This page was a draft before it was moved to the archive
The idea was and is to use Installation Media as a blueprint for this page and to use the Mdv content of this page for enhancements
This article outlines the various ways in which Mageia can be installed.
(it might be better to have a series of pages about "how to install a LiveCD, how to do a network install, etc., do the real explaining there, and let this page serve as a nice overview)
We are working on
Contents
Main supported installation methods
These are the most commonly used and tested installation methods. You can expect these methods to work without problems.
Installation from CD / DVD
The most common method for installing Mageia is from CD or DVD, or created from images downloaded from a Mageia mirror site. For instructions on writing the downloaded image to disc, see here. In most cases, starting an install from CD or DVD is as simple as putting the disc (the first disc, in the case of multi-disc sets) into the drive and rebooting.
Mageia installation does not start when system is booted with CD or DVD in the drive
If you place the disc in the drive, reboot, and the system simply boots up as normal into whatever operating system is already installed, the problem is that your system is not configured to try booting from the CD / DVD drive before booting from the hard drive. To fix this you must enter the system (BIOS) setup utility. This is usually achieved by pressing a special key at the very start of the boot process, while the system is checking the memory. The key is often a function key, or the Delete key. The key will be displayed on the initial boot up screen and / or listed in your system manual. The exact process to change the boot device order will vary depending on the BIOS used by your system; if you cannot find the setting, please refer to your system manual. For one commonly used BIOS - Phoenix / Award - you should go to the 'Advanced BIOS Features' page and set the first boot device to be CD-ROM. Make the hard disk the second boot device.
Installation from Mageia One
Mageia One is a combined Live / installation CD edition of Mageia. When you boot from a Mageia One CD (by placing it in the drive and rebooting the system), Mageia One will run in live mode: it will run directly from the CD without installing anything to the hard disk. There is an icon on the default desktop which can be used to install Mageia One to the hard disk.
Installation from a USB stick
The latest Mageia ISO's (called 'hybrids') can be dumped straight onto a USB stick. There is a handy script to help with this called Mageia Seed. Note that the image will overwrite the entire stick, not just a single partition. The script itself is mostly just to help you find the correct device to write to, and dd the image to the whole device and not attempt to use just a partition. Take care to make sure you write to the correct device, as everything on it already will be lost.
Installation from a local mirror, hard disk, local network, or the Internet
To install by using any of these methods, you should create a boot CD or a boot USB storage device. You do this by downloading an image file from a Mageia mirror site and writing it to the disc or USB storage device. These files are located in the /i586/install/images (or /x86_64/install/images) directory for the release you wish to install. The boot CD image is named boot.iso, and the USB storage device image is named all.img.
So, for example, the CD image file for the i586 edition of Mageia 1 can be found as /mageia/distrib/1/i586/install/images/boot.iso on any Mageia mirror site.
To boot from the CD image, write it as an image (not as a file) to a CD or DVD recordable / rewriteable disc using your preferred CD / DVD writing software, then reboot with the disc in the drive. If the installation process does not start, refer to #Mageia installation does not start when system is booted with CD or DVD in the drive above.
To boot from a USB storage device, use the dd command (in Linux) to write the image to a USB storage device. You need to know the correct device node for the USB storage device - usually /dev/sda, but it may be a different letter if you have other USB storage, SCSI or SATA devices in your system. The image is written to the raw drive (sda) not the partition (sda1). Be very careful, as copying the image to a SCSI or SATA hard disk will render it unbootable and destroy some data. The command to use is dd if=all.img of=/dev/sda, adjusting the device node as appropriate. After writing the image, reboot the system with the USB storage device attached. To write the image file to a USB storage device in Windows, use WinImage. If the installation process does not start, refer to #Mageia installation does not start when system is booted with CD or DVD in the drive above, and set the first boot device to be USB storage. Please note that many systems are not capable of booting directly from USB storage devices, and the USB floppy boot device is not the same as the USB storage boot device. If your system is not capable of booting from a USB storage device, you must use another installation method.
100px In all cases, you will now enter the Mageia installation process and be given a choice of the installation method to use.
Installation from hard disk
There are two major ways of doing a hard disk installation: you can either install from a local mirror of the Mageia tree (which you have previously created by downloading the entire tree from a public mirror using, for e.g., rsync), or you can install directly from the .ISO format images of the Mageia CD's / DVD's without burning them to disc. This does not work with the One CD. To install from a local mirror, select the hard disk installation method. Then select the drive and partition where the local mirror is stored. Finally, enter the path to the correct directory for the version of Mandriva Linux you wish to install. The path to enter is the path to the correct architecture for the correct edition: for instance, if you wish to install the i586 version of Mageia 1, enter the path to /mageia/distrib/1/i586.
To install from .ISO images on a local hard disk, select the hard disk installation method. Then select the drive and partition where the ISO image(s) is / are stored. Then enter either the path to the ISO image (if you have just one) or the path to the directory where the ISO images are stored (if you have a multi-disc set).
