PCLinuxOS Installation Guide (7-17-06)
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Click on the Install PCLinuxOS Icon to start the installation process.
If you logged in as guest it will ask for the root password to start
the installation wizard. The password for root is of course root.





Type in the root password and press ok. This will start the
installation program. Click Next to continue.

Please note if you attempted to install software while running
the livecd you may encounter problems installing to the hard drive. 
Please reboot, do the install and then add software to your system.




Select the type of hard drive install and press Next.





Now you need to partition and format your hard drive. Please be
very careful with your selection. If you select Use existing partitions
or Erase and use entire disk it will auto select and FORMAT your
partitions. All data on those partitions will be lost forever. In addition
if you have Windows installed an additional option will be presented
allowing you to resize the windows partition to make room for Linux.
This is an experimental feature and should be used with caution.
Please make sure you have your Windows partition backed up before
attempting to resize it.





If you wish you can use Custom disk partitioning. 





Lets start by partitioning the hard drive.





You need to set up 3 partitions. A swap partition, a /home partition
and a / partition. The swap partition is a temporary storage area
in the event you run out of memory. Linux can swap memory to
and from the swap partition as needed. As a general rule your
swap partition should be double your memory.





Now we have our swap partition created.





Next we need to set up a /home partition. This is where you can
store your personal data. The size of the home partition depends
on your personal needs. Since I am using a small hard drive I
selected about 2.0 gig (2000 mb). On large hard drives I would
recommend at least 10 gigs (10,000mb) or larger.





Now we have our /home partition created.





Finally we need a / partition. This is where all your data and programs
are stored. I selected to use the remaining space for my / partition. You
can either select the rest of the hard drive or set a size. A minimum
of approx 4 gigs (4,000 mb) is required though you probably want
to make it at least 10 (10,000 mb) if you wish to install additional
programs from our repository. Please note the default file system
type is ext3. You cannot install Linux to a fat32 or ntfs formatted
partition.

In some situations where you have deleted and re-created partitions
the installer will identify a partition as native ext2. In the event this
happens please press the Toggle to expert mode and select Type
and change it to Journalised FS: ext3.






Now we have our hard drive set up with a swap partition, a /home
partition and a / partition.





We are now ready to format the hard drive partitions. This is
your last chance to cancel out in the event you think you might
have made a mistake.





The install is now formatting your partitions.





We are ready to copy the system files from the livecd to your
hard drive. This process takes between 10-20 minutes depending
on the speed of your computer.





Once the files have been transferred to your hard drive we need to
set up the bootloader so that your new install can be booted from
the hard drive. The system defaults to Grub Graphical as the default bootloader
however you also can use Lilo. If this is your only Linux install you
can select to install to the MBR or Master Boot Record. If you already
have previous Linux installs on other partitions you can select to install
the bootloader to the partition for chain loading.

The Master Boot Record (MBR) will always be identified without a
partition number such as /dev/hda, /dev/sda or /dev/sdb.

As an example, if your /home partition and / partition is on /dev/hda5
and /dev/hda6 etc, you would install your bootloader to /dev/hda.

If your /home partition and / partition is on /dev/sdb5 and /dev/sdb6
etc, you would install your bootloader to /dev/sdb.





These are the default entries. If you have other Linux installs, you
can add them here.





You must set up a new root password. This is your administrator access
password. Normally you run Linux as a user and elevate yourself to
root access only when you need to perform various system functions.
This keeps Linux safe and secure. Write your root password down and
keep it in a safe and secure place. If you forget your root password
you wont be able to perform system tasks such as adding software or
configuring your system.





Enter the user name and password you will be using to log into
the system. If you have more than one user you can enter additional
users here. Once you are finished click the Done button.





The installer has finished installing PCLinuxOS to your computer and
you are ready to shut down and reboot.




If you run into something you don't understand please click on XChat
from the Menu -> Networking -> IRC and it will log you into our help
channel.

Good luck!