Kanotix 2005-04 Manual

Content | 1 What is Kanotix? | 2 How to burn a Kanotix-CD | 3 Installation | 4 Configuration | 5 Kanotix Update | 6 Appendix I | 7 Appendix II

3 Installation

3.1 Preparation

At first make sure that all important data are saved on separate storage media before you begin the installation! Then unplug all USB keys, cameras and other USB devices. You can find out how to make a backup with the live-CD in chapter 6.1 If you have a laptop make sure that you are plugged in. Running off battery can result in a faulty installation! Check the boot sequence of the BIOS. CD-ROM must be on the first place but this should be default for most modern computers (some BIOS versions allow switching the drive during the start up e.g. at AMI Bios; this can be done with F11 or F8).

Kanotix should start now from CD without any problems. If this is not the case some boot options (Cheatcodes) which can be given to the boot manager may help.

The "live mode" is not only interesting to discover the world of Linux, it's also useful to test if your hardware is supported or if it is possible to configure it. Printer and network settings (internet access) can be done quite comfortably with the tools from the Kanotix menu (Button with the Kanotix symbol in the control bar), submenu network/Internet and Configuration - configure Printer. Other settings can be accessed via the KDE control center (or alt + F2 + kcontrol). If you still encounter problems don't hesitate to ask for help in the Kanotix Forum, Wiki or IRC chat.

After you have tested the proper functionality of your hardware you can start the installation. An installed system is much more comfortable and moreover faster than a system run from a CD-ROM.

3.2 Hard drive Configuration

Start the Kanotix-Installer from the Kanotix menu (fish symbol) in the control bar which can be found in the corresponding submenu. If possible you should test all devices which you intend to use later on. Be aware some hard ware might not work with ease like some scanners or WLAN-cards but often you can tweak around to get satisfying results. In this case The Kanotix Forum, Wiki, IRC, other Debian based projects or Google will be your friend.

Please first read carefully the info texts introducing explanations. Then choose the desired installation mode. In our case it's "new installation". This mode is offered by default.

The root partition is where Kanotix will be installed. Choose the window "Partitioning". A preselection regarding the root partition, also called root directory or base folder, symbolized by a slash " / " and of the file system are shown. The Windows partitions are hidden for safety reasons, in particular to avoid an accidental deletion of those partition! These presettings can be accepted. In most cases it is necessary and wise to prepare the hard drive for an installation!

Before you start the partitioner check that no hard drives (partitions) are mounted! QtParted doesn't give an error message if partitions are mounted! This might be confusing for novices. However, you can verify the status with a right click on the desktop symbols of the hard drives. Suppose a partition is mounted you can unmount them with a right click on the symbols and "Unmount Partition". The safer way to check the status is from the console by typing mount (without any options). This will dump out all mounted file systems.

Under Linux drives are accessed as "device files". Moreover the naming of drives is different between Linux and Windows (examples of this concept are explained here). Under Windows the first "visible" hard drive partition receives the name "C:\ ". In contrast Linux first distinguishes between IDE hard disk drives (hd) and SCSI hard disk drives (sd). So hda is an IDE drive which is configured as primary master. hda1 would be the first partition on this drive (Windows systems usually have only one partition "created"!). An elaboratel presentation about this topic can be found in the Knowing Kanotix Book Book in chapter 4.2

Drives can be unmounted by the command unmount /dev/xxx (e.g. unmount /dev/hda1). If your hard drive already has a swap partition, keep in mind that you also must unmount this one. The command is: sudo swapoff -a. Another way is to enter "noswap" in the boot menu as additional cheatcode when you start Kanotix.

Now push the button to start the partitioner. This tool is still experimental but from experience you will encounter no problems when correctly used (advanced users can also use cfdisk instead of QtParted). QtParted is a tool for partitioning and formatting of hard drives. Moreover you can resize partitions. Be aware that all data will be lost if you formate a partition! Modifications on NTFS partitions should be done with professional Windows tools (Partition Manager, Partition Magic, Acronis).

The partitioning actions can be executed via the context menu (right click on the partition entries in the large window) or from the menu bar, respectively. However, all changes will be executed at the end and not before you push on "execute changes" in the menu under device, even though all actions are confirmed with "Ok"! A reboot might help if QtParted stops accepting actions after some actions have been executed.

As a matter of principle circa 3 GB should be sufficient for a proper running Kanotix but this is not a wise decision for a modern multimedia PC. Instead about 58 GB are more appropriate. For Linux novices it's recommended to only two partitions at the beginning because such an installation is easier: one partition for Kanotix (/root partition) and a second for the swap partition which is similar in the functionality of the Windows Swap Partition but more effective. It is better to create a unique partition for /home (see chapter 6.2). Advanced user can also split /var, /tmp, ... and so on. But this goes far beyond the scope of this manual. If you create a lot of small partitions make some notes about the partitions for later use. In general it's a good idea to use a second hard disk drive to improve the performance, comfort and security. Windows should always be installed on the first hard disk drive! A swap partition should be the double size of the RAM but not larger than 500 MB. If you plan to use "Suspend to RAM" or "Suspend to Disk" (hibernation) you must include at least 1.5 times the size of the RAM for the swap partition.

As standard file system for the Linux partition it's currently best to use ReiserFS. For the data exchange with a Windows installation, vfat (Fat32) is the best choice. The often told advice to install WindowsXP on Fat32 in order to guarantee an easy data access form Linux to Windows data is crude shenanigans. WindowsXP (WinNT, 2000 and 2003 too) need NTFS as file system to run to some extent safely.

After the partitions are applied you can finish QtParted.

Due to the fact that the installer formats only the root partition, it's important to format all other created partitions before the installation!

3.3 Installing Kanotix

In the "Partitioning" window of the Kanotix-installer, select the /root partition and the file system (with which this partition will be formatted). Additionally, you can set the mount points of the other partitions. This is useful if you want to create a separate /home directory and if you want to mount all your Windows partitions. The one who wants to create the /home directory on another partition will find the instructions in the appendix (s. also "/home directory on another partition" ).

After you have determined the partition table switch to the window "GRUB". Choose GRUB as boot manager and as installation destination MBR (Master Boot Record). GRUB recognizes whether there are other operating systems installed on your computer (e.g. Windows) and adds them to the boot menu.

Additionally you can create a boot floppy which can be used to start Kanotix if GRUB is corrupted, changed or even deleted in the MBR.

Now switch to the window "User" and enter a user name and the password which you later want to use. If you intend to add other users you can do this later on with the KDE user account tools or via console.

On the window "Network" enter the name for your computer.

Then switch to the last window "installation" to finish the procedure. Now save your configuration and start the installation with the corresponding button at the bottom-right. (The other menu entries apply to advanced users who want to add special settings to the configuration (/home/.knofig) or desire hard drive partitions which were not accepted by the automatic checkup).

In a popup window you can see now an overview of all the settings. Check these once more! If everything is correct, confirm them by pushing the Yes button.

Content | 1 What is Kanotix? | 2 How to burn a Kanotix-CD | 3 Installation | 4 Configuration | 5 Kanotix Update | 6 Appendix I | 7 Appendix II