Linux Installation for Newbies!!!

I am a very big fan of Linux. When i was new to Linux, i struggled a lot to learn how to install Linux in my PC. Though I learned it a harder way i will make it simple for you by sharing my experience.

My main motive of this post is to make Linux installation very easy for newbies who are really interested Linux. This is a step by step guide to Linux installation. Without wasting anymore time, lets get started!

1. First you need to decide upon the linux verison (called Distro in linux terminology) to be installed.
2. The only difficult thing here is the hardware doesn’t get detected automatically with the older versions of the Linux distros. But, the latest distros will detect them automatically. So, better install the latest distros.
3. Here, I will explain the installation of one of the popular distros (Ubuntu 7.10) with screenshots. I prefer this to experiment because, it has a very user friendly interface and its very easy to install unlike other distros.
4. It also has Live CD feature. It means that you can actually experience the look and feel of Ubuntu even without installing it. All you need to do is insert the CD or DVD and boot from it and there you go!
5. One of the best feature with Live CD is, you can actually know whether your hardware gets detected or not prior to installing it.
6. Once you are satisfied with the Live CD experience go ahead and install it.

Installation Procedure:

• Insert the CD/DVD and restart your system. Make sure that your bios configuration is set to boot from CD option. You will see the screen below once it starts booting.

• Goto start or install Ubuntu and click it. Now you will see the window below.

• Once it finishes loading the kernel, then you will see the Ubuntu desktop as shown below.

• Select English and then proceed forward. You will see the screen below. Select the time zone nearest to you. You can select a place using your mouse.

• Next you need to configure your keyboard from the screen as shown below. Select American English Layout.

• Next, you need to give your personal details for logon as shown in the figure below.

• Next step is to select the hard disk that you want to install Ubuntu.

• Next step is the most important and a critical step. You should be very careful here. Here, you need to partition your hard disk for installing Linux. Linux supports many file systems like Ext2, Ext3 etc., the most commonly used one is Ext3. You need to create a separate partition space for installing Ubuntu as it uses a different file system compared to Windows file system (NTFS). If you already have windows installed in your system then select the manually edit partiton table and then create a separate space in Ext3 format. You also need to select a swap space which is double the size of you RAM. There will be a file format called swap, select that type to make swap space. If you don't have free space then you can actually make it here by deleting some portion of the disk. If you don't have any other Operating sytem installed then you can just erase the entire hard disk and install Ubuntu. It will take care of the file systems and the swap space to be created. Please see the screenshot below to have a better understanding.

• Next you will get a confirmation message showing the details about the partition that you have selected. This is your chance to check that everything is right before the installer starts making changes to your system.
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• Once you click on Install then Ubuntu will be installed and you will get a dialogue box showing the progress and then after finishing you will see another dialoge box to restart system as shown below.

• When your computer restarts, it will load Ubuntu if it is the only operating system on your computer. If there is more than one operating system, it will give you a choice to choose one to boot. After booting log in with the username and password you selected during installation. For any help goto System-> Help-> Documentation as shown below. Its time to explore , go ahead and have fun with your new Ubuntu!!!

If you have any doubts post them in the comments section and i will try to address them.