Part III: Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution
Chapter 7: Installing Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Choosing a Linux Distribution ................................................................................254
Linux at Work ........................................................................................................254
Other Distributions ................................................................................................255
Getting Your Own Linux Distribution ....................................................................255
Finding Another Linux Distribution ........................................................................256
Understanding What You Need ..............................................................................256
Downloading the Distribution ................................................................................257
Burning the Distribution to CD ..............................................................................258
Exploring Common Installation Topics ....................................................................259
Knowing Your Computer Hardware ........................................................................259
Upgrading or Installing from Scratch ......................................................................261
Dual Booting with Windows or Just Linux? ............................................................261
Using Installation Boot Options ..............................................................................263
Partitioning Hard Drives ..........................................................................................263
Partitioning with Disk Druid During Installation ..........................................264
Partitioning with fdisk ..................................................................................267
Tips for Creating Partitions ............................................................................269
Using LILO or GRUB Boot Loaders..........................................................................271
Booting Your Computer with GRUB ..............................................................271
Booting with GRUB ......................................................................................272
Temporarily Changing Boot Options..............................................................272
Permanently Changing Boot Options ............................................................273
Adding a New GRUB Boot Image ..................................................................275
Booting Your Computer with LILO ................................................................275
Changing Your Boot Loader ..........................................................................279
Configuring Networking..........................................................................................280
Configuring Other Administrative Features ............................................................281
Installing from the Linux Bible CD or DVD ............................................................281
Summary ................................................................................................................282
Chapter 8: Running Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux . . . . . . . . . 283
Digging into Features ..............................................................................................285
Red Hat Installer (Anaconda) ..................................................................................285
RPM Package Management ......................................................................................286
Kudzu Hardware Detection ....................................................................................286
Red Hat Desktop Look-and-Feel..............................................................................287
System Configuration Tools ....................................................................................288
Going Forward with Fedora ....................................................................................288
Growing Community Support for Fedora ................................................................288
Forums and Mailing Lists ........................................................................................289
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Contents