## Installation Guide

### CONTENTS

    1. System requirements
    2. Preparing hard drive Partitions
        2.1 Tools for Windows/DOS
        2.2 Tools for Linux
        2.3 VectorLinux Included Tools
    3. Obtaining VectorLinux
        3.1 Tools for Windows
        3.2 Tools for Linux
    4. Installing VectorLinux
        4.1 Supported controllers
        4.2 Direct ISO Install on a Windows Host
        4.3 Direct ISO Install on a Linux Host
        4.4 Bootable CD Install
        4.5 USB Device Install
        4.6 Network Install
        4.7 Floppy and CD Install
     5a. The Graphical Installation process: step by step
    5b. The Text-Based Installation process: step by step
    5c. Text-Based Post-install configuration
        5c.1 Set up Lilo
        5c.2 Configuring VectorLinux
    7. Using the system for the first time
        7.1 Login to VectorLinux
        7.2 System administration
        7.3 Create passwords and users
        7.4 Reboot and Shutdown
     8. Troubleshooting

## Getting Started

For the users convenience and choice VectorLinux releases several editions - called the Standard, SOHO, Deluxe, Live and Light editions. The Standard Edition is our "foundation" distribution - a fast and stable but complete distro that fits on ~3GB of hard drive space and includes the xfce desktop environment. It will work well on most older computers and positively flies on newer ones. The SOHO Edition (Small Office, Home Office) includes the more extensive KDE desktop environment along with OpenOffice and many office and multimedia applications for today's modern computers. The Deluxe Editions are available for purchase in Standard or SOHO CD's along with a second CD with 1000MB of extra applications including FreeRock Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment17, Opera and others. You help support VectorLinux by purchasing our Deluxe Versions. The Live version enables you to use VL's fast, secure operating system on any computer, or to try out VectorLinux for the first time without actually installing. The Light edition is for those with old computers, low RAM or dialup Internet. Each edition has specific hardware requirements. Please ensure you have read the requirements for the edition you are about to install before proceeding. The good news is that the installation procedure for all editions is basically the same and is fast.

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## 1. System Requirements

The following table lists system requirements for the various editions of VectorLinux:

Item | Standard | SOHO | Deluxe | Live | Light
Processor | Pentium III | Pentium IV | Pentium IV | Pentium III | Pentium II
Memory (min.) | 128 MB | 256 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB | 64 MB
Hard Drive (root) | >3.4 GB | >3.8 GB | >5 GB | not applicable | >2 GB
Hard Drive (swap) | 256 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB | not applicable | 128 MB
Hard Drive (home) | as needed | as needed | as needed | not applicable | as needed
Video | 800x600 pixels, 16 bits color | 1024x768 pixels, 24 bits color | 1024x768 pixels, 24 bits color | 1024x768 pixels, 24 bits color | 800x600 pixels, 16 bits color

Of course, you will also need a compatible keyboard, mouse, and a CDROM drive. Other hardware components such as a network card, modem, sound card, CD-writer, DVD, printer, etc., are optional. Linux also supports modern USB devices including pen drives, digital cameras, and scanners.

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## 2. Understanding Hard Drive Partitions

For newbies this is probably the most difficult but also the most important concept to learn before installing any operating system on a computer. Before an operating system or data can be stored on a hard drive that drive must be partitioned and then each partition must be formatted for a specific filesystem. A partition is a physical or logical "part" of the hard drive. A filesystem is a storage container and "database" for storing files. For more details about partitions please read this and for details on Linux filesystems go here.

In the Microsoft Windows or default Ubuntu Linux install process usually only one partition and one filesystem encompassing the entire hard drive is created. In MS Windows this process tends to be hidden from the user. So when you install MS Windows (or if you have a computer with only MS Windows pre-installed) it tends to wipe out any other partitions that may have existed on your drive. On the other hand VectorLinux and many other Linux distros provide you with the option and ability to delete, save, create or resize partitions and to format those partitions with different filesystems. This enables you to have more than one operating system on one hard drive (i.e. "dual boot") and enables easier and more secure backups.

