Fedora 12 Quick Installation

If you have a little bit of experience with computers and a computer with common hardware, you can probably install Fedora pretty easily. The procedure in this section will get you going quickly if you have:

• Media — The Fedora installation DVD or live/install CD

• PC — A Pentium-class PC (at least 200 MHz for text mode; 400 MHz Pentium II for GUI) with a built-in, bootable DVD or CD drive, at least 128MB of RAM (for text mode) or 256MB of RAM (for GUI mode).

• Disk space — If you are installing from the live CD, you need at least 3GB of disk space. Keep in mind that the live CD install only copies the live CD files to your hard disk. You don’t get to select individual packages, as you do when installing from the DVD. (The fact that files are compressed on the CD accounts for the need for more hard disk space than the 700MB CD image would indicate.)

With the DVD, depending on which packages you choose to install, the disk space you need can range from about 600MB (for a minimal server with no GUI install) to 10GB (to install all packages). I recommend from 2GB to 3GB minimum if you are installing a desktop system. (The Fedora Project recommends at least 5 percent of additional free space, plus any disk space you require for user data.)

For this quick procedure, you must either be dedicating your entire hard disk to Linux, have a preconfigured Linux partition, or have sufficient free space on your hard disk outside any existing Windows partition.

Here’s how you get started:
1. Insert the Fedora 12 installation DVD or live CD into your computer’s drive.

2. Reboot your computer.

3. The next step depends on whether you are using the live CD or DVD

• For the DVD, choose whether you want to install or upgrade an existing system.

• For the install/live CD, let the boot screen time out. When the CD boots up to a GNOME desktop, double-click the Install to Hard Drive icon to begin the installation.

During installation, you are asked questions about your computer hardware and the network connections. After you have completed each answer, click Next. The following list describes the information you will need to enter.

• Install or Upgrade — If you are installing from DVD and have an earlier version of Fedora installed, you can choose Upgrade to upgrade your system without losing data files. Otherwise, you can continue with a new installation by selecting Install Fedora.
(Upgrades are not supported when you are installing from the live CD.)

• Media Check — If you are installing from the DVD, you can optionally check the DVD to be sure it is not damaged or corrupted. This choice is not on the live CD.

• Language Selection — Choose the language used during the install (you can add other languages later). This choice is not on the live CD.

• Keyboard Configuration — Choose your keyboard type from a list of international keyboard types

• Select Hostname — Choose a hostname for your system.

• Time Zone Selection — Identify the time zone in which you are located. Uncheck the System Clock uses UTC box if you are booting multiple operating systems from this machine because most operating systems expect the BIOS clock to match local time.

• Set Root Password — Add the root user account password.

• Disk Partitioning Setup — Choose to remove Linux partitions, all partitions, or no partitions (and use existing free space) to have space to install Fedora. Because repartitioning can result in lost data.

• Boot Loader Configuration — Add the GRUB boot manager to control the boot process. (GRUB is described later in this chapter.) With multiple operating systems on the computer, select which one to boot by default.

• Choose Software — If you are installing from DVD, choose from several preset installation classes, such as Office and Productivity (for laptop, home, or desktop use), Software Development (desktop plus software development), or Web Server (file, print, Web, and other server software). I suggest you also select Customize now so that you can see exactly which packages you have selected (and add others if you want to). If you are installing from the live CD, you won’t be able to choose the software to install (in this or the next step) because the entire contents of the CD are installed to hard disk.

• Installation Categories — If you are installing from DVD, select each category that appears to see which groups of software packages are installed. Then select the Optional packages button to add or subtract packages from each group.

• Installation — Up to this point, you can quit the install process without having written anything to disk. When you select Next from the installation categories, the selected packages are installed.

When installation is done, remove the Fedora DVD and click Exit to reboot your computer. If you installed from the live CD, reboot your computer and remove the live CD before it’s time for the installed system to boot. Linux should boot by default. After Linux boots for the first time, Firstboot runs to let you read the license information, set the system date and time, add a user account, and optionally, send the Fedora Project details of your system hardware. On subsequent reboots, you will see a login prompt. You can log in and begin using your Linux system.

NOTE: After answering the questions, the actual installation of packages from the DVD takes between 20 and 60 minutes, depending on the number of packages and the speed of the computer hardware. For the live CD, the installation process is typically much faster because the contents of the CD are simply copied to hard disk. Upgrades can take much longer.

Source of Information :  Wiley - Adobe Fedora Bible 2010 Edition Featuring Fedora Linux

Fedora 12 Quick Installation