Installation from a local network or the Internet
We do not recommend that you attempt to perform a network installation using a wireless connection. It is very unlikely to work. Wired connections should always be used for performing network installations. You should also note that, to install from a private server on your local network, the server must have a tree laid out in the same fashion as the Mageia public mirrors, containing at least the installer files and the /main section for the release you wish to install. You cannot perform a network installation from a server which contains a Mageia disc or ISO image.
When installing from a server on your local network select the appropriate method for the type of server you wish to install from: NFS, HTTP, FTP or KA. When installing from the internet select either FTP or HTTP. For all methods, you must now enter your network configuration information to bring up your Ethernet interface (for a typical home user, select DHCP and all default settings; other users should know their settings, or consult your network manager).
For the HTTP and FTP methods, you will now be asked to configure a proxy, if appropriate. If like most people you are not behind a proxy server simply leave the boxes blank. For the HTTP and FTP methods, you will now be asked to specify a mirror or to select from a list of available editions of Mageia. If you are installing from the internet choose the appropriate edition. If you are installing from a local network or from a public server not known by Mageia, select the "Specify the mirror manually" option.
At the next step, either pick the public mirror you wish to use, or enter the path to the mirror as appropriate. The path to enter is the path to the correct architecture for the correct edition: for instance, if you wish to install the i586 version of Mageia 1, enter the path to /mageia/distrib/1/i586.
For the NFS method, after configuring networking, you will be asked to enter the hostname or IP address of the NFS server, and the path containing the Mageia installation files. The path to enter is the path to the correct architecture for the correct edition: for instance, if you wish to install the i586 version of Mageia 1, enter the path to /mageia/distrib/1/i586.
For all network installation methods if the install server has been correctly selected you will see a progress bar saying 'Loading' followed by the standard Mageia installation screen. From here the installation proceeds exactly the same as if you were installing from the 'Free' DVD. All packages will be downloaded from the internet or the local server.
When installing from the internet any updated packages released by Mageia after the release of the distribution will automatically be selected during the network install.
Advanced installation methods
These are less commonly used installation methods which may require more user expertise or which may sometimes have problems. Only use them if you are sure they are the best method for your situation, or none of the regular installation methods work.
Hard disk install from a floppy disk boot
There is a way to install from hard disk on a machine with no CD / DVD drive and no USB storage boot option, by using a boot floppy. You must use a local mirror with this method, not an ISO image. To do this, download the hd_grub.img floppy image file from the /install/images directory on a Mandriva mirror (as described above). To boot from the floppy image, use the dd command (in Linux) to write the image to a floppy disk. You need to know the correct device node for your floppy disk drive: this will usually be /dev/fd0, but if you use a USB floppy drive, it will be /dev/sda or another letter if you have other USB storage, SCSI or SATA devices in your system. Be very careful, as copying the image to a SCSI or SATA hard disk will render it unbootable and destroy some data. The command to use is dd if=hd_grub.img of=/dev/fd0, adjusting the device node as appropriate. After writing the image, you must create an appropriate grub (bootloader) configuration file so the floppy can find the installation files. You can use this script to generate the configuration file: select the appropriate drive, partition and path, and then click Go. The file will be generated. Save it as menu.lst and copy it to the floppy disk you just created, overwriting the original. Now reboot the system with the floppy disk in the drive. To write the image file to a floppy disk in Windows, use WinImage. If the installation process does not start, refer to Mandriva Linux installation does not start when system is booted with CD or DVD in the drive above, and set the first boot device to be the floppy disk drive (or USB floppy if you use a USB floppy disk drive).
Booting the installer directly from a hard disk - Linux method
If you already have a Linux distribution installed on your system, it is possible to copy the Mageia 1 installer to the hard disk and then configure the bootloader - lilo or grub - to give you the choice to boot directly into the installer. To do this, you must first get a copy of the installer kernel and initrd images. You can either download these from a mirror, or copy them from a Mageia ISO image by loopback mounting it. On the Mageia mirrors, you will find the files in the /isolinux/alt0 subdirectory of the release you wish to install - for example, /mageia/distrib/1/i586/isolinux/alt0. The files are named all.rdz and vmlinuz. To retrieve the files from a Mageia ISO image, first mount it:
mkdir /mnt/iso mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop CD1.iso /mnt/iso
Next, locate and copy the files. They will be in either /mnt/iso/i586/isolinux/alt0 or /mnt/iso/x86_64/isolinux/alt0, depending on whether you have an x86-32 or an x86-64 ISO. Again, the files are named all.rdz and vmlinuz.
Note that if you copy vmlinuz to grub that it will overwrite any vmlinuz that you have for existing linux system. Better to rename it before copying to grub ... if you want to keep existing system(s).