If you intend to dual boot your computer with both MS Windows and VL you should install Windows first. This is because in its narcissistic presumptions Windows takes over the entire hard drive. If you intend to install Windows after VL then you will need to do the following:

1. use the "gparted" application from a Live Linux CD to reduce the size of your "/home" partition
2. install MS Windows to the now free space on your hard drive
3. re-run the lilo or grub boot loader install process from the VL Install CD to overwrite the Windows master boot record (MBR). Lilo or Grub will find the Windows partition and add it to the boot menu.

Assuming you already have only MS Windows on your hard drive the entire drive will have already been dedicated to Windows (probably denoted as C:). In order to install VL on the same hard drive which already contains a MS Windows operating system you must reduce the size of the Windows partition to give you room to install Linux. The easiest way to do this is to use the gparted application from Live Linux CD. Almost all Live Linux CD's (including VectorLinux LIVE) contain the gparted application. Documentation for gparted is available from its Help Menu or online here.

If you are simply installing VL and VL alone and you want to take over the entire hard drive for VL then you do not need to do any of the above. The VL install CD includes partitioning software that can do partitioning during the install process.

####
2.1 Partitions Recommended for VectorLinux

For an efficient Linux install the developers at VectorLinux recommend that when you install VL you consider creating the following partitions:

- Root partition: this is the main partition to install the Linux system and all software programs. See the table above for our recommended minimum root partition sizes for each VL version. You should also include additional space to install other applications at a later date. As a rough guideline make your root partition at least 5GB in size.
- Swap partition: required to enable virtual memory. It expands the capacity of your actual random access memory (RAM), so that you can run more programs at the same time. It should be twice the size of your actual computer's RAM, up to a maximum of about 1GB.
- Home partition: for storing your own data. Only you ca determine how large this should be. If you intend to store lots of music and video files it will need to be at least 10GB in size, probably much larger. Normally, most users use up as much of the remaining hard drive space (after creating "root" and "swap") as possible for their home partition. The advantage of having a /home partition distinct from root ("/") is that at any time you can simply image (ghost) the /home partition to preserve your data files and you can also install a new version of VL without overwriting all your setup files and data.

You may prepare these partitions prior to the installation by using partitioning software (such as gparted) or you may actually prepare your hard disk partitions during the install process (this latter method is easier and is recommended for all newbies). You should at least know the partition sizes you want for root, home and swap beforehand (see above).

####
2.2 Linux partition naming scheme

MS Windows presents hard drive partitions to the user as: C:, D:. E:, etc. However, Unix/Linux uses a different notation. Firstly, a computer may have more than one hard drive. Linux maps each hard drive as a device. For example:

- /dev/hda : primary controller Master IDE drive.
- /dev/hdb : primary controller Slave IDE drive.
- /dev/hdc : secondary controller Master IDE drive.
- /dev/hdd : secondary controller Slave IDE drive.
- /dev/sda : first SATA/SCSI device.
- /dev/sdb : second SATA/SCSI device.

If you have only one IDE hard drive, it is almost certainly "/dev/hda". The second hard drive could be /dev/hdb or /dev/hdc, depending on which controller it is installed.

Next, each hard drive can be divided into four PRIMARY partitions. For the first hard drive (/dev/hda), they are mapped as /dev/hda1 .. /dev/hda4, respectively. But what if you want more than four partitions?

Unfortunately, four is a legacy limit you can do nothing about. The work-around is that one of the primary partitions (/dev/hda2 .. /dev/hda4) can be used as an EXTENDED partition. Inside the extended partition, you may create more LOGICAL partitions. The logical partitions are named /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and so on.

All SATA drives will be labelled as "/dev/sda" and for the second drive as "/dev/sdb", ... etc.

## 3. Obtaining VectorLinux

Each edition of VectorLinux is distributed as an ISO (.iso) "image" file. To obtain it and prepare it for installation the steps are:

- Decide which edition of VectorLinux you want. Download the ISO image file (.iso) and the corresponding md5 checksum file (.md5). The download sites are listed at the VectorLinux website, download page and also in the Overview Document.
- You should check the image file before burning it to a CD, to make sure it has not been corrupted during download transmission. For that, you need to do an "md5sum check", that means comparing the "fingerprint" of your image file (.iso) against the fingerprint stored in the checksum file (.md5).
- Note that VL allows you to install the .iso file directly without actually burning to a CD first (see Install Methods below), so if you do not wish to burn a CD you don't have to. If you do burn the image onto a CD using a CD-writer and ensure that you burn the .iso image as an IMAGE, not as a data file. If you burn the .iso as a data file you will not be able to boot your new CD. Check your CD burning software documentation on how to burn as an "image".

