INSTALLING PC LINUX OS

At the time this article was written, the current release of the distribution is PCLinuxOS 2007 Final. Like most popular distributions, it comes with a live CD installer and offers a readyto-go installation with lots of goodies included, to name but a few: Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Amarok, as well as eyecandy Compiz and Beryl 3D desktop managers. These and similar Vista-killer gems are now part of many modern Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn, LinuxMint 3.0, Mandriva 2007 Spring, Sabayon 3.4, and others. You can download the image from the PCLinuxOS site. Furthermore, you will need:

A computer with a modern processor, 256MB of RAM and a CD/DVD-ROM drive. Optionally, a virtualization product like VMware Player, VMware Server, VirtualBox, or others. I recommend the VMware Server, as the most wholesome package.

Finally, a confession. I have already written the PCLinuxOS tutorial once, for the 0.93 Big Daddy release. However, while it waited to be uploaded, the new version (2007) was released. After consultation with people on several forums, I decided to ditch the old tutorial and write a new one. That's about it. If you're ready, head on to the next page.

Warning for the 56K dial-up users: For the purpose of better readability, I will use full-size images rather than thumbnails that link to images. This may cause some slowdown during the loading of the pages. Again, you do not have to really do any of this. You could just read and practice the next time you really install from scratch.

But I suggest you try to follow the instructions and do it for yourself. You will only benefit from it.
Booting into live CD session

Before you begin, make sure you have everything ready for the installation: 1. You have downloaded and burned the PCLinuxOS 2007 Final .iso to CD. 2. You have allocated the required hardware resources (dual boot, second machine or a virtual machine). 3. (Optional) You have installed and configured the VMware Server and created a PCLinuxOS virtual machine. 4. You know how to boot from CD (regardless of the installation platform). If you have troubles with the above stages, you really should read the other Linux articles ... Insert the CD and boot. If you have configured everything correctly, you should see a pleasant-looking boot screen, offering you several choices. At this stage, we want to boot into the live session.

Just like Mandriva, PCLinuxOS will ask you to configure your regional settings before you reach the desktop.

Additionally, you will have the opportunity to setup your network connection. This is a very good idea. Trying to setup your Internet connection while booting into the live session will give you an excellent indication into how well PCLinuxOS integrates with your network infrastructure. You will be able to fully harmlessly test different setups and see how (and if) they work.

Once you configure your network, you will reach the login screen. If you wish only to enjoy the live CD without installation, you should definitely use the guest account. For our installation, we must use the root account.

PCLinuxOS has a very nice-looking KDE desktop.

Although PCLinuxOS uses the KDE, which is a single-click desktop by default, in this instance, the double-click is necessary to make things work. It is obvious that this small, simple change is meant to put new Windows converts at ease. Double click on the Install PCLinuxOS icon to begin. The Draklive wizard will pop up and guide you through the installation.

First, you must chose the type of hard drive that you want to install PCLinuxOS.

Partitioning
Now comes the crucial issue of partitioning. I have most thoroughly covered the partitioning section in all of my other tutorials. Furthermore, the partitioning in PCLinuxOS is virtually identical to that in Mandriva. Please accept my humble laziness and refer to theInstalling Mandriva Linux - Page 2 for extra details, should you require help.

What I'm going to do?

Well, as always, I will custom-partition the hard disk. I like to partition the hard disks in the following order swap, root and home, with root and home formatted in ext3filesystem.

Alternatively, you can simply use the free space and let the wizard make the choices automatically. Be very careful if you have more than one hard disk, if the hard disks are not empty or if you dual, triple or multi-boot with other operating systems. All of these issues have been extensively covered already.

First, you will be asked to backup your data. Since our hard disk is empty, we can proceed.

It's time to create partitions. You can choose Auto allocate if you are not comfortable with partitioning. Remember than none of the changes you make will be written to the hard disk until you click Done, and even then, you will be prompted twice about your choices, so do not worry.

Here's what I did. I toggled to expert mode. Then, I created a 512MB swap partition, a 5GB root (/) partition and a 2.5GB home (/home) partitions. Different colors correspond to different filesystems. Note: Using the expert mode allows you to specify partition size by writing an actual number in designated field rather than using a slider to set the value. The slider is not very precise and may annoy you if you are anal about numbers like I am.

