Installing Vector Linux

Installing Vector Linux





Installing OS with gore series




Introduction:




Vector Linux isn't exactly well known, but it is actually quite nice if you like Slackware. It's very similar to Slackware Linux but has a few different things in it, but actually uses almost everything Slackware does for configuration, and the tools actually say Slackware. It's based heavily on it.

think Libranet and DebIan. Only main difference is a few tools and the installation.







Getting started:



To get started with the installation, just simply pop in the install CD and reboot.

when you first boot up you'll see a text screen.

Press Enter at the boot prompt and you'll see the same text screen you see with most Linux distros. You then see a very colorful nice looking text screen saying to press Enter.



After you press enter, you start a config screen for the keyboard map. It looks a lot like Free BSD. OK so it's EXACTLY like it.I'm in the US so I just hit Enter here as US is selected by default.


At the next screen, just press the "1" key on your keyboard and hit enter.



Now is the tricky part.... Sort of.


I have existing Linux partitions on this disk, so it found them.

If you wanted to use the partitions you may have already set up, then tell it to use them. I'm going to press Enter here as "Yes" is already selected, so this way I can set up all the partitions myself.



After you have pressed Enter, you come to a screen asking how yuo want to partition the disk. I'm going to choose CFDISK because I like it. If you know how to use Parted, then go for it. You need to make one Swap Partition and one Linux Partition.


It's mainly personal preference, so sue what you're comfortable with.

If you don't know how to do either, then just sit back and releax and read how I do it. Generally you'll want to make the FIRST partition the Swap space as that will put it closer to the begining of the disk where it's faster.

I have 384 MBs RAM in that machine so I'm going to make swap around 772 MBs. If you have 512 a GB if Swap is good.


Press the down Arrow Key once and press Enter to select CFDISK.


When you press Enter you're taken to the CFDISK screen to make the partitions.

If you're dual booting, you're on your own for now. Maybe when i get to it I'll teach a dual boot for this Linux but for now, I'm using the entire machine. So the first thing you should do is get used to moving the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Move the up and down arrow keys to select partitions. Move the left and right keys to select options. easy huh?



Delete all the partitions with CFDISK.

When you have that done, you have one partition left to work with. Create a new partition by pressing the right arrow key once, and press Enter when you have "New" highlighted.

You're going to make a new primary partition and at the begining of the drive for the swap.

When you ahve it created, press the right arrow keys until you have "Type".



You now press the Enter key 3 times. and you're done with that partition.

Press the down arrow key to select the other partition, and again create a new partition. And again at the begining, and then press Enter again because it auto selects the last remaining space left.




Now you should have two partitions. Now press Enter again to make that last one bootable.


Now go to "Type" again and press Enter, then Enter again, and type 83 for the Partition type which is Linux.

Now you just move with the right arrow key until you have "Write" selected. Press Enter and then type yes and Enter again.

This writes the partition table which doesn't take long.

You're almost done now with partitioning.


Move the left arrow key 4 times to select "Quit" and press Enter.

Now you're at a new screen telling you to reboot.

PRess the Down arrow key once and press Enter.


you see rebooting in 3 seconds and some text.

When the machine reboots, you'll seem to start the install over, which I admit is odd for an isntall.


so press Enter at the boot prompt again.

you're not restarting the whole install though so don't worry.

Again when you come to the screen with pretty text press Enter again.

And then again for the US Map.

Then PRess 1 on your keyboard like you did before for the Keyboard map and NOw you start the install.


this is where you come to the screen for partitions, which you just set up, so do this:


Right arrow key one time

"No" is selected

Press Enter.

Now press Enter again so this can check the install.




You see blue text saying "searching".




Hit enter again when you see the little screen saying it found the installation media OK.



The screen should now say "Target Partition".



Just press Enter here as it's saying it found the only Linux partition on the system.



this screen says the Swap was found and so you really just need to press Enter.