If you don't have a good, fast Internet connection, or a CD-writer, you may order a well-prepared CD from our store.

#### 3.1 Checksum Tools for MS Windows

You may download the ISO image and MD5 checksum using any web browser, FTP client, or download manager. However, some web browsers (Internet Explorer, for instance) have a tendency to rename .md5 files as .htm or .txt. You can just rename it back to .md5.

For integrity checking, download and unzip the GUI tool md5summer. On initial use it asks permission to associate the extension .md5 with itself. If you agree, you just need to double-click on a .md5 file to check the integrity of the original file (as long as they are both in the same folder). Otherwise, you have to manually browse to the .md5 file within the md5summer interface, then click on the "Verify sums" button and select the .md5 file. If you get an OK for the VL .iso image file, you can proceed to burn it as an image (see notes above re proper burning).

After that, you may want to burn the ISO image onto a CD (but you don't have to - see below). For this, use the program that is provided by your CD-writer (e.g: Adaptech CD Writer, or Nero Burner). Ensure you burn as an IMAGE not as a file.

#### 3.2 Checksum Tools for Linux

Most Linux systems already have the tools so you will not have to download any utilities. Here is how to do that on Linux console/terminal in three steps:

- Downloading the ISO image and MD5:
  nohup wget ftp://anymirror/path-to/veclinux-6.0/iso-release/vl-6.0.???.iso
  nohup wget ftp://anymirror/path-to/veclinux-6.0/iso-release/vl-6.0.???.iso.md5.txt
  (** Replace the pathname ??? above with correct path **)

- Checking the integrity:
  md5sum -c vl-6.0.???.iso.md5.txt

- Burning the ISO onto a CD:
  cdrecord -v fs=6m speed=4 dev=2,0 vl-6.0.???.iso

Instead of the command line you can of course use "k3b" for the above jobs.

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## 4. Installing VectorLinux

To obtain VectorLinux you need to either purchase a Deluxe CD from our CD Store or download an "iso" image from a VectorLinux mirror site. Once connected to the mirror site navigate to the ...distr/vectorlinux/veclinux-6.0 directory at the mirror site you have chosen. Within that directory you will see two subdirectories: /iso-release and /iso-soho (amongst others). The /iso-release directory is where you will find iso images for the VL 6.0 Standard and VL 6.0 Standard Live Editions. The /iso-soho directory is where you will find iso images for VL 6.0 SOHO Edition (when available). Then download your iso of choice.

Prior to starting the installation, you must know two things: 1) what type of hard drive controller your computer has and 2) which method you will use to install. Today, there are three common hard drive controllers: IDE, SCSI, SATA and Adaptec(for CDROMS). You must boot the installation using the kernel that supports your controller. The default kernel works for SATA-IDE drives (which probably includes about 95% of today's desktop/laptop computers). The second concern is which install method to use. This depends on the capability of the target computer. VectorLinux can be installed via one of these methods:

- Direct ISO File from a Windows host.
- Direct ISO File from a Linux host.
- Bootable CD.
- from a USB device.
- from a network.
- Floppy disk and CD.

#### 4.1 Supported controllers

VectorLinux supports and can be installed on systems using SATA/IDE/ATA hard drive controllers - the most popular ones in laptop/desktop systems. Another well known standard is a SCSI controller, but due to its high pricing, it is only common on commercial server systems.

If you are having difficulties using your SATA drives, make sure you have set the BIOS correctly. In a nutshell, set the BIOS to "Enhanced mode SATA only". This is counter intuitive, but it means use enhanced mode only on the SATA, not just use the SATA and turn off the PATA. If you set it to enhanced mode SATA+PATA, the kernel will lock as it tries to use an IDE driver for the SATA controller. Your symptoms will be that the kernel install may hang after detecting hda - hdd.

