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Project: Linux  Articles
Newbie's guide to installing SuSE 6.4
By Anurag Phadke <cbca@mantraonline.com>
Posted: ( 2000-10-13 10:48:20 EST by )
This article does come a little late in the day but it's still pretty useful.
A Linux newbie, tried out an installation of SuSE 6.4 and
this is the howto-install that he wrote up.
Product: SuSE 6.4 ( Evaluation Copy )
Test Machine Specs: HP Brio PIII 500MHz 64MB SDRAM Matrox MGA G200 8MB
Total Installation Time: 43 mins.
Number of reboots: 1
New Features: USB support, Crystal Fusion Sound Card Support, ReiserFS. "A piece of cake" that's how easy installation of an Operating System should
be. Try reading this installation guide, after that, installing SuSE might
be like eating chocolate cake. Booting via CD Insert the SuSE CD in your CD-Drive and start the computer. The entire OS
installation is divided into 8 parts, each part characterized by its own
setup. Be sure that you have the boot sequence reading Boot via CD selected in
the system BIOS. The first initializing screen tells you about the SuSE web
site and their phone numbers. You can jot down these and call them if you need
any further information about their products. Shortly a Graphical Interface,
similar to that of Windows appears. The page is divided into two columns. The
left column gives a summary of the step that you are currently at and the
right one, a brief description of what you need to do. Selecting a language: The default language selected is English(US). The next
screen requests you to select the Keyboard Layout and the Time Zone. You are
then required to select either a complete New Installation or update an
existing SuSE installation. In this case a "New Installation" was selected. Partitioning the Hard Disk: This is one of the key steps for installing Linux.
If this is the first time that you are installing Linux, then you need to
repartition your hard disk using fdisk or Partition Magic. Make sure that you
have 2 partitions dedicated only to Linux. This is because, unlike Windows
which makes use of a swap file, Linux requires an entire partition dedicated
to it. The size of the Swap Partition should ideally be double the amount
of RAM on your system. If you are going to use the machine with SuSE as
your sole OS then click on the first option, else choose any of the remaining
options. You can use the entire Hard Disk for installing SuSE or like the
common option, choose Custom Partitioning. Creating/Modifying the Partition Table: Thanks to the GUI partitioning tool, things are a lot easier than the
not so friendly fdisk. Two options were asked while creating the partition for
SuSE 6.4 . 1. Entire Hard Disk.
2. Custom Partitioning. Entire Hard Disk: Over here once again it asks for two questions. a.) Use entire Hard Disk.
b.) Use custom partition that already exists. Use entire Hard Disk: On selecting this option, SuSE will create a
default partitions structure, format your hard disk and install Linux on it.
All data on your hard disk will be lost and there is no way of recovering it.
Just make sure that you already have a backup of the important data on your
hard drive. This is a good option to select if one intends to have only
SuSE 6.4 as the operating system. Use custom partition: In this, all the existing partitions are
displayed and one has to select the partition on which Linux should be
installed. The only problem with this is--except the first option where
Windows is loaded--on all other options, an error message appears, saying
"Must start from the highest ordered position". This implies that to install
Linux, one needs to delete Windows. Custom Partitioning: This is a good option to select even if one is not
familiar with the partition table. The main reason being customization. All or
specific partitions can be deleted, partitions can be created (if free space
exists) and one can assign the required amount of space for every partition
made. On selecting CREATE, the following options should be selected: Data with ext2 - Ext2 is the default Linux filesystem. Like FAT under
DOS/Windows
Format - Whether to format the newly created partition
Mount point "/" - Each partition under Linux has to be placed somewhere in
the directory heirarchy. The mount point is the directory under which the
partition will be accessible.
