Linux Online - Getting Started with Linux

Getting Started with Linux - Lesson 2

Installation of Debian GNU/Linux

Booting from a CD

Chances are, if your PC is less than 5 years old, you can start a Linux installation right from the CD-ROM drive. The way to find out is to look at your computer's BIOS. There's really no need here to go into what your BIOS is or what it does. Let's just say that it's there and you need it for your computer to work. When you turn on your computer, there's a little message that says 'Press DEL to enter setup'. Anything that mentions the word DEL usually scares people. It shouldn't. Pressing DEL when your computer boots up will just get you into the BIOS setup tools. It won't get you into trouble, unless of course you start pressing buttons randomly. You'll see a blue screen pop up with some menu items. What you need to select is the item 'BIOS FEATURES SETUP' You'll see some more menu items. There's one that says 'Boot sequence'. That's the one you want. If you use the page up/ page down keys, you can set this item so that it says CD-ROM first. That just means that it will look for the disk in your CD-ROM drive first when the computer boots. Press ESC and then choose the item 'SAVE AND EXIT SETUP'. Don't forget to set it back to 'C' when you're finished installing Linux. We'll remind you later.

If you can't boot from your CD there's an option to create a boot floppy. In your machine's BIOS, you might just see A,C - C,A and there's no CD-ROM mentioned there. Don't panic. You can make a boot floppy. They often come with boxed sets, but if you yours didn't come with one, we'll cover how to create one further along.

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