The next screen is up to you, you can check for errors on the install or, like me not giving a **** because you've installed 3 times to make sure you have it down now, you KNOW it's fine, just press the Right arrow key once and press Enter to say No.


This is where the File system type is seelcted.

you can use ExT2, 3, or, like me, Reiser. Whic is one of the best.


Resiser should be used when possible because it's not only faster than most other journaling File systems, it's very awesome with speed AND journaling, If for some reason teh system crashes you don't need to sit there while it gets checked because Resiser has a log of what happened, why and where so it's faster on recovery too.

So press the Arrow down key one time and press Enter.



The next screen shows the developer has a sense of humor.

Press the down arrow key once, and press Enter.



It makes the file system. Now you get a scarey warning saying it will do what it said it would do.

Just press "y" and press Enter.



The next screen, just press Enter.



The install is now starting, just relax as it starts installing the system. You can get coffee, send me money, or, smoke. Which I'm going to do.

I smoke when I wrote these to much.

when this finishes, you can now select a Kernel. For the most part you can just press Enter for the default, but if you need SCSI, simply select that one instead.


The Kernel gets done idntalling after a few moments depending on how fast your machinen is and then, you have the choice of installing X or not. Again this is up to you but for the newbies reading this, I'll walk you through this too.

Press Enter and Yes is auto selected, but if you don't need X, press the right arrow key once and hit Enter.


after you hit Enter, if you selected yes for X to be installed, it begins installing the X system. this can take some time and again grab a coffee or something.

My Slackware 20 machine just booted up in 40 seconds and that's without shutting down any services. I'm only adding that to show you how big X is. The install is still installing X while Slackware had time to have the power button hit, and boot up waiting for me to log in long before this was finished.


Now the system is installed and ready to be configured.

This screen tells you about the configuration a little, just press Enter.


after you press Enter, you see the same screen you did if you have ever installed Slackware Linux. I mean EXACT screen. This si the screen for installing LILO.

Just press Enter as "Simple" is selected already.

The next selection you make depends. If you have old or weird hardware, you may want to select the one at the top, and for the most part, you can just rpess Enter. then you can pretty surely just press Enter again. Unless you need to send data to the hardware.


If you have a dual boot, pay attention to this screen. You can put Lilo on a floppy so that machine won't boot without it, which is cool if you make sure you have 300 copies of that floppy in case it gets lost, or something similar to it, or you can install to the MBR which is what I'm doing as this is only going to have Linux on it.

If you used Partition Magic, and you have Boot Magic installed, you need to put it on the floppy OR put it on the Root partition so Boot magic isn't over written.

I'm putting it on the MBR though. Select an option and hit Enter.


Then it probes hardware. The next screen you can say No to because you've already set a keyboard map.


the next screen asks if your mouse has a scroll wheel. This should be self explanitory.


Now you select the screen resolution.

I'm selecting 1024. don't set it to high if you have a tiny or crap monitor.












Setting up Networking:







The next screen is for network set up.


Enter in a host name. If you have a network you want this to be a part of, enter in what YOU need to enter in. If you're not using a Network, you can make up whatever you want really here.

When it comes time to Enter the domain, again, whatever you want, org, com, net....mil.



The next option is for users of high speed and LANs.


Here I select DHCP because one of my routers hands out IPs as needed.



When you get finished here you're done.













configuring Vector:





The next part is configuring Vector Linux







If you have a modem, use this to set it up, but I don't so I'm not going to.




Press the down arrow key to select time and hit Enter. On that screen you come to, press Enter again and then select where you live or close to where you liev and hit Enter again.



When you have the things you need all set up, go ahead and exit.

After pressing Enter to exit, you see a screen saying to use passwd after logging in as root to set the password.


Press Enter and you're done. When the machine reboots, hit Enter to start up Linux, and then, when you are asked to log in, type root and hit Enter. Then hit Enter for the password in true Stallman style.

Then when you're logged in as root, type passwd and make a password for root. You're done.