Please know your hard drive controller type because it determines the kernel required for installation. The default kernel supports the SATA/IDE controllers (this is the one for probably 99% of workstation computers on the market). Otherwise, you need to specify either "scsi" or "adaptec" kernel during the install.

#### 4.2 Direct ISO on a Windows Host

This is a new method that will save you having to burn a CD. Assume that you already have Windows running on the computer, and the partitions have been prepared as suggested above.

- Download your iso of choice as described above. Move it to the top level directory (C:\ or D:\). Don't forget to check its integrity as explained previously.
- You MUST now rename the iso to follow DOS 8.3 filename specs (e.g. VL60.ISO, not vl60.1.24vl6.iso), and the filename should be all capital letters.
- The next files should be placed into C:\loadlin
  - loadlin.exe
    Get it from “install/loadlin/” directory within the FTP site.
  - initrd.img
    Find it as “isolinux/initrd.img” within the FTP site
  - The kernel file that matches your system (ide, scsi, sata, adaptec)
    You may select one of them from “isolinux/kernel/” directory within FTP site.

Then proceed with the installation:

- Shutdown Windows to DOS mode.
- Type “cd C:\loadlin” <enter> (without quotes)
- Type “loadlin ide root=/dev/ram rw initrd=initrd.img” <enter> (without quotes).

You should replace the “ide” with the name of the kernel that you downloaded earlier. The standard installation process will be started.

#### 4.3 Direct ISO on a Linux Host

If you have another Linux running on the computer, this method will be easy. You need to download the following files into a directory (e.g: /home/download):

- The chosen VectorLinux ISO image file.
- vlinstall-iso
  Find it as “install/vinstall/vinstall-iso” within the FTP site

Now go to the text console (press Cntrl-Alt-F1) and login as root. Proceed as follows:

- Switch to run level 2 (or 3 in Slackware/Redhat, etc)
  init 2 <enter>
- Go to the directory where you downloaded the files, i.e.: /home/download
  cd /home/download<enter>
- Now, install using the ISO file
  ./vinstall-iso vl-6.0.iso <enter>

#### 4.4 Bootable CD

Use this method if you already have the VL install CD, and your computer is capable of booting it.

First, you may need to change the boot order. Changing the boot order allows your system to boot from different devices like your hard drive, floppy drive or CDROM drive.
When you select an installation method, you might have to set up your system to boot accordingly. To do this, immediately after your computer starts up go to the BIOS options setup screen (1). There should be an option for boot order (general options are C drive, A drive, CDROM drive, etc). Choose which should boot first (in this case CDROM drive), save out of the BIOS screens and restart the computer. You can change the boot order back when you are finished installing VL.

Note:
(1)Not all systems use the "Delete" key to enter the BIOS. Some systems use one of the function keys (F1-F12). Some use a combination of keystrokes. Often the initial boot screen when you turn on your computer will tell you which keystroke to use to enter the BIOS setup. If not, check your computer or motherboard manual. Failing that check your computer manufacturer's website documentation for your specific computer model #.

After the boot order is properly set, place the VL installation CD in the CD drive and reboot the system. The boot process will give you a prompt. This is the chance for you to select the correct kernel that supports your controller. If you do NOT have a SCSI or Adaptec controller (99% of machines don't), then simply press [enter] to use the default kernel (sata/ide) with the graphical installer. Otherwise, type the kernel you want, e.g:

boot: scsi [enter]

If you wish to use the text based install procedure (recommended if you have installed VL before, are not a newbie and/or prefer a slightly faster install process) then type "linux" at the first line install prompt.

That's it. The chosen graphical install procedure will then be started.

#### 4.5 USB Stick Install

Two methods for installing VL from a USB stick (pen drive) are discussed here on the VL Forum. These methods have not yet been confirmed by other users but do apparently work.

#### 4.6 Network Install

You may install VL from a network as long as your computer is capable of booting from a network (a PXE boot). This is useful for some laptops that don't have an optical drive and are not capable of booting from a USB device. The method is explained here on our HOWTO Forum.

