro
What is Linux exactly? Well, Linux isn't actually an OS. Linux is the kernel used by many different OSs that "make" it Linux. Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds as open-source (or OSS - Open Source Software) meaning it can be tinkered with, tweak, and generally screwed with to your hearts desire. This is great for people wanting a fully customized system, or a system optimized for their specific hardware. There are a bounty of Linux "distros" (distributions) that you can choose from, the most popular being Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Mandriva, and openSuSE. There are others that have been popular for a while like Debian, and others that are also just gaining popularity like Arch that are also excellent choices.
Finding a Distro
Like I said above, there are many distros to choose from. It can be a little overwhelming at first deciding on what exactly you want the system to do, how you want it to look, etc. There is a great site called DistroWatch (http://www.distrowatch.com) that is a compilation for every Linux/UNIX distro out there with details on every one, and links to screenshots and download sites. You can browse the different distros if you'd like, but now I will also give my personal recommendations. I have worked most extensively with 3 distros, those being Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Fedora. Ubuntu is considered the "easiest" distro for people new to Linux, because most of the hard stuff (and fun stuff) is done for you. You can get away with not using the command line at all (the command line lets you do just about anything you want) and use it just how you would Windows. Gentoo is the exact opposite. Gentoo is installed all via command line, and after the install completes, you have a black screen with command prompt. You install everything else you want after, making this the best distro for a lightweight, or fully customized OS. It is considered Gentoo isn't for people new to Linux, but it's also a great way to learn and become familiar with Linux. Finally, Fedora is a lot like Ubuntu, meaning it's a very friendly distro, and has the most compatibility and software being developed by the Red Hat team.
Getting your distro
Getting your distro is pretty straight forward. Go to DistroWatch.com (http://www.distrowatch.com) and download it from there, or go to the homepage of it and download it from there. You'll download a .ISO image file that needs to be burned to either a CD or DVD as an image file. You will probably have an option to do this on your burning software, but they are all different. I use Deepburner, which as an option when starting to "Burn ISO Image" (or something like that). Choose that option on yours. Navigate to the image you saved to your drive, and start burning. It is recommended that you burn it at the lowest speed possible to avoid errors, but if you can't control the speed you'll usually be fine. Then, wait for it's done, grab the CD out of the drive, and label it :D.
Installing
This section will be split into 2 parts, Dual-booting and Normal Install. I will walk you through the dual-boot steps for Ubuntu, and the normal install for Fedora. But first, choosing what's best for you. Dual-booting will let you run both Windows and Linux from the same computer, and you choose the OS to boot when the PC starts. This is great if you're just trying it out, or have Windows apps that aren't on Linux. A normal install will just erase everything or install on a fresh hard drive. *Pleas note: You can only dual-boot if you have free, unpartitioned space on your hard drive. You can read about that here (http://www.webtechgeek.com/How-to-Partition-a-Hard-Drive-Windows-XP.htm), as I won't go into it.
Dual-Booting
For this, I assume you already have free, unpartitioned space on your hard drive. If not, do that first. I also assume you have your distro burned to a CD or DVD. Like I said earlier, I'll be using (X)Ubuntu for this.
Step 1. Pop in the CD into the drive and reboot. If it isn't already set to do this, change the boot order in your BIOS to CD, then Hard Drive, then whatever you want. Let it boot into the CD, which will either have a desktop environment or straight installer.
Step 1.5. If it has a DE (desktop environment) play around with it. See how it is. It will behave very slowly, because it's running from a CD, but try some stuff out. Return here when you're finished ;).
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/desk.jpg
Xubuntu Desktop - Xfce 4.4
Step 2. Double click the Install icon. It will run through the installer. Pretty straight forward stuff, but I have included some pics as well.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/language.jpg
First page of installer
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/namescreen.jpg
Naming your system
Step 3. We have now reached the partitioning stage. You have 2 options. Erase the entire disk, or partition yourself (what we will do). Click the circle and then Next.
Step 3a. We need to make a /boot partition. For this, click the gray space of your rectangle and then New. You'll be greeted with a new screen. Make the size of the partition 128MB, the filesystem ext2, and have it be a Primary partition.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/bootpartish.jpg
Creating /boot partition.
Step 3b. We now need a linux-swap partition. Follow the steps above, but this time with 512MB, linux-swap as the filesystem, and Primary for the type.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/swappartish.jpg
Creating linux-swap partition.
Step 3c. "/" partition time. / means root, where everything gets installed. Same as above, but make this the remainder of the space, ext3 as the filesystem, and Primary for the type.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/rootpartish.jpg
Creating / partition.
Step 4. Click Next, and have it Apply the Operations. Just let it do it's thing.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/operations.jpg
Applying Operations.
Step 5. Set the mountpoints. It will detect linux-swap and "/" for you, but you need to select the first partition you made and set it as /boot.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/mountpoints.jpg
Setting the mountpoints.
Step 6. Installation. Pretty easy here, click Install.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/install.jpg
Install time!
Now you're done! Let it do it's thing, reboot, and ta-da! You can now select either Ubuntu or Windows, and have a working dual-boot system! Yay!
Installing from Scratch
I just realized that there's really no need for me to go through another set of install instructions when they are basically the same. Please read Dual-Booting for install instructions. To install over everything though, either use a new disk or erase the one you are using during the partitioning stage.
