Main index

Introducing UNIX and Linux


Installing Linux

Overview
Starting out
Preliminaries
      Collecting information about your system
      Installation options
Single boot
Dual boot
      Booting from CD/floppy
      Booting from your hard disk
      A partitionless install
      A dedicated Linux partition
Emulators
      VMware
      WINE
Installing Linux
      Installer software
      Linux partitioning
            Typical partitions
            User accounts
      LILO
The window manager
KDE
      Desktop help
      Applications
      The KDE Control Center
      File access and the command prompt
Summary

Typical partitions

/ root partition, stores Linux installation and program files
/boot stores Linux kernel (might be found under root partition)
/home used to store your personal files
/usr used to store your program files
/tmp used to store temporary files
/var used for variable size data including unprocessed email etc.
/swap used as extra memory by working files and applications

The sizes you choose to set for each of these partitions depends on your needs. One option is to allocate 10% for the / (root) and /var partitions, 30% for the /home partition and 50% for the /usr partition. The size of your /swap partition will vary, but agood rule-of-thumb is for the size of swap partition to be double the size of your RAM. The installer software will create, format and mount these partitions and then begin the installation proper.

The installer will allow you some control over the software that you decide to install. In the first instance, it is sensible to install all of the packages that are recommended. You will be able later to uninstall some of the packages if you later find that they are of no use to you.


Copyright © 2002 Mike Joy, Stephen Jarvis and Michael Luck