#### 4.7 Floppy Install

This method allows you to install VectorLinux using the VL CD (any edition) and two floppy disks. You may have to use this method if the target computer cannot boot from the CD (especially on older laptops). We assume that you already have the VectorLinux CD prepared and ready. You may use it to create the floppies on another Windows or a Linux host. Preparation on a Windows HOST is as follow:

- Insert the CD into the drive, assumed to be drive D:
- Launch a dos prompt
- Insert blank floppy #1, enter this command:

      cd D:\install\rawrite
      rawrite
      Enter source file name: D:\install\floppy\bare.i
      Enter destination drive: A

  The bare.i is an kernel image file that supports IDE controller. If you have SCSI controller, use the scsi.s instead.
- Take out floppy #1, Insert floppy #2, enter this command:

      rawrite
      Enter source file name: D:\install\floppy\rootdisk.img
      Enter destination drive: A

On a Linux host, the preparation is as follows:

- Launch a terminal
- Insert the CD and mount it.

      mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

- Insert blank floppy #1, write the kernel image into it using this command:

      cat /mnt/cdrom/install/floppy/bare.i > /dev/fd0

- Take out floppy #1, Insert floopy #2, enter this command:

      cat /mnt/cdrom/install/floppy/rootdisk.img > /dev/fd0

Now with the VectorLinux CD and the two floppies:

- Set the computer to boot from the floppy drive
- Insert the CD
- Insert the floppy #1
- Boot the computer
- On the boot: prompt, press [enter]
- After asked, replace floppy #1 with floppy #2
- VL install screen will appear

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## 5a. The Graphical (GUI Based) Installation Process: Step by Step

When you launch the installation process, the first screen presented to you lets you choose either the default kernel (IDE/SATA) or another kernel (by pressing F1). Normally you just hit the enter key unless you have a SCSI or ADAPTEC hard drive. After a few seconds the graphical installer will launch. For the most part the graphical installer is intuitive and self-explanatory. However, the following sections will touch on some of perhaps the more confusing issues that may be faced by newcomers to VectorLinux.

The first GUI installer screen is seen below. For all of the installer screens to following applies:

- the leftmost rectangular panel simply shows the progress of the install, with a red dot indicating the current process
- the right panel is the area where the user may need to make input choices
- the bottom buttons will always be: "Back" to go back to the previous install process, "Exit Installation" to immediately exit the Install (however, if you have made changes to partitions these will already be made and there is no backtracking from that process) and "Next" to go to the next Install process after you have made choices in the rightmost panel.

In this first process you choose the language for both the install as well as for the Linux operating system itself:

The second GUI installer screen - "Find Installation Media" is seen below. This screen enables the user to choose a particular VL ISO that may be located on either one of your hard disk partitions, a USB device or an optical device. In the vast majority of cases it will find the VL CD you burned to install and the screen is really just for information purposes. However, if you have a number of VL ISO files on different devices then you click on the upper information widget to choose which ISO you wish to install. Information is also provided to you on absolute minimum hard drive space install requirements. Then click Next.

Now comes the disk partitioning process. If you are a newbie and have not already done so please ensure that you have read section 2 above concerning partitioning. At this point you are given the option to use existing disk partitions which you may have already created with other partitioning software, or to modify (and create) partitions from within the installer. The latter option is the easiest method.

If you chose the option to "Modify" above you are then presented with the "gparted" application to either delete, resize, create, format new or existing partitions. gparted documentation is available here so we will not reiterate that information here.

The next step is to choose the partitions for the VL install and how to use them. Click the upper right Help button for more info. A complete list of partitions found on your hard drives is presented to you. We suggest you reread Section 2.1 above concerning recommended VL partitions and then proceed by selecting the "mount point" (ie: "root" / , "swap" swap and "home" /home). You should then choose a filesystem (either ext3 or reiserfs are recommended for normal home use).

On the next two screens the user selects whether to do a full install (recommended) or custom install. The custom install is really only necessary where the user has hard drive space limitations. The difference between a frugal and full install is really only about 1.5GB of space. By clicking on the left side of the package name the user can choose whether or not to install a specific package. Obviously, this should only be done if the user knows what the package is actually used for!

The next screen is an installation summary. Ensure your chosen partitions are correct as are the packages you want to omit, because the next stage is the actual installation to the hard drive of all the system files and packages.