Welcome to my Linux in a Nutshell. Here, I will hopefully teach you something you didn't already know about Linux, or convince you to maybe give it a spin for yourself. This is a modding forum after all, and with all the customization and tweaking you can do to the OS, it is the modder's OS ;). This will be split into a few different parts. Feel free to skip whatever you don't think you need.
Intro
What is Linux exactly? Well, Linux isn't actually an OS. Linux is the kernel used by many different OSs that "make" it Linux. Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds as open-source (or OSS - Open Source Software) meaning it can be tinkered with, tweak, and generally screwed with to your hearts desire. This is great for people wanting a fully customized system, or a system optimized for their specific hardware. There are a bounty of Linux "distros" (distributions) that you can choose from, the most popular being Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Mandriva, and openSuSE. There are others that have been popular for a while like Debian, and others that are also just gaining popularity like Arch that are also excellent choices.
Finding a Distro
Like I said above, there are many distros to choose from. It can be a little overwhelming at first deciding on what exactly you want the system to do, how you want it to look, etc. There is a great site called DistroWatch (http://www.distrowatch.com) that is a compilation for every Linux/UNIX distro out there with details on every one, and links to screenshots and download sites. You can browse the different distros if you'd like, but now I will also give my personal recommendations. I have worked most extensively with 3 distros, those being Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Fedora. Ubuntu is considered the "easiest" distro for people new to Linux, because most of the hard stuff (and fun stuff) is done for you. You can get away with not using the command line at all (the command line lets you do just about anything you want) and use it just how you would Windows. Gentoo is the exact opposite. Gentoo is installed all via command line, and after the install completes, you have a black screen with command prompt. You install everything else you want after, making this the best distro for a lightweight, or fully customized OS. It is considered Gentoo isn't for people new to Linux, but it's also a great way to learn and become familiar with Linux. Finally, Fedora is a lot like Ubuntu, meaning it's a very friendly distro, and has the most compatibility and software being developed by the Red Hat team.
Getting your distro
Getting your distro is pretty straight forward. Go to DistroWatch.com (http://www.distrowatch.com) and download it from there, or go to the homepage of it and download it from there. You'll download a .ISO image file that needs to be burned to either a CD or DVD as an image file. You will probably have an option to do this on your burning software, but they are all different. I use Deepburner, which as an option when starting to "Burn ISO Image" (or something like that). Choose that option on yours. Navigate to the image you saved to your drive, and start burning. It is recommended that you burn it at the lowest speed possible to avoid errors, but if you can't control the speed you'll usually be fine. Then, wait for it's done, grab the CD out of the drive, and label it :D.
Installing
This section will be split into 2 parts, Dual-booting and Normal Install. I will walk you through the dual-boot steps for Ubuntu, and the normal install for Fedora. But first, choosing what's best for you. Dual-booting will let you run both Windows and Linux from the same computer, and you choose the OS to boot when the PC starts. This is great if you're just trying it out, or have Windows apps that aren't on Linux. A normal install will just erase everything or install on a fresh hard drive. *Pleas note: You can only dual-boot if you have free, unpartitioned space on your hard drive. You can read about that here (http://www.webtechgeek.com/How-to-Partition-a-Hard-Drive-Windows-XP.htm), as I won't go into it.
Dual-Booting
For this, I assume you already have free, unpartitioned space on your hard drive. If not, do that first. I also assume you have your distro burned to a CD or DVD. Like I said earlier, I'll be using (X)Ubuntu for this.
Step 1. Pop in the CD into the drive and reboot. If it isn't already set to do this, change the boot order in your BIOS to CD, then Hard Drive, then whatever you want. Let it boot into the CD, which will either have a desktop environment or straight installer.
Step 1.5. If it has a DE (desktop environment) play around with it. See how it is. It will behave very slowly, because it's running from a CD, but try some stuff out. Return here when you're finished ;).
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/desk.jpg
Xubuntu Desktop - Xfce 4.4
Step 2. Double click the Install icon. It will run through the installer. Pretty straight forward stuff, but I have included some pics as well.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/language.jpg
First page of installer
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/namescreen.jpg
Naming your system
Step 3. We have now reached the partitioning stage. You have 2 options. Erase the entire disk, or partition yourself (what we will do). Click the circle and then Next.
Step 3a. We need to make a /boot partition. For this, click the gray space of your rectangle and then New. You'll be greeted with a new screen. Make the size of the partition 128MB, the filesystem ext2, and have it be a Primary partition.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/bootpartish.jpg
Creating /boot partition.
Step 3b. We now need a linux-swap partition. Follow the steps above, but this time with 512MB, linux-swap as the filesystem, and Primary for the type.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/swappartish.jpg
Creating linux-swap partition.
Step 3c. "/" partition time. / means root, where everything gets installed. Same as above, but make this the remainder of the space, ext3 as the filesystem, and Primary for the type.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/rootpartish.jpg
Creating / partition.
Step 4. Click Next, and have it Apply the Operations. Just let it do it's thing.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/operations.jpg
Applying Operations.
Step 5. Set the mountpoints. It will detect linux-swap and "/" for you, but you need to select the first partition you made and set it as /boot.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/mountpoints.jpg
Setting the mountpoints.
Step 6. Installation. Pretty easy here, click Install.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/install.jpg
Install time!
Now you're done! Let it do it's thing, reboot, and ta-da! You can now select either Ubuntu or Windows, and have a working dual-boot system! Yay!
Installing from Scratch
I just realized that there's really no need for me to go through another set of install instructions when they are basically the same. Please read Dual-Booting for install instructions. To install over everything though, either use a new disk or erase the one you are using during the partitioning stage.