Once you click Done, you will be informed that the Partition table will be written to the disk.

And again, a big red warning! The partitions will be formatted (in the selected filesystem format). At this point, it is important to note that the Draklive wizard has a tiny glitch. In the expert mode, you have the ability to format partitions (see under Choose action in the image above). If you do so, you will not get to see the big red warning. On the other hand, if you use the expert mode, it is very likely that you know what you're doing.

Next, another warning / message that the installation is about to begin. Click Next to proceed.

At this stage, the installation will begin. It should not take much more than 10-15 minutes.

Bootloader
After all of the system files have been copied, you will have to setup the bootloader. I will not go into details regarding bootloaders (a separate tutorial is in the oven ...). For most people, the default choice should work. Nevertheless, you have the option of choosing between GRUB and LILO bootloaders. GRUB is more advanced and yet better suited for new Linux users. It is also the default choice. The second drop-down entry allows us to choose where the GRUB will be installed. Again, the installer will make the right choice for you.

Now, you have the ability to edit the boot menu. The entries shown in the list are the actual choices that you can make when the bootloader (in our case GRUB) starts up. If you want, you can add new entries, modify existing entries or even remove some of them. Unless you know what you're doing, you should not meddle. At most, you may change the labels of the entries, so they are more easily recognizable. I have explained this briefly in the Mandriva tutorial, on Page 3.

For more serious GRUB configurations, please wait until I post the GRUB tutorial ...

Root password & user

Make sure to set a strong password. And remember it.

Configuring users is similar to Mandriva. You will be able to create as many new users as you want. At this stage, we'll create a single one, our favorite Roger Bodger. After you setup the user parameters, click Accept user to create it.

Once satisfied with your choices, click Done.

The installation is now complete. Reboot.

Although this screenshot does not contribute to the tutorial, it shows the KDE dragon, which is worth the effort.

After you restart, you will see the GRUB menu. The boot options have generic labels. If you are not comfortable with just Linux, you can edit the GRUB menu once you reach the desktop.

Unlike Mandriva, PCLinuxOS will not ask you to setup your network now. We have already done that while booting into the live session. I think this is a much more sensible choice; you have the ability to configure your network properly before you install the distro. Now, you should login.

The installation is complete. Welcome.

On the next page(s), you will be able to get familiarized with PCLinuxOS and learn some basic configurations.
If you have setup your system correctly, you're ready to go. One of the first things you will probably do is fire up a browser and check out the Internet

Synaptic
The second thing we will do is to get acquainted with the package manager. PCLinuxOS uses the tremendously simple and effective Synaptic as the front-end and APT as the actual manager, leased from Debian and also used to great effect in Ubuntu.

Control Center
Control Center is the same centralized management application that you have seen and used in Mandriva. It offers easy and quick access to all system functions and configurations. Again, it is meant to put the Linux newbies at easy, by saving them from using the command line too often until they get comfortable with Linux.

Like all modern distros, PCLinuxOS aims at providing you with the necessary drivers without having to look for them all over the Internet. Much of this section has already been explained in the Mandriva guide.

Sharing
Although I have already written about this in the Kubuntu article, this is a nice chance to refresh the memory. Furthermore, in the best tradition of Dedoimedo of introducing a new thing in each article, I will show you how you can share files between PCLinuxOS and a Window machine, using Samba. Note: I have never used PCLinuxOS before. Both you and I are new users. Hopefully, this little demonstration will show how simple things are. For more details about network sharing, please read Highly useful Linux commands & configurations. In the Control Center, under Mount Points, click Set up sharing of your hard disk partitions. We will select the Custom option and

click OK to proceed.

We would like to use Samba, which is the preferred choice for multi-OS environment. ClickOK to proceed.

However, we get this error message ...

This means we do not have the Samba server installed. No worries, we'll install it. This should also demonstrate the simplicity and the power of apt. First, we will have to change our user to superuser. Unlike, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS does not support sudoing as well and works best when administrative functions are done as superuser. Next, we will update the list of repositories where we look for packages to install. And lastly, we will install the Samba server. That's it.

