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Preliminaries

Although the graphical installation process is fairly self-explanatory, it often helps to have a more thorough understanding of what's going on. First-timers will probably want to read this section to prepare themselves to install SOT Linux.

What is installation?

In a nutshell, installation is the process of copying the SOT Linux files from the installation medium to your computer's hard drive and of configuring these files. This process is handled for you by the SOT Linux installer. Because everyone's computer is different, the installer needs to gather information about your particular machine before it can get the installation right.

If your computer already has the Windows operating system installed, you'll be able to take advantage of the SOT Linux Windows Migration Tool. This program runs under Windows and collects all the hardware information necessary to install SOT Linux from your Windows registry. After this program has inspected your settings, it will start the main installer. Otherwise, the installer will automatically attempt to detect your machine's configuration, but if for some reason it can't figure out your computer's set-up it will ask you for advice, so it helps to know something about your machine before you begin.

Before you begin

Know your basic hardware

Get as much information about your computer's hardware as possible.

• Hard drive(s)--how many you have, how many megabytes (MB) each holds. If you have more than one: which is the primary hard drive and which is secondary? If you have existing operating systems that you wish to keep, which partitions do they reside on?
• Memory--how much RAM does your computer have?
• Network card--make and model.
• Mouse--what type is it, serial, PS/2 or USB?
• Modem--Who is the manufacturer, and which COM port is it on?
• Printer--make and model, and is the printer local or a remote one you share over a network?
• Sound card--make and model. If the card is non-standard, you may also need to know the IRQ and DMA settings as well as the I/O port.

If you want to use a graphical interface with SOT Linux (and you almost certainly do), then you should also try to find out about the following:

• Monitor--model, make, screen resolution.
• Video card--make and model, amount of RAM.

Your network information

If your computer is part of a local area network, or LAN, you will need to find out your computer's host name, IP address, netmask, gateway and name servers. Your network administrator should have this information.

Your disk partitions

If you're planning to run only SOT Linux on your computer and you have no other data on your hard drive, this section is not so important. You can dedicate your whole drive to SOT Linux and not worry about defining disk partitions (see Section 1.8.2).

If you want SOT Linux to share your computer with another operating system, you will need to set up separate partitions on your hard drive. The installation program will allow you to create and modify partitions, but it helps to plan the structure of your hard drive in advance. This way you can calculate how much space you need for each partition.

Know this! Repartitioning your hard drive can cause the loss of any information stored there! If you have files on the hard drive you'd like to keep, make sure you create backup copies elsewhere!

What's a partition, then? When you partition your hard drive, you effectively split it up into smaller self-contained units, each of which acts like a small hard drive in itself. If you think of your hard-drive as a bookcase, each partition would represent a single shelf.

Tell me more! Unlike real shelves, the partitions on your hard drive don't have to be the same size. Now that's one funky bookcase!

Partitioning is important if you want your computer to support multiple operating systems. Each operating system has its own unique method of organizing its disk-space. In general these methods are not compatible between operating systems. Because each partition on a hard drive is self-contained (its own "shelf"), a single hard drive can host multiple operating systems as long as each one receives its own partition.

So what partitions do you need on your hard drive? At a minimum you must have:

• SOT Linux root partition. This partition will hold all the system files for the SOT Linux operating system. A typical installation takes about 1 GB of space, but a full installation with all the bells and whistles can take up to 2 GB of disk space. To this you should add the amount of space that will be needed to hold the user files you create, software you plan to install from other sources etc., unless you're planning to store these files in a separate partition (see Partitions galore below).
• Linux swap partition. This is a special partition used by your SOT Linux system to help improve your computer's speed and performance. Use the following guidelines to determine how large your swap partition should be, depending on how much memory your computer has:
  • If you have 8 MB of RAM, or less, the size of your swap partition should be equal to four times your amount of RAM. For example, if your computer has 8 MB of RAM, your swap partition should comprise 32 MB.
  • If you have between 8 and 16 MB of RAM, you need a swap partition equal to twice your amount of RAM. For example, with 16 MB of RAM your swap partition should be 32 MB.
  • If you have more than 16 MB of RAM, your swap partition should be the same size as your RAM. So if you have 128 MB of RAM, you should have a 128 MB swap partition.
• One partition each for other operating system. If you have an operating system installed on your computer it will already have its own partition. Unfortunately, this partition may span the entire hard drive (some operating systems can be really greedy)! If this is the case, you will need to "shrink" the partition in order to free up some disk space for your SOT Linux partition. Shrinking of Windows partitions can be done in the SOT Linux installer (see Section 1.8.2). If you're planning on using this feature, it's a good idea to "defragment" your hard drive first using the "Disk Defragmenter" tool in your Windows Start>Program>Accessories>System Tools menu.

Partitions galore

If you feel the need to organize your disk space even more, you can create further partitions. For example, you might create a separate GNU/Linux partition to house all your work files, instead of keeping them on the root partition. You can have up to four partitions.

Help! I need more partitions!

If you find you need more than four partitions on your hard drive, don't despair! You can make one of your four primary partitions into an extended partition. The extended partition can then hold multiple logical partitions. Confused? This is like compartmentalizing one of your shelves by placing dividers along it. The shelf (your new extended partition) now holds a number of new compartments (the logical partitions). The logical partitions can be used just like you would an ordinary primary partition. The extended partition can't be used for anything, since it's just a container for the logical partitions.

You might find it helpful to complete the following form in order to plan out your partitions. Don't worry about the column headed "device name" - you can complete this later during installation (see Section 1.8.2).

	Partition worksheet
Device name	Used for...	Size (MB)
	SOT Linux root partition
	Linux swap partition
	Total MB

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