Progress of VectorLinux operating system files and packages installation is then shown with accurate status bars. On modern computers this process should take less than 15 minutes.

Once the installation of system files is complete the system configuration steps are started - the first of these being to install the Linux Loader - "lilo" boot manager. For newbies we suggest that you go with the default values as presented to you and click the "Next" button. Lilo will find any other operating systems on your hard drives (such as Windows if this is a dual boot installation) and will create and entry for all operating systems in the boot loader. For more advanced users this panel enables you to:

- not /usr/share/vim/vim71/compiler/tidy.viminstall lilo (for instance if VL is a second distro and you already have grub)
- install the boot loader to somewhere other than the MBR (eg: a floppy disk or USB device)
- choose whether or not to include a specific operating system on the boot menu
- choose the name for the OS as it will appear on the boot menu
- choose kernel boot options for each specific OS
- choose the video resolution for the boot loader; useful where you might have an older 15" monitor

We now select our timezone.

The installer then prompts for a root password. If you want proper Unix based security you must enter a hard root password on this screen.

You may now enter as many users as you wish. You should always have at least one user account which you will use as your normal account - normally you would just use your first name in lowercase letters for this account. Never use the root account for normal work. To do so violates the basic strong security for which Unix/Linux is famous. In the "Rights Management" panel we suggest you leave the default values unless you are an experienced Linux user and have specific requirements for access rights for a particular user. once you have entered user details you must click then click the "Create User" button. You may create a number of users on this same screen.

On the Network Configuration screen you must give your computer both a name and domain name. It is recommended that for normal home network configurations you keep the defaults as prsented, i.e. use WiCD to manage the networks, use DHCP to domain name service, etc. If you have a wireless device and a regular ethernet device they will show as tabs: "eth0" and "ath0" or "wlan0". You can configure each network device separately, but for newbies the defaults will probably suffice. Manual DNS servers specifications are only for networks where you have been given a specific IP address. Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) use DHCP.

The Final Hardware Configuration screen requires no input. It simply notifies you that the VL installation is now complete and you may reboot the computer. Upon reboot there will still be some hardware configuration setup requiring input from the user. For that information please jump to Section 5c.2 below.

## 5b. The Text-Based Installation Process: Step by Step

When you launch the installation process, the first screen presented to you lets you choose either the default kernel (IDE/SATA) or another kernel (by pressing F1).

1. Start up – On the next screen you have four options:
   - Select the keymap to be used during the installation. You should select this menu for the first time if your keyboard in a non-US layout.
   - Start the installation. The reason why we are here!
   - Repair lilo (Linux Loader). This is a handy utility in case you have an installed Vector Linux, but somehow you cannot boot it because of a corrupted LILO.
   - Exit. This will bring you to the Linux command prompt. It might be required if something is wrong with the installation and you are capable enough at the Linux command line to fix it manually.

2. Once you start the installation, the routine will look for the installation media in the following places:
   - Any hard drive partition that contains installation files
   - Any hard drive partition that contains the ISO file in the top directory
   - CDROM drive
   If a media is found, it will ask you to confirm. Select Yes to proceed, No to search another media.

3. The next screen shows you the hard drive requirements of the soon to be installed edition. If you have already set up your partitions, then start the installation now. Otherwise you can create or modify the hard drive partitions using the built in tools. RESIZE menu is a simple front end for GNUParted. Meanwhile the FDISK menu will launch a menu-driven partitioning program called cfdisk (see the three images following). Warning: do not proceed to the INSTALL menu if you don't have the required 3 partitions (root, swap and home) at the required sizes, because the install will surely fail.

4. You are now presented with a list of the next steps the routine will perform, it goes through each of these steps in order.

5. In the check-files screen, you may choose which files are to be verified for any damage or corruption. If you are confident enough about them you could skip the verification, but if the files are somehow damaged the installation will probably fail later. If you have already done an md5sum check on the .iso file then this step is probably unnecessary.
6. Now the routine will present you with any swap partition detected. Choose the swap partition to use and select OK..
7. The next step is to choose your root partition. This is the partition on which you want to install VectorLinux. You will have the chance to select a different partition for your /home directory later.
8. Then select the filesystem you prefer for the root partition: reiserfs, ext3 or ext2.
   ext2 is the older Linux filesystem, reiserfs and ext3 are both newer and more robust journaling filesystems. ext3 is a general standard and reiserfs is particularly fast with many small files.
9. Next, you can choose to use a different partition for your /home directory or use the same one that is used as root. The "/home" is where files that belong to users are to be stored, and "root" is where the Operating System´s files and all packaged software will be stored.

