This page describes the installation steps Tips4Free did with the Mandrake Linux 10.0 Community Edition 3-CD set. It includes many screenshots of the installation procedure.
Installing Mandrake Linux Community Edition 10.0
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Getting through the installation process doesn’t look like it requires a whole lot skill, so I would rather have seen walkthroughs of how to get networking (SMB), Wine, CD/DVD-burning, DVD video, digital cameras, etc up and running, as well as how to use the package manager (urpmi?) .. unless all those just work out of the box.
Mandrake is now AFAIK the third distro after RedHat and debian to include UTF-8 support by default (no localedef necessary). Congrats!
> Apple uses it too, they call it AppleTalk.
I thought they call it Rendezvous now… Is there anybody who can comment on this?
My fedora takes 30 minutes max. Less screens to go through. And this is just a plain installation, can’t he do something more adventurous. 44 screns there. The installer is powerful, but 44 screens is a tad excessive. reduce that.I fear Mandrake is losng its grip on the niche they carved. with other distros, you can get a full install with about 4 screens only I hear (Xandros)
They used to use AppleTalk, but it was replaced by Rendezvous. So Zeroconf is NOT AppleTalk. Is just Rendezvous.
1h installing? I just installed 10 on my laptop and it took about 15-20minutes? Probably he wrote the tutorial at the same time and counted that time too
Sorry to say, but entire articles devoted to the install process of a modern Linux distros is a waste of time reporting on. Please don’t post them here, install processes in modern Linux distros is as easy/easier than Microsoft Windows. How about a report on what has changed since Mandrake 9.1? What new software is there (new versions of old software don’t count, btw)? Did the configuration tools change at all? Not trolling, just a bit fed up.
Installtion of Linux Distros like Mandrake/Fedora/Suse or other based on them are very straight forward for most users now. I think instead of articles on them, people who install Gentoo, Debain or such other OS which are still not “user friendly” installs should write more articles with their experiences. I do not share the view that such articles are not good. Ask a newbie and he tells you they are. But I wish some experienced can also write about other distros like Debain/Gentoo/Slackware
Look at the guy’s partitioning setup, what a mess (everything in one / partition). Definitely don’t be reading this to do an installation. I also don’t see the point of describing the install screens when Mandrake has built in installer help.
Can Mandrake Community 10 be installed by floppy/http yet, or is it just ftp?
Maybe the author could write a tutorial on how to install WinXP.
Am I supposed to hit continue or cancel? Im just so confused.
“Done! It took just about one hour, as usual, of which quite some time was spent going through the packages.”
It took an hour because the guy went down the list of packages rather then just choosing defualts. I sometimes do this the first time around and then create a auto-install floppy or a floppy with my package selection on it during the install.
If you search for “Actual package installation” on the page,
you’ll find that he says the timer is very accurate as to the time required for installation and that it took approximately 20 minutes – that’s pretty darn quick to install over 2.5 GB worth. Compared to XP and, in particular,Solaris x86, that’s lightning speed. I haven’t installed any BSDs in a while so I don’t remember how they stack up for installation speed.
I do remember that BeOS was lightning fast but there wasn’t much to install at that time.
> I haven’t installed any BSDs
On x86, that’s mostly quick tar-dumping (after setting up partitions and slices).
I don’t know about other archs.
Mandrake’s installer – even for 9.2 – is great. The partitioning options are impressive. I installed it the other day, and forgot too late that I hadn’t plugged my hard disks in after switching around some cables.
When the partitioning tool came up, it gave me the option to install to my USB fob (sda0) with my choice of filesystems: ext2, ext3, xfs, jfs, reiserfs, and vfat. Of course, I doubt it would have found enough disk space.
Hola,
Your point about default installs is well taken. However, Windows default install placement is the worst possible install known to mankind. One massive C: ? …. NOPE no thanks !!! As for the guy doing one massive /root … yeah thats not good but he IS a newb and it certainly is no worse than him defaulting to one massive C: in windows. As for the time it takes to install… that point is fully bogus. Install times if you default to full on newb installs are close enough to the general same as to make little difference. After windows boots, Congrats you cannot even view a PDF!!!! in linux you certainly can with most modern default installs! Ect ect blah blah you get the picture. Windows Default install is painfully basic, while Linux default install is painfully bloated and “over” complete usually. But at leats ya got everything AND the kitchen Sink! /grin and a FULL XP install is nearing the 3 gig mark these days if you have productivity apps ect… not quite 3 gigs yet but close enough! Yes it would be just as easy for these super guru’s to make the default /boot,/root,/usr/home, and hell even /var as the default really…they just do it to be A**holes I think _smile_
Peace
Well, just got it up, so can’t comment on new software too much, but there are lots of improvements all around.
A great job’s been done with new kernel and KDE, everything seems noticeably faster.
And special bonus, Opera doesn’t crash any more due to threading mishaps. I used to have that every week or so – now I tried all scenarios I could, and not a single crash. Gets locked up for a couple of secs, but that’s it!
Anyway, one new thing I noticed: it’s got Kontact, if you’re into Lotusisms…
Thanks Milan 🙂 Your post is more interesting than the damn article, you realise.
