Step-By-Step Installation Guide { (K)UBUNTU LinuX }

Booting into live CD session & beginning of installation

Let's start.

Make sure you have everything ready - your PC and the installation disk(s).

* If you are installing Kubuntu as a virtual machine, make sure your VMware Player or Server are properly configured and that you have the necessary .vmx and .vmdk files.
* If you are installing Kubuntu for real, make sure that you have dedicated the necessary space on your hard disk for the installation - it can be an existing partition or some free space.

To begin the installation:

1. Place the Kubuntu CD in the CD-ROM tray.
2. Start the VMware Player / Server and open the Kubuntu .vmx file (e.g. named kubuntu.vmx).


With the virtual PC booting, hit Esc button to enter the BIOS setup. Select option 3. CD-ROM Drive. Hit Enter to start booting from CD.

After a few seconds, you will be presented with several options. Highlight the first option, Start or Install Kubuntu and hit Enter.



The Live CD will start loading. This will take a few minutes.



Soon, the Live CD will load into the familiar KDE desktop. At this stage, if you have never before experienced Linux, you might want to spend some time getting familiarized with the basics. For example, you may want to try the Open Office suite or Konqueror browser. For all practical purposes, you have a live CD, which you can use for safe browsing, backup or recovery of your data, CD/DVD burning, and more.

However, to install Kubuntu, single-click on the Install icon on the desktop.



You will have to configure your installation in 6 easy steps. The first step is to choose your language. Although Cymraeg sounded tempting, I opted for English. Highlight your language and click Continue >.



Now, select your country and time zone. This is done by clicking with the mouse on the desired location on the world map, or by using the drag-and-drop list below the map. Once satisfied with your choice, click Continue >.



Now, select your keyboard layout.



User settings are next. Enter your name (real or fake), your preferred login name (username) and the password. Unlike SUSE, which requires a separate password for the root or superuser and the local user, Kubuntu will ask you for a single password that you will need to invoke actions that require administrative privileges. You should use a strong password that contains letters in lowercase and uppercase, numbers and alphanumeric symbols, like Tr#2o0We@. Do not lose this password! Without it, your system will be useless, and you might as well reinstall and start anew.

Based on your login name, the installer will suggest a computer name, e.g. name-desktop. You can change it or leave it as it is. Once satisfied with your choices, click Continue >.




Partitioning

The next step is the most important part of your installation - the preparation of the hard disk for the installation. In fact, this step is a combination of several crucial procedures:

* Creation of the Partition Table
Partition Table is a sector on the hard disk that will contain the information about partitions, their size, their file systems etc. Without the Partition Table, a hard disk is just a bunch of useless weight.
* Creation of partitions
To properly install a Linux distribution, the hard disk will have to contain three partitions - the Swap partition (/swap), which is used by the system for various operations, the Root partition (/ or /root), which is used to install the kernel and core operating system files, and the Home partition (/home), which is used to store user data and custom programs and installations.
* Mounting and formating of partitions
To make use of the created partitions, the installer will need to mount them (i.e. make them into drives) and format them to make them usable.

You will be asked to prepare your hard disk(s). You can decide to let the installer automatically configure your hard drives or perform a manual selection. In this case, We will make our own choices. Check mark the Manually edit partition table and click Continue >.



If you are installing into empty space or an unformatted partition, you will have to create a Partition Table first. This table will be the ultimate arbiter to which the system will refer to, telling it where Linux and / or other operating systems are installed, how the partitions are arrayed, in terms of size, physical location on the hard disk, file system etc. For example, Windows writes this information on the 0th sector of a hard disk, called Master Boot Record.

If your computer has several hard disks with active partitions, they will be listed too. Make sure you do not overwrite an existing setup. You should know in advance which partition you want to use for the installation. Your cue should be the Status of the partition. Empty means that the selected space if free and unpartitioned and can be safely used. Alternatively, you might want to use a partition that has been previously used by another operating system, like Windows.