10. The next two dialog screens allow you to choose what main packages and individual software applications you wish to install.

11. You are now ready to install VectorLinux to your system. You can review the choices you have made and go back and do some modifications, or you can select OK to continue installing VectorLinux. Once you hit OK, and the installation proceeds, it will format the partitions you selected for root and /home, and any information in them will be erased, so please verify everything before continuing.

The installation will take a little while, so you may have a short break. The installation time will vary depending on your system´s speed. It can be as quick as 10 minutes. After some minutes, your monitor screen may go blank as it enters a power saving mode. If it does, press [SHIFT] on the keyboard to restore your monitor. DO NOT hit [enter] or [space] as you could inadvertently accept a choice the install routine might have reached at that point.

After the installation is done, you will be required to do some basic configuration, as explained in Section 6.

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## 5c. Post-Install Configuration

Once VL has been installed, a configuration screen is presented. This allows you to configure sound, video, network, etc. This screen can also be accessed later using "Vasm" as root.

However, it is recommended that you do not skip this configuration step at installation time.

#### 5c.1 Set Up LILO

You will be prompted to set-up “LILO”, the Linux Loader that boots the system.

Choose where to install lilo:

- the root partition (if you installed VL to /dev/hda2, this would install lilo to /dev/hda2)
- the MBR (master boot record) for the disk
- a floppy drive

If you want Lilo to take over the boot process entirely, install to the MBR of the hard disk (this is the most common scenario). LILO will detect other operating systems on your hard drives and make an entry for them in its boot menu. If you already have another boot manager installed on some partition that can point to your Linux partition, then you can install Lilo to the root partition where you installed VL. If you are not sure and you don't want to cause any problems, install to a floppy. But you must then ensure that your computer's BIOS is set to boot from the floppy drive first. This is the slowest boot method, and only suggested if you do not want to alter your existing boot manager. For most systems installing to the MBR is safe and easy.

Choose to enable framebuffer or not. This option affects how the boot process looks, and the onscreen indications will let you know what option is best for you.

Add any additional parameter you need to boot you system. If your system didn´t require any special kernel parameters to perform the installation, then leave this field empty.

If you have them, Lilo will detect the partitions and Operating Systems on your hard disk and allow you to select which ones you want to have available in your new boot menu.

After you have installed VL, you can change the lilo configuration by using "vasm" as root, which will bring up the configuration screen again, or, also as root, you can edit the
/etc/lilo.conf file by hand. After editing the file, be sure to issue the following command as root: "/sbin/lilo -v". This will commit the changes to the lilo bootloader.

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5c.2 Configuring VectorLinux

Once Lilo is installed, the next steps are to configure this new system. If you installed with an ISO file directly from a Linux host the system will have to reboot first before doing this next configuration step.

The first screen shows the configuration steps, and allows you to choose which ones are to be performed. The wise decision is to select them all, unless you have experienced problems with a particular step previously. At this point you are walked through a series of screens to configure the keyboard, auto-setup the basic hardware, select network settings, set the video, sound, and time zone. The configuration will try to detect most of the settings automatically.

In the last step, the configuration asks you to change the root (superuser, administrator) password and add the first ordinary user. Please don't skip this step for your own security. On any operating system, working daily as root is not advisable, so you should set up a normal user and use that for normal tasks and resort to root only for administering the system.

When this is done, you simply press “OK” to restart the system and boot into VectorLinux for the first time.

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## 7. Using the system for the first time

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#### 7.1 Login to VectorLinux

If you chose to boot into RunLevel 4 (the X GUI system), when the VectorLinux boot process has been completed you will be presented with a graphical login screen where you should enter your personal username and password (do not use root unless absolutely necessary). After logging in the desktop environment will load and within seconds you will see the desktop. Have fun!

