'Requested' is the amount of hard drive space you wanted for the partition<br>

  'Actual' is the amount of hard drive space that is really in the partition<br>

  'Type' is what's in the partition</p>

<p><br>

  **The 'requested' and 'actual' sections for the 'Linux Swap&quot; type should 

  be the amount of RAM you have.**</p>

<p>**It looks confusing, but in reality if it is simple. Don't worry if your screen 

  doesn't look exactly like my diagram, it probably won't.**</p>

<p>What you should do now is select the 'Linux Native' section (by pressing tab 

  to get to that part of the screen, then using the arrow keys) and then press 

  tab again until the 'edit' button is highlighted. Pressing spacebar will bring 

  up another dialog box. In the space provided, put a slash (/) then press OK. 

  Now you're back at the main screen. Press tab to get to OK, and then press spacebar.</p>

<p>**what you're actually doing here is telling the computer to put the root directory, 

  signified by the slash, in the Linux Native partition. The root directory '/', 

  is similar to 'C:\' in DOS/Windows.**</p>

<p>Next you come to a screen asking which partitions to format. Select the one 

  that 'Linux Native' is in. You should select the '/dev/xxxx/' partition where 

  'xxxx' is the name of the device that the Linux Native partition is under. This 

  is where you put the '/' on the last screen. If the Linux Native partition device 

  was hda3 then choose '/dev/hda3', if it was hda6, then choose '/dev/hda6', you 

  get the point.</p>

<p>**IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT SELECT THE WRONG PARTITION TO FORMART!**</p>

<p><b>3.3 - Selecting What to Install</b></p>

<p>Suppose you had three hard drives on Windows - c:\, d:\ and e:\, and you want 

  to install Linux on d:\. Windows assigns the letter c to the first hard drive 

  it finds that has a DOS/Windows file partition, d to the second DOS/Windows-compatible 

  hard drive etc', so this might help you out determining which device to choose. 

  Also, if you turn d:\ into the Linux hard drive, it will disappear from DOS/Windows, 

  and e:\ will turn into d:\.</p>

<p>You're not finished yet, but take a sigh of relief, the hardest part is over. 

  Next comes the screen asking which packages to install. Some of the most important 

  ones are selected already. If you have a lot of hard drive space, select all 

  the other packages. Otherwise, just select the others that you think are important. 

  Definitely select 'KDE' and 'GNOME'. Those are window manager programs for the 

  X-Windows system (a GUI - Graphical User Interface), and we'll deal with them 

  later. Anyway, newer versions always come with new software and/or updates for 

  old software.</p>

<p>Press OK and the Linux installation begins!</p>

<p><b>3.4 - Misc. Configurations</b></p>

<p>After everything has been installed, you are prompted for more things. The 

  first should be what resolution your monitor is. Most people would like to use 

  the same resolution they use on Windows, so if you don't know which resolution 

  you were using until now, switch back to Windows, right-click on your desktop 

  area, click properties and find the settings tab. You should see your current 

  resolution there. This would probably be the same resolution you would want 

  to use on Windows. If you want a higher resolution, consult your monitor's manual 

  to find out how high you can go.</p>

<p>Next is the mouse configuration. If your mouse is not on the list, select 'Generic 

  PS/2 Mouse'.</p>

<p>There are more such as clock set and time zone but those are self-explanatory. 

  After this, comes the services screen. These are the things that will startup 

  when you run Linux. Then it will prompt you for if you want the X-Windows interface 

  to run when you start Linux. If you are a Linux newbie (and you probably are, 

  unless you weren't reading this guide), I suggest you do this. X windows is 

  the GUI system, as explained before.</p>

<p>The last configuration is the printer. This is self-explanatory.</p>

<p><br>

  <b>3.5 - Configuring Users</b></p>

<p>Ok...you're almost done; the configurations are pretty much finished. Now you 

  will be prompted to create a password for the root operator. Even though it 

  is still very popular on single home users, Linux is a multi-user operating 

  system. Even if you'll be the only person using your computer, having a multi-user 

  system is quite benefical. For example: you can use a less-privileged user to 

  prevent yourself from doing stupid things and messing things up. You can run 

  sensitive software which can be broken to (say, some sort of a server. For example: 

  a Sendmail server for outgoing mail if you're planning to let people sent mail 

  from your machine, or a web server if you want to serve a website off your computer) 

  as a less-privileged user, so if someone will manage to exploit some hole in 

  this software, he will have very limited privileges (up to what the program 

  needs to run properly) and he won't be able to do much, or nothing at all in 

  most cases (he won't have read access to password files, he won't have write 

  access to the website's files so he won't be able to alter them etc'). On any 

  UNIX-based system (and there are many) the main user is called 'root'. The root 

  has supreme power over the system and supreme power over all the other users. 

  In fact, he has unlimited power (unless he or another root-privileged user chooses 

  to impose access limits, but root-privileged users can always restore their 

  rights to the fullest).</p>

<p>My root password is a particularly simple one. Mainly because I am the only 

  one who uses Linux on my computer (and besides that I trust my own family!) 

  and that my Linux system is not connected to the Internet (so hackers [or crackers 

  I should say] would have no way to get into my system). Make your password anything 

  not to complicated that you'll forget it, but something that is very hard to 

  guess.</p>

<p>After you're done making a password for the root user, you're prompted to create 

  an unprivileged, or ordinary user account. You make the user name, credentials, 

  and password. It may seem pointless at first to create another user- especially 

  an unprivileged one if you are the only one who is going to be using Linux. 