Once the Samba is installed, we need to setup Samba shares. Control Center > Mount points > Manage configuration of Samba By default, a placeholder called homes will be present in the list of shares under File share. We will remove it (Remove) and create a new share (Add).

Please note that you have the ability to create shared folders through this utility. I do not recommend it. You will be running the wizard as root - and consequently, the folders you create will have root permissions. This means that you will not be able to manipulate these folders as standard user. Therefore, you should create shared folders manually, within your home folder. Add a new entry. Point it to the directory that you wish to share (click Open and browse). The Comment is also required. Once finished, click OK.

Now we have created our share (it's called wShare), but it is not yet fully configured. We will have to modify it a bit.

Basic configurations - cont.

Now, we need to modify the share to actually make it usable. Click Modify. We'd like to make it Writable and Browsable. Again, you can share the Directory and the Comment, as well as configure other advanced options, which we will not change now. Click OK when finished.

But we're not yet finished. We need to define the users that can access the shared directories. Click on the Samba Users tab. As you can see, there are currently no Samba users. We'll add one.

The Samba user can be defined only from the pool of existing users. For this reason, you have the option to access Userdrake and configure new users, if you do not wish to use your existing user as a Samba user. Too many times the word user has been ... used in the last sentence.

Now, we need to test our work. We need to locate the Home.

wShare directory inside

And then, we shall create an empty file so when we access through Windows, we won't have any doubts.

Now, we will verify the IP address (as superuser in Terminal, /sbin/ifconfig) and then access this location from a Windows machine on the same network. When you access from Windows, you will be asked for the username and password (the Samba username and password). Voila! P.S. Isn't Windows so much less appealing?

Actually, as you can see, our initial choice of going via

Set up sharing of

your hard disk partitions was an unnecessary one. I could have simply not
written anything about it. The goal was to show that when you stumble upon an obstacle, Linux is flexible enough to offer alternative approaches. This is indeed the case here. PCLinuxOS supports progressive (as in your solution evolves as you move along) thinking and troubleshooting. The same logic and principles apply for Printer sharing, as well as other configurations. They can be done easily via command line for those in the know - but they can also be equally easily configured using only GUI.

What have we done so far?

Well, quite a lot actually.

You are familiar with KDE, so you know what to do and how to do it.

Graphic card, network, printers, and more can all be simply configured via the Control Center. Synaptic as simple as it gets, both including system updates and new software installations. We shared resources between Linux and Windows, using only GUI to configure them.

That's about it, I believe. I will not go into details regarding the applications and other configurations. You can read about these in much details in my other articles.

Commentary
I do not usually compare distributions, but there are some things worth mentioning, especially in regard to Ubuntu (or rather Kubuntu) as well as the previous version of PCLinuxOS (0.93 Big Daddy), which I have thoroughly tested only a few weeks ago.

PCLinuxOS 2007 introduces some polish to an already shiny distro. Big Daddy did have some slight quirks; notably, Samba server would not start well and the mmc.conf (Control Center) would refuse to quit sometimes. These tiny bugs are gone. Well done. Synaptic / APT is slower than in Ubuntu / Kubuntu. This is because the default, free servers are not very fast. A donation will allow you to access premium server. In this regard, Ubuntu wins down with the 100% community approach.

Conclusion
PCLinuxOS if a fair choice for Linux newbies. It is a reasonable alternative to other distributions, although I still believe that Ubuntu takes place no.1 as the most newbie-oriented distro, but PCLinuxOS is darn close. Truth to be told, it is a young Linux distro and has yet to grow and reach its full potential. Furthermore, the choice of colors and menus is simple and clean and pleasing to the eye. The most critical functions are easily accessible. PCLinuxOS offers a

friendly hand to the new converts. And in terms of functionality, like all popular choices, it offers everything, a broad range of excellent application, 3D gadgets, and an almost complete outof-the-box experience. A fair bargain, by all means. If you have followed this article through and hopefully installed and tested the distribution for yourself, you have made yet another important step into the world of Linux.

You have mastered a new distribution (and successfully overcome the partitioning woes). You have learned to get around in PCLinuxOS, configure network and install drivers. You have learned how to configure Samba and share resources between Linux and Windows. You should have strengthened your existing knowledge and experience of Linux.

That's all, folks. Happy Linuxing! Have fun and enjoy.