Whichever way you located the files, copy them to /boot on the running Linux distribution. Rename the file vmlinuz to vmlinuz-all. Now, simply configure the bootloader - lilo or grub - to include this as an entry on the boot menu. Some distributions, including Mageia, include a graphical configuration utility that will allow you to do this. Alternatively, you can do it manually. For lilo, add an entry like this to /etc/lilo.conf:
image=/boot/vmlinuz-all
label=all-install
root=/dev/ram3
initrd=/boot/all.rdz
append="ramdisk_size=32000"
vga=791
read-only
Then run the command lilo as root.
For grub, add an entry like this to /boot/grub/menu.lst:
title all-install kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-all root=/dev/ram3 ramdisk_size=32000 vga=791 initrd (hd0,0)/boot/all.rdz
If the grub entry above doesn't work and you have a separate /boot partition this should work.
title all-install kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz-all root=/dev/ram3 ramdisk_size=32000 vga=791 initrd (hd0,0)/all.rdz
The next time the system is booted, a new entry labelled all-install will be available from the boot menu. This will boot the Mageia installer. You can then use any of the installation methods described earlier in this document to complete the installation.
Booting the installer directly from a hard disk - Windows method
If you already have Microsoft Windows™ installed on your system, it is possible to copy the Mageia installer to the hard disk and then use the Grub for DOS bootloader to give you the choice to boot directly into the installer. To do this, you must first get a copy of the installer kernel and initrd images. You can download these from a Mageia mirror. On the Mageia mirrors you will find the files in the /isolinux/alt0 subdirectory of the release you wish to install - for example, /mageia/distrib/1/i586/isolinux/alt0. The files are named all.rdz and vmlinuz. Now create a file named C:\menu.lst with the following contents:
color black/cyan yellow/cyan timeout 30 default /default title Mageia Install kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram3 vga=791 initrd (hd0,0)/boot/all.rdz
Now download Grub for DOS and place the file grldr (from the archive) in C:\. Edit the file C:\boot.ini - it is marked as a hidden and system file, by default, so you may have to edit some Windows settings to see and change it - and add the following line to the end of the file:
c:\grldr="Start GRUB"
Now ensure your Windows system is configured to show the boot menu on startup, and reboot. Choose 'Start GRUB' and then 'Install Mageia', and the installer will load. You can then use any of the installation methods described earlier in this document to complete the installation.
Installation via PXE
Installing via PXE is a somewhat complicated process but is useful on machines with no CD or floppy drive, or in situations where you wish to install on many machines simultaneously. For instructions, see this page.
Installation does not work
If you have trouble with the installation process, the very first thing you should do is to check the integrity of your installation media. If you are installing from ISO files or from discs created from ISO files, test that the ISO files are correct. To do this you can use the md5sum utility in Linux. This analyzes a file and creates a checksum which can be compared against the checksum of the original copy of the file.
To check the .iso file
To check the .iso file, download the original md5sum from the mirror where you downloaded the ISO. For instance, if you downloaded mageia-dvd-1-i586.iso, you will find the file mageia-dvd-1-i586.iso.md5 in the same directory on the mirror. Download it and place it in the same directory as the ISO file. Then, from that directory, run this command in terminal:
md5sum -c mageia-dvd-1-i586.iso.md5
and it will let you know whether the checksum matches or not. If it does not, you must correct the download. There are several ways of doing this:
- You can use BitTorrent to correct the iso, by pointing it at the existing files (torrents are available here). It should check the iso, find out where they are corrupt, and download only the missing pieces.
- You can also try correcting the download using Parchive2: see ISO Download recovery with Parchive2 for instructions.
Otherwise, you can simply delete the files and re-download them.
To check the md5sum in windows
To check the md5sum in windows you can use something like md5summer, you'll need the .md5 file which can be found in the same directory containing the .iso on any of the mirrors.
If you are installing from burned CDs or DVDs
If you are installing from burned CDs or DVDs, first check the ISO file you used to burn the discs. If the md5sum string of the .iso doesn't match the original one in the .md5 file then you must re-download the file and burn the discs again.
If the md5sum string of the .iso matches the original one in the .md5 file but you still have installation problems, the disc(s) may have been incorrectly burned. In this case, try burning the disc(s) again at a slower speed. If you still experience problems, try with a different brand of blank discs, or a different drive, or use the hard disk installation method described above to install directly from the ISO files.
If you are confident that your installation media are not corrupt
If you are confident that your installation media are not corrupt, but you still experience problems during installation, then you are most likely either experiencing hardware problems or an installer bug. These can sometimes be resolved by running the installer in a different way. If you are installing from CD / DVD, the very first installer screen gives you several choices for different installation methods. If you are using one of the other installation methods described above, the first installer screen describes how to choose other installation methods. If you are experiencing graphical problems, try the vgalo, vgahi, vga16 or text install methods. If you are experiencing other problems, try the Installation--ACPI Disabled install method. Problems not resolved in this way are outside the scope of this document, but may be handled by the Errata page for the release you are trying to install (e.g. Mageia 7 Errata).