Milan, it will be a good idea to make a review about Mandrake 10.0
I’m really bored with these reviews that just do a walkthrough of the install. Linux is finally getting mature enough that the installation is about the simplest part of the entire process. We need reviews of usage and doing real things with it, not how to click “next” on installer pages.
I speak as someone typing this from SuSE 9 having just done the ftp install for the first time.
Knoppix:
knx-hdinstall
Answer some basic questions, wait twenty minutes (That included building the madwifi cvs which…*drumroll*…FINALLY works with my card :>) and you’re done.
I’m not entirely sure I could stretch out the installation into more than a page (Or perhaps even a paragraph).
I’d agree with the others here. A few years back linux installation might have been a big enough hassle to warrant an article covering problems people might face (btw LFS still works smooth as silk for those with patience), but that’s pretty much in the past. It’d be nice if people used the system for a few weeks before writing an article, the end result would be much more insightful.
Does this mandrake thing run well with an alcatel usb modem?
I am told linux is rubbish for usb modems and alcatel modem is the most widely used here in europe!
I tried several linux distro’s but I could not get it working. Then I tried Suse 9.0 and I got it working in less then 10 minutes. Try it. Look on suse.com for the procedure to get it working.
Greetings,
Jeroen
will give it a cgo under suse
what a lame story. how about a review of mdk 10? the imstall is not much different that 9.1 or 9.2. osnews, how is this news?
i agree with much of what you people are saying. it’s really useless to write/gush about the linux install process. wow, that i’ve seen in countless reviews already. and it’s boring. it’s more useful (for the readers) for reviewers to write about how easy it is to set things up and how powerful or configurable the system can be.
I would have been very much helped with an how to on installing XFree86 4.4. on mdk 10. Anyone can point me to such a thing?
The subject says most of what I want to say. The site in question is intended to help the rawest of raw Linux newbies, folks who are sick of Windows and interested in Linux, but put off from switching by the usual hurdles to Linux admittance.
The creator of this website (Rob Teng) is doing the Linux community, as well as any potential Linux user, a favour. If you don’t understand why he has created this site, please look at his own “why” page: http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/motivation.html
Thank you, Rob Teng, for creating your site, and for attempting to create clear documentation complete with screenshots for Linux newbies. Please ignore the rude vocal minority on OSnews who spend time criticizing your work, but who have not themselves raised a finger to help anyone else learn Linux.
-Gnobuddy
Well it’s not as though we weren’t all forwarned by the title (“Installing Mandrake Linux Community Edition 10.0” describes the article quite succintly :>), and within that limited scope it is pretty good and the guy’s efforts should be acknowledged.
Most of the comments, IMVHO, weren’t really directed at the article. People were questioning just why OSNews needs to be putting up quite so many articles that are effectively Linux installation commentaries. The article has worth, and if I was a Mandrake newbie it’d probably be a godsend, but I’m personally just not convinced Linux installation is actually newsworthy any more.
< rant> And he is doing the newbie a disservice by demonstrating incorrect partitioning configuration amongst other things, like the fact that 90% of the comments are ‘this screen is for installing x’ and the screenshot’s install window is titled as such. I believe the correct term here would be ‘useless fluff’.
The guide reads more like a muddle. Take the hardware install screenshot for example – ‘Here is where you configure your hardware’ – really?! If you look at the screenshot, there are hardware errors. Maybe a better guide would have described these, and what to do to fix them. Any newbie would skip past this or be completely stuck at this point.
Any idiot can click the button on each screen and take a screencap and stuff them into html with labels. Thats why this shouldn’t be newsworthy – since it is mostly useless. < /rant>
I think the installation process of Fedora, Mandrake… is easier than Windows XP’s these days. Reviewers should concentrate more on difficult distros such as Gentoo and Debian.
Nevertheless, it will be a good guide for computer newbies who doesn’t know much about computers and doesn’t want to use Windows.
Howdy
Why does one big / partition a newbie make, this is a valid way of installing any OS so whats the problem?
I’m as big a Linux fan as anyone, but… come on, easier than XP? There is approximately zero *anything* involved in XP installation. No package selection, barely any partitioning options at all, the only manual configuration is net connection, if that. There are basically no choices to make anywhere; it’s all handled for you. Now, Linux installs are much more flexible, powerful, etc, but let’s not pretend they’re easier for a clueless newbie.
But after installing XP you need to install your drivers for your 3D card, printer, scanner, camera, network card… Nothing to do with a Linux distro.
Mandrake 10 is a breeze to install and then you try to configure Samba and nothing works…SWAT is broken, passwords are not synched, etc.
I don’t know why people complain so much about article contents.
I would be annoyed if the article were called “Mandrake 10.0 reviewed” and contained only installation info, but since the title is very clear about the contents, why not simply skipping it in case it’s not interesting to you?
Maybe some don’t know, but one doesn’t have to read and comment every single article at OSNews…just read the interesting ones and skip the rest, it might be useful for someone else, for example someone who is thinking about giving Linux a first try, or just curious to see how it looks like. For me this article is also old news, but I certainly know some people who is still scared about “installing Linux” and would enjoy seeing how simple and friendly it really is.
Just learn how to use your “back” button on the browser…
That is the target audience.
Then report the bugs http://qa.mandrakesoft.com
Samba works perfectly on my box and I have no problem with passwords. Can you specify and make a bug report ?