[aclug-L] Re: setting up new computer

[Thomas Wallis <wallis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, John Reinke wrote:

> Forgive the simplicity of this post, but I've always worked with PCs that
> already had some OS installed, and I now have a new computer. It has a
> CD-ROM drive, a floppy, and an empty 13 gig hard drive, and I need to
> install Linux. All I have is the Red Hat 6 CD that came with the computer,
> although I hope to graduate to Debian ASAP. (I should mention that I just
> got cable modem access, so that can be used for large downloads if needed.)
> 
> Um.. er.. where do I start?

        Dear John:

        You need to make an inventory of the type of hardware in the
machine, especially the video, network, and sound cards, as well as
monitor refresh rates.  The video card chipset is especially important. 
The RedHat CD should be bootable. If everything works well, RH will detect
and install the correct software for your video card and network card. 
There is a sound configuration program under Mandrake (a RH relative) that
detects the sound card as well.  You can use this after the system is
stabilized.  I would partition my disk into at least three partitions: 

        /      = basically the whole OS  
        swap   = your swap partition (often 128M) 
        /home  = your user home directories.  

You could get fancier with seperate /var, /tmp, / , /usr, /home, and swap
if you like, but for home users, it is probably not needed.  If you
seperate /home onto its own partition, it makes backups easier.  You need
not back up the OS or installed programs (they can come from your CDs
again, if needed), but the user files are important. 

                                Hope this helps,

                                Tom Wallis

P.S. Cable modems work well with LINUX, if you have dchp set up correctly.
The LINUX machine will get it's TCP/IP address automatically from the
cable modem.  

 > > Thanks, > John Reinke
> 
> 
> 

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed here are my own and not those of WSU.

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