The Linux Installation HOWTO

Eric Steven Raymond

Thyrsus Enterprises

esr@thyrsus.com

Copyright © 2000 by Eric S. Raymond

Revision History
Revision 5.2	22 February 2001	Revised by: esr
LDP Styleguide markup fixes.
Revision 5.1	29 January 2001	Revised by: esr
Minor corrections for the post-2.1 world.
Revision 5.0	21 August 2000	Revised 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
7.5. Booting the installation disk
7.6. Installing software packages
7.7. After package installations

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