With DrakX –– Mandrakelinux's installation program –– it doesn't matter whether you're a newbie or a Mandrakelinux guru. DrakX's job is to provide you with a smooth installation and an easy transition into Mandrakelinux's latest version.
The first screen you see will present you with some information and installation options (Figure 3.1, “Very First Installation Welcome Screen”). Allowing the installation to continue will simply begin the installation in normal or “linux” mode. Next we'll go over some options and parameters which you can pass to the installation program if you run into problems.
Pressing F1 will open a help screen (Figure 3.2, “Available Installation Options”). Here are some useful options to choose from:
vgalo: if you have tried a default installation and didn't see the graphical interface (Figure 3.3, “Choosing the Default Language”) you can try to run the installation in low resolution mode. This happens with certain types of video cards. With Mandrakelinux we give you a number of options to work around problems related to older hardware. To try the installation in low resolution mode, type vgalo at the prompt.
text: if your video card is very old and the graphical installation doesn't work at all, you can always choose to install in text mode. Since all video cards can display text, this is the “last resort” kind of installation. However don't worry: it's unlikely that you'll need this option.
noauto: in some rare cases, your PC may appear to freeze or lock up during the hardware detection phase. If that happens, adding the word noauto as a parameter will tell the installation program to bypass hardware detection. With that option DrakX won't scan for hardware. Hence you'll need to manually specify hardware parameters later in the installation process. The noauto parameter can be added to the previous modes, hence depending on your hardware you may have to specify:
boot: vgalo noauto |
to perform a low resolution graphical installation without DrakX performing a hardware scan.
kernel options: most machines don't require specific kernel options. Due to bugs in the design or in the BIOS, there have been a few cases of motherboards incorrectly reporting the amount of memory installed. If you need to manually specify the amount of DRAM installed in your PC, use the mem= xxxM parameter. For example, to start the installation in normal mode with a computer containing 256 MB of memory, your command line would look like this:
boot: linux mem=256M |
Now let's move on to the actual installation process. When the installer starts, you'll see a nice graphical interface (Figure 3.3, “Choosing the Default Language”). On the left will be the various installation steps. You'll notice that the installation will occur in two phases: installation, then configuration. The list on the left displays all the steps. The current step is marked by a highlighted bullet.
Each step may present various screens. Surfing between those screens is made possible through the and buttons. Additionally an button may be available to show more advanced configuration options. Note that most of the latter should only be handled by expert users. But there's no harm in looking at them!