I'd really like to install it in its own "space" on my system. I have a 40 gig drive set aside for linux, but looking at the "live" Kanotix cd I have, I can't see how to install it.

So I'm obviously missing the obvious, which is it needs doing from command line. That's fine. But I have not one clue what to "tell it"....

Help?

And as always, thanks guys!
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Hi Vkaryl, installing Kanotix is pretty easy [src and you can read hard drive installation from the Kanotix forums directly]:


All major actions in Linux occur in root mode. Usually you'd have to put in the root password at this point, to do anything at root mode, but since this is a live cd, you get to skip that step, and go straight to the root terminal. Don't be confused with the syntax, the root terminal is the same as the regular terminal, only you start it with root privileges.

The Linux terminal is pretty much the same as the fake dos terminal window on windows 2000 and XP, only much better, and much more powerful. It's also nicer looking.


In other words, your terminal is open, you're logged in as root, and you type in [everything after 'root#':


and hit enter. The command line is much less intimidating than it sounds.


If you have ever used Partition Magic, QTParted will look familiar to you. Make sure to commit the changes once you've partitioned the disk by the way.


But feel free to use a gig, it really doesn't matter much. Remember, make hdb1 the swap partition, say 512 mB, hdb2 /, that's the root partition, make it say 8 gigabytes, and if there is the option, make hdb3 /home. You could also make 3 primary partition right now, hdb1 swap, hdb2 /, and hdb3 an extended partition, for storing the rest of the linux partitions you might want to install. Then hdb4 would be /home, and you'd leave the other 20 gig or so empty for future use.

Actually, if you are using 1 gig of ram, there's no reason to make swap any bigger than 512 mB, it will never get used anyway.



Make sure to create a boot floppy disk if Kanotix gives you that option, can't remember if it does. If you ever install say another Windows or XP SP 2, it will overwrite your master boot record. You can always create a boot floppy from the command line after you install kanotix though so it's not a big deal if you don't see that option during installation.

Note on Linux terminology
By the way, anyone who works routinely with the web, especially if you use real webservers like Apache on Linux/Unix etc, is already much more familiar than they realize with Linux command syntax.

For example, on your website, you have the / root, and on linux/unix you have the same exact filesystem, the / is the very root of your filesystem. Why is this? It's simple, the web was built on Unix from the ground up.

/home is where user data is stored, just like on most good web servers. There are other places its stored, but for now that's a good reference.

The paths are also the same, ../ means one level up, /home/path/file.txt is just like on a website, again, unix and the web and websites are the same thing.
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O-KAY! That doesn't sound so bad (keeping firmly in mind that it's been 20 years since I was a whiz with dos....)

I'll print that, connect through my laptop to your link to "src", and should be good to go. If I have trouble I'll report back, but your instructions make sense already, so I think I'll be fine.

I knew I'd have to partition first. There won't be an NTFS partition on the drive. I WILL have to install to the master boot record as I'm not already dual-booting anything, so no boot loader....

Yes, I had noted already that much of the terminology was familiar from my web-centricity the last 10 years or so. I had NO clue about "terminal" however, and LESS than no clue about root terminal!

Thanks - I appreciate the hand-holding NO END!
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Among other things Windows is hiding from you is the fact that you do in fact have a boot loader, it's located in your hard drive 0 master boot sector, and on c: you can see the rest of it, it's a collection of files, boot.ini, NTLDR, and a few others.

If you opened up boot.ini, you'd see the boot parameters, and if you added a time delay parameter you'd see the boot loader on each boot.

When Kanotix installs, it will overwrite the disk 0, master boot record, what your bios uses to boot up your system, with grub boot loader, that's fine though, it's a better boot loader than the windows one anyway, by a big margin.

Re terminal: actually, if you've ever SSHed into a webserver, that's secure shell, you've been running a remote access terminal.

Note: Install all peripherals
It's easier to get Linux to find your outboard stuff on install than after, so make sure it's all attached, modem, scanner, printer etc.
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Yeah, figures.... brings up a question: with the laptop running and connected to the 'net, will that cause any problems with the network discovery/setup?
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Here's more from the Kanotix site, Hard drive installation:


I'm not sure if this is the same in the new 2005-3 release by the way, not sure, Kanotix is a german distro so you might want to see if these options are available, I think it doesn't matter though. You do want ALSA sound though, that's the new Linux sound driver.


Konsole = console = terminal window, KDE puts 'k's in front of all their program names, it's cute.


sudo is how you access root mode in live cds often, it just means drop me into super user, root mode for this option.


I assume he added QTParted since writing this.


I recommend you choose ReiserFS for your / and /home


Or just use the same password, it's easier to remember, make it a real password, like d4qU9fG or something.



And that's it, Kanotix is pretty easy to install, but I've played around with enough Linuxes to have lost a certain being at a loss when I see things, so it's hard to say for me how easy or hard it actually is for someone who hasn't installed a linux before to get it installed. If you consider drivers in Windows, I'd say it's easier by quite a bit than installing Windows on most machines, assuming all your hardware is correctly detected.
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COOL! I LOVE information.... printing that one too....

I figured out that choice at the grub prompt.... only one that made sense to me....
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I'd print it again, I just edited it while you were typing.



Possibly, but Kanotix is pretty well done, so if you are able to connect with external modem then you will be able to get Kanotix running, although you might have to do some tweaking, Linux and modems aren't the best friends in the world.
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Yup, so I see. Will do....
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Okay, that was easy. Thanks again for the handholding.

Now I'm starting a new thread for my new selection of questions....
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