My First Linux Experience. . .

By : Shashanka , MCA, Christ University

About 12 years from now, I got my first assembled Personal Computer at home. That was the time when Windows 98 was the best Operating system and 40GB HDD was the maximum you could have. None of us in the family knew how to use a comp except that I had some computer classes at school where they used to teach me Logo, Pascal etc.,

I started using my comp and slowly started checking out things. My technician at that time had installed several software on my comp. The first thing that fascinated me was Win-amp 2.3 because I did not know that I could play music on a computer. After about an year, unknowingly my dad clicked on the Uninstall Win-amp icon in the control panel of Windows 98. The worst thing was. . None of us knew what uninstall was. .All depressed and disappointed we called the Technician to help us out.

The technician who came to my place did not carry a setup of Win-amp. So he installed a software called “Simply Music” which could be used to play music. We were left dissatisfied because we were very much interested in Win-amp. Luckily, my dad found a magazine called digit which came with a CD containing Win-amp setup along with several other software. Finally we had our Win-amp installed and running on our comp.

Fortunately or unfortunately, after installing Win-amp, we forgot to remove the CD from the CD Drive. The next time we switched on the comp, it started showing up some PCQLinux installation and all. . . We did not know that it was booting from the CD-ROM, neither did we know that PCQLinux is an operating system. We immediately called the technician and explained him about the problem. The technician removed the CD from the CD Drive and told us that it is an Operating System that was getting booted when we switched on the comp.

So, I knew that the CD contained an Operating System. About 2 years later, when I was trying to install a Age of Empires on my comp, I screwed up my system. The message told that some .dll files were missing. I was all puzzled and afraid, because I had not told my dad that I wanted to install a game on my comp. The next day in the morning (I still remember, it was a Saturday), I ran to my faculty in school and explained him about the problem. He told me that I had to reinstall my Operating System.

Now the word Operating System was familiar to me, because the technician had told that the CD that I had contained an Operating System installation in it. So I went home early since it was a Saturday. Felt lucky because dad was not at home. I thought I will set everything right before dad comes home. I inserted the CD and allowed it to boot from the CD. Hoffff !!! That was the worst installation experience that I ever had on my comp. That was the time when Linux installation was done using the non-GUI interface.

I had unknowingly deleted my Windows 98 Boot Partition. Now it stopped booting when I removed the CD from the CD Drive. It told me “Insert Boot Disc and Press any key. . .” Now, my system was not usable because Windows 98 stopped booting. Finally with no other option, I explained my dad about what all happened from the past 2 days. Dad gave a cool smile as if he knew what all happened and called up the technician. That was my first “unsuccessful Linux Installation “.

The technician re-installed my operating system. This time it was Windows 2000, which was the latest one available in the market. About 2 years later, there was some problem in my hard disc, because it used to have some weird sound while using the comp. We got the hard disc replaced. I keenly observed how to replace a hard-disc. Except that the old hard disc gave some weird sounds while running, it was working properly.

By now I had discovered that the CD had a detailed instruction on how to install Linux on a machine. On one particular Sunday, when my dad and mom were out for some shopping, I decided to install the old hard disc into my comp and try out Linux. I took printouts of the instructions given in the CD. Then started installing PCQLinux on my old hard disc.

Though things did not happen on the first go . . . finally by the end of the day, I was able to install Linux successfully on my comp (though I did not know how to configure drivers for graphics and sound). An experience that I can never explain. . . I could not believe myself . . . I had something different from Windows 2000 running on my comp. . . . I saw a lot of games on my comp . . . . Wow!!! I was excited . . . Many school friends came home to see Linux (though they did not know what it was). .

Now, in my journey, I have reached such a stage where I have installed 11 different flavors of Linux and Oracle Solaris on 39 machines in 1 month, without affecting the existing documents and OS on the system. Though this cannot replace my experience of installing Linux for the first time, it was a very nice experience trying out the never ending flavors of UNIX.

Number of Installations made: 39

Flavors of Linux Installed: Ubuntu 8.0, Ubuntu 10.10, Ubuntu 11.04, Fedora 12, Fedora 15, OpenSuse 11.0, OpenSuse 11.4, Mandriva, Puppy Linux, Nimble X Lite, RedHat 6.

Others: Oracle Solaris 11

Systems with data-loss after installing Linux: 0

Best User Experience: Ubuntu 11.04

Wow !!! Each Laptop is different. . .