For instance, you might want to use drive H:\ (as seen in Windows). In Linux, drive H:\ will have a different notation, something like hda4, hdb1 or sda3. Please refer to the article above for more details. After understanding how Linux marks down the hard drives and the partitions, track down your choice and use it for the installation of Kubuntu. You will need to first delete the existing partition (e.g. formatted with NTFS) and then create a new set of partitions (swap, root, home) on the freed hard disk space.

If this step proves too difficult, I will install Windows and Kubuntu as a dual boot system and provide screenshot examples to this problem so far only verbally explained above.

In this case, we have a single hard disk, previously unused. It is completely empty and has no information on it. In other words, all of the hard disk space is free. We need to create a partition table, first.

To create a new partition table, highlight the empty partition and right-click on it. Click Make a new Partition Table.



The installer will warn you about your choice. If you are absolutely sure the allocated space can safely be used to install Kubuntu, click Yes.



Now, we have the Partition Table. It's time to create our three partitions - swap, root and home.

As you can notice, the table now contains information about the hard disk. Furthermore, notice the gray bar above the table details. Before the Partition Table was made, the system had no information about the hard disk. Now, it is "mapped" and information can be written on.

Let's create the swap partition. Highlight the free space and either right-click on it, then choose Create or click the Create button in the menu.



You will now be asked to provide a more detailed information about the new partition you want to create. Under Create as choose Primary Partition (we need swap to be active). Under Partition Type choose linux-swap. Label the new partition swap. Give it a size that is at least equal the size of your RAM - in this case 512MB. Click OK to finish.



We have now successfully created the swap partition. Notice the changes in the table and the indicator bar above the table listing.

Now, we need to create the root partition. Highlight the free space and repeat the steps above.



The root partition also has to be made primary. Windows users may find this a bit peculiar. Windows installs on just one primary partition, while Linux seems to install on two (swap and root, and we will see home also). This is because Linux separates the three partitions physically although together they form one operating system.

We will format the Partition (Partition Type) as ext3, although you can choose other formats. The size should be sufficient to install the system and then some, to allow for future upgrades and updates. As you may have noticed, the installer warns that the root partition should have a minimum size of 2GB. In our case, we allocate 3GB.



The root partition is created. We need to create the home partition now. Again, the procedure is similar.








It is time to commit our changes. Click Continue >.


Completing installation

The installer will warn you about the changes you plan to do. Although "you can lost data!" sounds funny, you definitely get the message. You should be aware that writing to an active (mounted) partition will probably cause the system to crash and will result in the loss of data. You should not worry though; when booting from CD, the hard disk partitions, if they exist, are dormant.

All your changes will be recoverable until you start the installation in the sixth step of the install procedure. You will have some time and chance to revert your changes. To proceed, click Yes.



Once qtparted finishes committing the changes, click OK to continue.



Now, you will be asked to mount the partitions. Under Mount Point, select the type for each partition. Under Partition, assign the relevant partitioned space to each mount point. Indeed, earlier, we made three partitions, swap, root and home, which were labeled by the system as hda1, hda2 and hda3. Bear in mind these selections when preparing the mount points.

Reformat means the partitions will be formated, using the file system you chose earlier (linux-swap, ext3). Once you are satisfied with your choices, click Continue >.



You will be asked now to confirm your choices. After this step, the system will start to install and you will not be able to go back, so double-check your selections. When ready, click Install.



The system will start to install. There is no more need for further input from you until the installation is finished. Lean back and relax. Depending on your system performance, this should take about 5-20 minutes. In my case, the installation was complete within just about 5 minutes. The DVD installation will probably take longer.





Once the installation is complete, you will be prompted to reboot. Alternatively, you may continue using the live CD. We will restart and boot from the hard disk.




Boot the first time

The system will stop. You will be asked to remove the CD from the CD-ROM and close the tray. Hit Enter to continue.



The system will reboot and start loading from the hard disk. You will see the familiar load messages.



Enter your user name and password and hit Enter.



After a few moments, you will load into the KDE desktop. Congratulations! You have just successfully installed Kubuntu.







ThatS it

Enjoy ........................