  However there is a big advantage to it. As a root user, you can do anything 

  to the system, including seriously messing it up. Nothing will stop you because 

  you are root. An ordinary user account is like security so if you mess up, the 

  system will stop you.</p>

<p><b>3.6 - Booting Configurations</b></p>

<p>Next you are asked if you want to create a boot disk. I strongly recommend 

  this because it will put the Linux boot stuff on the disk, not your computer. 

  If you put the Linux boot stuff on a computer with windows, it may conflict 

  with the windows boot stuff in case you ever reinstall Windows (go to blacksun.box.sk/byteme.html 

  and read #18 for a good example).</p>

<p>The Linux 'boot stuff' I'm talking about is a program called 'LILO'. That's 

  short for 'Linux Loader'. Anyway LILO installs itself to the boot sector of 

  the computer. The problem is that Windows also installs stuff to the boot sector. 

  LILO can install over Windows and let you choose to either boot up Linux or 

  Windows whenever you start up your computer. If you choose Windows, it'll use 

  Windows' &quot;boot stuff&quot;.</p>

<p>Anyway, in my opinion, when the install program asks you to create a boot disk, 

  click Ok, then follow the directions to create a boot disk. Oh yeah, by the 

  way, when you make a boot disk, it puts LILO on that disk. When it asks you 

  to install LILO, just press Skip (unless you want to install LILO, which most 

  users will).</p>

<p>Congratulations! You're done installing Linux! When the installation program 

  ends, take the installation boot disk out of the drive. If you booted the installation 

  from CD, don't forget to take that out too.</p>

<p><b><font size="4">4.0 - Running Linux</font></b></p>

<p>I bet you're glad to finish that installation! Now you're finally ready to 

  run the system. If you decided to create a boot disk, insert that into the disk 

  drive. If you decided to install LILO, just sit tight for now. Regardless of 

  what you did, reset your computer. If you used LILO, you will get a prompt to 

  load Linux or Windows. If you used a boot disk, the<br>

  system will startup automatically.</p>

<p>After the system starts up, the will get prompted for a user name and password. 

  This will look different depending on how you configured it in the installation. 

  If you chose to start the X Windows GUI automatically, the username and password 

  screen will look like it does in Windows (well, sort of. X-Windows is much cooler, 

  unless you're using some lame version of it or some lame window manager). If 

  you chose not to load the X Windows interface at startup (like most advanced 

  users will), you'll be presented with a text-based interface. The text-based 

  interface (the command console) is much faster than the graphical system, but 

  this also means you cannot view any graphics until you start X-Windows (this 

  is a good time to mention that most people just call it X). Anyway, you can 

  always run a command console from an X window (usually called an &quot;XTerm&quot;, 

  which stands for X Terminal). Anyway, the login screen will look pretty much 

  the same regardless of whether you are using RedHat or Mandrake.</p>

<p>If you're wondering what to type in the username box, that's easy. Your username 

  is 'root' (remember?). The password is the one that you selected at installation.</p>

<p><br>

  <font size="4"><b>5.0 - Using Linux</b></font></p>

<p><b>5.1 - Intro To The Console</b></p>

<p>Even though you'll probably be able to do everything with ease using the X 

  Windows GUI, there is still some stuff you should know. First off, don't rely 

  on a GUI for everything! That is very important because you will learn a lot 

  by using the console. The console is more powerful and can do a lot of things 

  you would REALLY like if you'll just grab a good basic Unix book and start learning. 

  After you do, you'll find yourself often opening an XTerm window to run some 

  console commands which you cannot run from X. If you selected to start the GUI 

  interface when Linux loads up, there are still lots of ways to get to the console.</p>

<p>The console prompt should look somewhat like this (if you're logged in as root):<br>

  [root@localhost.localdomian]#</p>

<p>The first part identifies who you are, and the '#' is the actual prompt. Any 

  almost and UNIX type system, the '#' means you are root. On non-root bash consoles 

  (BASH - Bourne Again Shell. BASH is the most popular text-based shell. Confused? 

  Don't worry, we'll get to that in a second) this will be replaced with a $. 

  Anyway, you can change the prompt, but we won't get into that now.</p>

<p><b>5.11 - Shells</b></p>

<p>You use a shell everytime you're in the Linux console. What a shell is, is 

  the program that communicates between you and the Kernel (the kernel is the 

  core of the system). Let's think of it as an interpreter for for two people 

  who are trying to have a meeting, except they don't speak the same language. 

  One speaks English and the speaks, oh let's say Hebrew (about half the members 

  of Black Sun Research Facility (blacksun.box.sk if you don't know the URL yet. 

  Also, if you havn't noticed, I'm a member of BSRF) are from Israel). To communicate 

  with each other they need a guy who speaks both English and Hebrew. If the English 

  guy wants to tell the Hebrew guy something, he tells it to the interpreter in 

  English, and then the interpreter tells it to the other guy in Hebrew, and vice 

  versa. Well anyway, getting back to the subject, this is the case with Linux. 

  Your language is the Linux commands, and the Kernel speaks it's own very complex 

  language. When you want to talk to the Kernel, you tell shell in your language, 

  and the shell tells it to the Kernel in it's language. On any Linux system, 

  there a few shells. Some of them are:</p>

<p>ash<br>

  bash<br>

  bsh<br>

  csh<br>

  tcsh<br>