Linux Configuration and Installation:Installing Linux






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Selecting the Target for Linux
This selection should be rather simple: You’ll want to install to the Linux partition you set up earlier in this chapter. When you select Target from the Setup menu, you’ll automatically be presented with this partition. This section covers the choices you’ll make; for the most part, you’ll want to go with the default choices.
Formatting the Linux partition is the next step. You’ll want to format the Linux partition for a new installation; however, if you’re using the setup program to upgrade from a previous installation, you won’t want to format the Linux partition.
Choosing inode density is next. Again, you’ll want to go with the default, unless you have Linux experience and know that the default won’t help you.
After the hard disk chugs and formats the Linux partition, you’ll be asked if you want to make a DOS or OS/2 partition visible (or, more technically speaking, mounted) from Linux—assuming that you’ve created such a partition. Making this partition visible won’t affect Linux performance, nor will it eat away at the size of the Linux partition. Because you may find it handy to move files via the DOS or OS/2 partition, you probably will want to make this partition visible. You’ll be asked to provide a name for the drive; the name doesn’t really matter, so we use dos or dosc. When you run the ls command later in your Linux usage, you’ll see dos or dosc listed as just another directory, and the files within will appear as Linux files.
Selecting the Source for Linux
You have five choices for where you want to install Linux from:


•  hard drive partition
•  floppy disks
•  NFS
•  premounted directory
•  CD-ROM

Because you’ve bought this book, we’ll assume you want to use the accompanying CD-ROMs for installation. However, other installation methods will be discussed later in this chapter.


NOTE:  There may be cases where DOS sees a CD-ROM drive with no problems but Linux cannot. In these cases you won’t necessarily know about this problem until you try to install Linux from the CD-ROM and are told that the CD-ROM drive does not exist. In this case, there are two ways to go: Search for a Linux bootkernel that supports your CD-ROM or use DOS to copy the installation files to a hard drive partition. The first option was discussed earlier in this chapter; the second option will be discussed later in this chapter.

The setup program then gives you a set of choices about the CD-ROM you’re installing from. The choices are straightforward; if you’re using a Sony or SoundBlaster CD-ROM interface, you certainly would have known about it before now (you would have needed the proper bootdisk to get to this point), so there are no surprises on this menu.
Should You Keep Some Stuff on the CD-ROM?
For those of you with smaller hard drives, Slackware gives you the option of doing a partial install, leaving some of the program files on the CD-ROM and running it from there. The advantage, of course, is that you keep hard disk space free that normally would be devoted to Linux. The disadvantages come in the form of speed—accessing your CD-ROM drive is slower than accessing your hard drive—and in tying up your CD-ROM drive with Slackware. Our recommendation, of course, is to install everything to your hard drive; this offers the best performance overall, and it’s the easiest system to maintain.

However, Slackware does offer an alternative that uses the CD-ROM, as slaktest links /usr to /cdrom/live/usr and runs everything from the CD-ROM. This yields a Linux hard disk installation of 10 megabytes or so. The disadvantage, of course, is that you’ll need to completely reinstall Linux if you decide to upgrade your system.
If it sounds like we’re a little negative about the idea of running Linux off of the CD-ROM, it’s because we are. If you’re careful about installation, you can easily install only the parts of Linux you’re really going to use. And by running partially from the CD-ROM, you’re sacrificing both speed and flexibility.
If you’re doing a normal install, choose the slakware selection.



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