Installing Linux, Part 2

Continued from Installing Linux.

Start the Install

1. Boot the Live CD.
2. After the machine comes up, click the Install to Hard Drive icon. This is where the real fun starts.
3. Select keyboard from list: Selected U.S. English and click Next.
4. Types of storage devices: Selected Basic and click Next. The installer then examines the storage devices.
   
5. Name the computer: Set it to alpha and click Next.
6. Select the nearest city in your time zone: Selected Chicago and click Next.
7. Pick root password: Set it to ******** and click Next.
8. Which type of install: Used default of Replace existing Linux system(s) and click Next.
9. Select storage devices:
   

• Data storage: WD external drive
• Boot loader: ATA internal drive

At this point I got an error. The installation program complained that it could not find enough space for automatic partitioning. The problem was that I need to manually repartition the hard drive in order to make room for Linux. Basically, Windows has the whole drive allocated as one big partition. Click OK.

Note: I also later noticed that the installation guide recommends unplugging USB drives during the install. I had left the WD external drive plugged in, but everything still worked out OK.

At this point I did a lot of reading in the installation guide. There is a lot of detailed information in there about repartitioning your hard drive. There is also a recommended layout. Given the size of my system, I settle on roughly the following:

• boot partition: 250 MB
• '/' root partition: 5 GB
• swap partition: 2 GB
• /home partition: 10 GB

Repartitioning the Hard Drive

1. (resuming at) Which type of install: At this point I was unsure about whether to select Shrink current system or Create custom layout. I decided on Create custom layout, which worked.
2. Please select a drive: Selected the internal drive sda1 with the ntfs file system. Click Edit.
3. Resize from 139163 MB to 115000 MB, which should leave about 20000 MB of free space for Windows to operate. Click OK.
4. This will also free up about 24000 MB for Linux to use. Only about 10000 MB is needed for a full install of Linux, so I'll have about 14000 MB for data. Click Free.
5. All of the following partitions are created on the sda drive.
   
6. Click Create to create a partition.
   
7. Select Standard partition. Click Create.
8. Enter /boot, 250 MB, ext4. Click OK,
9. Click Free.
10. Click Create to create a partition.
    
11. Select Standard partition. Click Create.
12. Enter '/' for root, 5000 MB, ext4. Click OK,
13. Click Free.
14. Click Create to create a partition.
    
15. Select Standard partition. Click Create.
16. Enter 2000 MB, swap. Click OK,
17. Click Free.
18. Click Create to create a partition.
    
19. Select Standard partition. Click Create.
20. Enter '/home', fill to maximum allowable, ext4. Click OK,
21. Click Free.

In the summary screen, I ended up with the following:

• Hard drives
• sda
• -- sda1 115000 MB ntfs
• -- sda3 250 MB /boot ext4
• -- sda4 23913 MB extended
• -- -- sda5 5000 MB / ext4
• -- -- sda6 2000 MB swap
• -- -- sda7 16910 MB /home ext4
• -- sda2 13463 MB vfat
• sdb
• -- sdb1 953867 MB vfat
• -- free 2 MB

Once you accept that partitioning scheme, you get a huge warning message. The installation program hasn't actually made any changes to the system up until now. This is the point of no return. If you have misgivings, you can back out without making any changes to the system. If you proceed and have made a mistake, or the install fails to complete, you could end up with an unusable system. In that case you might need to reformat drives and reinstall, losing all of your data. Make sure you have a good back-ups first. Since I have good back-ups and feel lucky, I proceed with the repartitioning.

Repartitioning takes a while and you cannot do anything to help it along. So I take a break and check back later.

Install Boot Loader

Next comes installation of the boot loader. I accepted the defaults, which installs the boot loader on /dev/sda. The O/S list in the boot loader is:

• Other /dev/sda1
• Fedora /dev/sda5

Click Next. The you get a message indicating that it is copying the image to the hard drive. Finally, you get an Installation complete message. Click Close. The click Logout -> Reboot.

Continued at Installing Linux, Part 3.