Case 1: There were mini Notebooks that did not have a CD/DVD Drive and not much disc space. Though CD/DVD Drive was not a constraint, disc space was definitely a constraint. So, I made their pen drive as a bootable Linux device. This device will boot into Linux if the pen drive is inserted before switching on the power button. All files can be stored on the Windows Partition because the live disc could mount Windows Partition when it booted live.

Case 2: There were notebooks that did not have CD/DVD Drive, but had enough disc space. So, I created a USB Installer on my pen drive which could be made as the first boot up device and Linux was installed.

Case 3: There were a few HP Notebook Models in which the Hard Disc was locked by the Company. It did not allow installing any other operating system except from the recovery disc given by the manufacturer. After searching on the internet for almost 9 days, I discovered a tiny application which could unlock the hard disc. Then installing Linux was like playing my favorite game Need for Speed. .

Case 4: There were systems in which drivers were not detected by default. Trying to find drivers, checking if the driver was detected in some other version of Linux etc., were all in the game.

Case 5: Guys were sometimes more fascinated by the desktop effects in their friend’s system. So, convincing them and sometimes installing the same version as their friend, was all fun.

Linux Installation can be done in several ways depending on the compatibility and available disk space on the computer (Laptop in our case).

1. Use Linux through Live CD (without installation)

2. Install Linux through Live CD
1. Install on a custom partition
2. Install Linux alongside of Windows
3. Install Linux on Windows using Wubi / any other equivalent

3. Install Linux through USB Drive
1. Install on a custom partition
2. Install Linux alongside of Windows
3. Install Linux on Windows using Wubi / any other equivalent

How to Install Linux. . .?

Pre-Installation Arrangements:

• Boot into Windows à Right click on My Computer à Select Manage à Click on Disk Management

• Now, if Linux need to be installed on a new partition without affecting the Windows Boot Files, it should be preferably installed at the end of the Hard Disk Layout that you can see on the screen.So. . .Make the Last drive empty and create a partition of around 15GB for Linux. The rest of the space can be used as an NTFS Drive.

• Restart your system à Goto BIOS Setup à Select appropriate Boot Up Device à Press F10 and Return (to save and restart)

Installation process (not specific to any particular Linux flavor)

• The Linus Installation procedure has improved a lot and it is much easier compared to the installation that I did 10 years ago.

• The present day’s Linux installations are accompanied by Live Mode where you can check out Linux even without installing it. If you like it, you can install it on your hard disc while you continue to explore Linux on your Live Boot.

• Since installation is done in GUI Mode, setting up username, location and other details is very easy. The setup will lead you through the installation process without much difficulty. Once you start with the installation, the main thing that you need to concentrate is partitioning. If you mess up with the partitioning, your system will remain in an un-consistent stage.

• NOTE: Do not try to handle the partitions labeled NTFS, because they are the Windows Partitions.

• At the end on the list showing partitions, you can see a partition called freespace having the amount of disc space that you created in Windows.

• Select it à Click Add à Set the size to about 1024MB (1GB) à Select Swap area in the drop down menu à click ok

• Now you can see the Swap area in the partition list.

• Click on the remaining freearea à Click Add à Set the size of your partition (can be the whole freespace available) à Select Type as ext4 (ext3 in a few old installations) à Select Mount point as ‘/ ‘ and click OK.

• Optional: You can also have another partition exclusively for /home. If you want it, then Click on the remaining freearea à Click Add à Set the size of your partition (can be the whole freespace available) à Select Type as ext4 (ext3 in a few old installations) à Select Mount point as ‘/home ‘ and click OK.

• All done, Click ‘Install’ à Sit-back while the Linux takes you through a quick demo explaining all its features.

• Once the Installation is completed, you will be instructed to remove the installation media and reboot. Do it.

• Select to boot into Linux. . .Your new Linux is Up and running. . . !!! Enjoy

Post-Installation Arrangements:

• Once you Log-in to Linux system, you need to create another user. It is important because, if your root user settings are screwed up, then you will not be able to Log-in to Linux. So, its better to have another user for all your experiments with Linux.

• In-order to set Windows as the default boot up operating system, you need to install ‘Start-up Manager’ from the Software Manager. Once installed, open it and set Windows as the default boot-up operating system.

• Now you are all set to Experience and Explore Linux on your Machine. . !!!

A few Software that may interest you:

• Tweak: Use this software to manage all the settings on your Linux machine
• Compiz Manager (ccsm): Your window to all the exciting animations on Linux
• Dia: Draw ER Diagrams easily
• VLC: Play almost all your media formats
• Libra Office: Your alternative for Microsoft Office
• Chromium: A browser from google, for all your browsing