1. The Mandriva Linux Installer

With the DrakX installation program, it doesn't matter whether you're a newbie or a GNU/Linux guru. The job of DrakX is to provide you with a smooth installation and an easy transition to Mandriva Linux's latest version.

[Dica]Dica

DrakX works best if all of your hardware is connected to your computer and powered on during the installation. Printers, modems, scanners and joysticks are just a few examples of peripherals which DrakX can automatically detect and configure as Mandriva Linux is being installed.

Figura 3.1. Very First Installation Welcome Screen

Very First Installation Welcome Screen

The first screen offers to run the installation with special options if the standard mode wasn't suited for your hardware. Let the installation start automatically with no options. If something goes wrong, see Seção 1.2, “Installation Options”.

1.1. The Installation Process

When the installer starts, you see a nice graphical interface (see Figura 3.3, “Choosing the Default Language”). On the left are the various installation steps, the current one marked by a highlighted bullet. The installation occurs in two phases: installation, then configuration.

Each step may present various screens. You can surf between those screens through the Next and Previous buttons. Additionally an Advanced button may be available to show more advanced configuration options. Note that most of the latter should only be used by expert users. But there's no harm in looking at them!

[Dica]Dica

The Help button displays explanations concerning the current installation step.

1.2. Installation Options

If something goes wrong during the first installation attempt, pressing F1 at the welcome screen (see Figura 3.1, “Very First Installation Welcome Screen”) opens a help window (see Figura 3.2, “Available Installation Options”). Here are some useful options to choose from:

Figura 3.2. Available Installation Options

Available Installation Options
  • vgalo: If you tried a default installation and didn't see the graphical interface (see Figura 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 Mandriva Linux you are given a number of options to work around problems related to older hardware. To try the installation in low resolution mode, enter 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 will 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 tells the installation program to bypass hardware detection. Therefore you will need to manually specify hardware parameters later in the installation process. You can add the noauto parameter to the previous modes, so depending on your hardware you may have to specify 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 RAM 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 linux mem=256M