As well as the GUI desktop, you will get six text consoles. You may switch between them by pressing [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[F1] through [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[F6] on the keyboard. You will be asked for a username and password. If you did not change the root´s password during installation you should use root as username and leave the password empty. Otherwise, use the name and password of the account you created earlier. You may return to the GUI by pressing [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[F7]

If you chose to boot into RunLevel 2 (a text console environment) you may switch to RunLevel 4 (GUI) by typing:

        user:$ startx

Alternatively, you can launch the GUI login mode by switching runlevel into 4 or 5. Please login as root on the console, then type:

        root:# init 4

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7.2 System Administration

If you want to further configure your VL system, you should launch VASM (Vector Administration and System Menu) from either a terminal or from the desktop menu. You will be asked for root's password. This utility is explained in detail in the previous link and will not be reiterated here.

#### 7.3 Reboot and Shutdown

There are many ways to reboot the system, including

- From a console (not GUI) press Ctrl-Alt-Del
- From a console or GUI terminal, type "reboot"
- From a GUI windows manager, choose "reboot" menu.

Meanwhile, to turn off the system, you may:

- Type "halt" or "poweroff" from a console.
- Select "shutdown" menu from a windows manager if available.

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## 8. Troubleshooting

Error type 1:

installation gives you a message saying that it can't find the vector bz2 kernel and / or saying that /dev/xxxx is not a valid block device.

This error usually appears when you have more than one optical drive (CD/CD-RW/DVD/DVD-W) and you are trying to install Vector from the second unit. Move the installation CD to the first drive.

Error type 2:

Installation halts or does not start properly after a seemingly correct installation or you get messages about CRC errors during install

That kind of issue often suggests file corruption during download or a faulty burning process.

The first thing to do, if you haven't already done so, is to check the .iso file for corruption; please refer to section 3 of this manual. If the .iso file passed the md5sum integrity check , then you could try burning the file at a slower speed or use higher quality media.

Remember to burn as a cd image, not as a conventional file!

Error type 3:

You get one of these two messages:

Kernel Panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
In interrupt handler - not syncing.

or

Error! There was a problem!
Code: 39 36 75 03 5b 5e c3 5b 89 f0 31 c9 ba 03 00 00 00 5e e9 cb
Installation not complete
Please press enter to activate this console

Those errors are usually related to old hardware, and could mean that you need to pass some kernel commands to the boot process. It could also mean that there is some sort of hardware problem with your computer, but if you had it working previously with another operating system then it is probably one of the following:

Some commands you may try are:

linux mem=16M (replace 16 with the correct amount of memory in your PC)
linux ide=nodma (disable udma access, for old hard drives)

These commands disable power management, Notebooks often require them:

linux noacpi
linux noapm
linux pci=noacpi
linux acpi=off
linux apm=off

Error type 4:

Your SCSI or SATA hard drive is not available to install VL on it.

The required driver for your SCSI card is not being loaded, and therefore your disks are not seen by the install routine.

Error type 5:

Installing from CDROM drive fails with this error: "mount: /dev/scd7 is not a valid block device"

Your CDROM or CDRW drive requires scsi emulation. When the installation greets you with the first prompt (where it says "boot:" at the bottom left) you should type :

ide hdx=ide-scsi

(where x is your cd-rom unit).

If that doesn't work restart and try writing

scsi hdx=ide-scsi

(where x is your cd-rom unit).

Note: The Linux Kernel 2.6.x treats CD-Rx drives in a different way than previous kernels, so this problem shouldn´t arise, it is still mentioned here for the record.

Error type 6:

The installation halts somewhere near the end during the install of packages and the install process gives you an error message that it cannot proceed. This often indicates that you may not have apportioned sufficient hard drive space for the "/" (root) partition. VectorLinux requires a minimum of 3GB to install, 3.8GB for the SOHO edition. You will need to increase the size of the root partition before proceeding to re-install the system. This can be done using cfdisk during the second install screen.

Error type 7:

The installation locks up, with no response from the keyboard, and often occurs right near the beginning of the install process when you see the kernel-loading messages. This usually indicates that you have faulty RAM. Use a Live Linux CD and run "memtest" to confirm that you have a faulty RAM memory module on your computer.

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