Part 4: OK, I'll do it - Installing Linux
OK, so you've decided to install a Linux of your choice? As I said earlier, most distributions come with graphical installers nowadays, so installing Linux has become very easy. Yet, there are things you might want to know. So here we go:
How many partitions should I make and how big should they be?
There is no one correct answer to this question, especially as there are a lot of different opinions concerning this matter.
The easiest is to have the installation suggest something, but if you have to make the choices yourself, I'd recommend the following sizes:
- SWAP: About the same size as your RAM
- '/': Depending on the size of your hard drive, I'd choose about 10% of your drive, but you'll not need more than 10 - 15 GB in most cases. Of course, you're free to make it bigger.
- 'home': It is not necessary to have a home partition, but if you have to reinstall your system, it is very useful not have to move your settings and personal files. Most of these are saved in the home directories. Make it the rest of your hard drive.
What's this SWAP partition?
When the computer is doing difficult jobs, it has to move around a lot of data in it's memory. Normally the RAM is used for that, but sometimes that's just not enough (or it's easier with more). For that reason, many operating systems including Linux use some sort of paging - it uses a file or partition as an extension to the RAM. The SWAP partition is exactly that.
Who is this superuser?
Different than many of the older versions of Windows and similar to the newer versions like XP and Vista, Linux is a true multi-user system. Everyone using this computer should have either an own account or use something like a guest account.
However, the normal user isn't able to just install programs or delete important files - that's what the superuser is for. (Similar by the way to the Administrator in Windows systems.)
When Linux is installed, such a superuser called root is created. If you want to run commands as the root user, you will (normally) have to open a terminal window and type su. Then you will be prompted to enter the root password.
In some cases, you never set a root password but instead, sudo is installed. In this case, sudo -i has the same effect, but you will have to enter your own password.
Now you can run commands as a superuser. Don't forget to run exit when you're finished. You should never run commands as a superuser if it's not absolutely necessary.
I forgot to install something while the system setup. Do I have to start again?
No, you don't. Everything (including system languages!) can be installed at a later point. I'll discuss this further later.
Back to Part 3 or
Continue with Part 5 