Start/Stop Cylinder - Here you will enter the size of the partition to
create. You can specify the number of cylinders which is not very
intuitive or you could specify the size in GB or MB. Just prefix the size
with a '+' and put a 'M' for MB a 'G' for GB as a suffix. To great a
partition of size 3 GB you would say +3G or +3072M. Creating the SWAP partition: Just as Windows uses .tmp or .swp files for
swapping, Linux requires a separate partition for the same. To make a SWAP
partition, just press create, then click on the option SWAP, choose a size
as explained above and press OK. If everything works fine, then press Next and you will get the screen for
selecting the number of packages to be installed. Choosing the type of installation: A default installation is preferred as
it comes with almost all the basic utilities and occupies around 500MB
space. A minimal installation will cost you around 150MB and restricts you
to the basic required things only. An 'Almost Everything' Installation
requires around 1.5GB space. Installing LILO (LInux LOader): LILO gives you a variety of options as to
where it should install it's bootable content. Out of the variety of
options available, the first option is most viable. However do remember,
that LILO does not provide you with the option "default OS to Boot". So
if you're dual booting then by default you will find your self booting into Linux. You need to set it up manually to Windows (default is
SuSE) which I will do after the installation is done. Dual Booting: Theoretically LILO can boot into any system. The LILO
screen gives 5 options, as to in what way it should be installed in the system. Boot Disk ('MBR'): This option loads LILO in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of
the system. This means that whenever you start your PC, LILO will ask you two
options as to what system it should boot into. The default is Suse 6.4. If you
want to boot into Windows, just type Windows at the LILO prompt and it will
boot into the same. Press tab to get a list of the OS' that you can boot
into. Boot Floppy: Much similar to the Windows Start Up Disk, a bootable
floppy makes your system boot into Windows whenever you insert the floppy.
This is a good option to select as whenever one re-installs Windows, the
MBR is modified and one option is booting into Linux is through the
bootable floppy. By default, LILO loads into SuSE 6.4. If you want to load
Windows by default, then after booting into Linux and logging in as root ,
type lilo -D windows . The lilo.conf file is located in the /etc directory
and is self explanatory. It contains a list of the different operating
systems installed on the system.
Personal Information: Under Linux you should create a regular user with
non-root privileges. This is the account you should be using in Linux. Do
not login as root and there is too much power in that account. Logging in
as a regular user prevents you from damaging your setup. Just enter the
required details here. The next screen requests you for a root password. Never
forget this password, as it is the most privileged account and is required
for doing a variety of stuff like adding users, configuring accounts etc.
Summary: The final screen tells you of all the changes that need to be
made to your Hard disk at this instant. If not satisfied with any of
these, just press Abort Installation. Pressing "Next" puts you on board a
ship named "SuSE". A Green screen (quite better than the previous RED)
asks for a final confirmation. Click on "Yes" to board the ship. Progress Screen: This is the place where the actual installation begins.
The page is divided into three rows , the name of the package, total
packages installed, disk usage. You can now go ahead and sip that cup of
coffee. Destination: Once all the packages have been installed, a OK prompt pops
up. Click on it and then the system reboots itself. Do remember that you
need to remove the SuSE CD once you press "OK" else the installation
process will start once again. Configuring X Windows: This is the final step for installing SuSE. If
you are accustomed to the usual Windows look, then this is a must. In any
case Linux has several GUIs to keep you busy for a while. This step does
require you to have lady luck on your side. Although the installation
tells you that it has detected the graphics card and your monitor
correctly, chances of getting a proper display are rare. Click on Yes and
wait for a while. It is normal for the screen to blink a few times. If
nothing happens for a long time and your screen is absolutely blank then
you need to configure the X server by yourself. Press 'Ctrl-Alt-Backspace'
to kill the X server. Then press OK to start your SuSE for the first time. After starting SuSE for the first time, and if your X windows has not been
properly configured , then the screen remains completely blank. At this
stage you need to log in to your box via a shell account. Restart your PC
and at the LILO prompt type "linux init 2". Linux will boot and put you in
the console text based shell. Enter your root login and password. At the
prompt type SaX ( SuSE X Configurator). This makes an attempt to start the
X server by itself using the most complaint server. In the Monitor section
select proper refresh rate. The Card Section is the most vital section.
Here one needs to know the complete name/specs. of the graphics card that
is being used. Select the appropriate card and then click on Modes. It is
possible that not all modes work for a given card. Choose the basic
640*400 mode and click on done. If everything is fine then you will get a
Automatic Timeout message saying that you have successfully configured
your X window system. Click on Quit and then type 'reboot' to reboot the
machine. To use X windows later on just type startx. NOTE: It may be possible that the X server does not start since at a time
only one graphical session is allowed. In that case restart your machine
and at the LILO prompt type linux init 2. This will make you login into
your shell account from where you can then run XF86Setup. If you are dual-booting then you will be annoyed by the fact that SuSE by
default will put Linux as the default boot entry. It's quite easy to fix
though. Login to a shell prompt or open a command line window. You will
have to be root for this. Then type lilo -D windows. It should show you
the boot entries and display a '*' next to the default boot entry which
should be windows. Next time you reboot, you will have to type linux to
boot Linux. Just pressing enter will boot windows.
SuSE
Other articles by Anurag Phadke
Current Rating: [ 7.2 / 10 ]
Number of Times Rated: [ 15 ]
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