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Mageia LiveCD is an installable LiveCD of Mageia.
Mageia LiveCD is probably the best edition to start with Mageia. In fact, the Live mode allows you to test and fully use Mageia without altering anything on your hard drive. And if the experience meets your needs, you can install it on your hard drive from the LiveCD at any time.
This article will guide you in the installation of Mageia LiveCD. Each stage of the installation is accompanied by screen shots and explanations to guide you better.
Preliminary remarks
Learn about known issues
It is advisable to consult the list of known problems for the proper version such as Mageia 1 Errata or Mageia 2 Errata, to learn what problems may be of concern to you. You will learn whether corrections have been published or if workarounds exist.
| Note: It is always interesting to read the documentation according to your version of Mageia. |
Different versions of Mageia LiveCD's
Mageia exists in several versions, all of which are easily and freely downloadable from the Internet. However, the limited space on a CD requires that several different versions be distributed, each dedicated to a specific Desktop Environment and a particular region, in order to offer translations for the languages common to these geographical zones.
Burning a Mageia LiveCD
For assistance regarding getting an ISO image and burning it to a disc, please see:
Booting on Mageia LiveCD
You can boot directly from the media you used to burn your image (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM...). You usually just need to insert it in your reader for the bootloader to launch the installation automatically after rebooting the computer. If that does not happen you may need to reconfigure your BIOS or press one key that will offer you to choose the peripheral from which the computer will boot.
| Note: During boot, selecting install as a kernel choice will permit you to launch the installation directly, without booting the Live CD, which may be more practical for notebooks that have less memory. |
Installing Mageia LiveCD
Starting setup
We assume you have launched Mageia LiveCD and that it is running in graphic mode. To launch the installation of Mageia LiveCD to the hard disc, simply click on the icon Live Install
At this stage, simply clicking on Next will move you to the next screen, or the Cancel button will let you discontinue the installation program.
Partitioning
| Note: An article in the wiki deals with partitioning in a more complete manner. |
Partitioning is without doubt the step that that requires the most care. The installation process is easier and quite automatic if the default choices are selected by clicking on Next
The installation assistant examined your system earlier and will suggest several choices of partitioning. The goal of this partitioning is to create the partitions needed to install Mageia. Several choices are presented according to your configuration. The screen shot proposes four solutions, but the number may vary. Before proceding we will explain the options offered:
- Use available space : the installer has found empty disc space and in this option suggests you use it to create the partitions for your Mageia.
- Use free space on the Windows partition : you have Windows installed on your system on a FAT32 or NTFS partition. To install Mageia, it will be necessary to make space to create the necessary partitions while still preserving Windows. The Windows partition will be shrunken to the size of your choice and the Linux partitions created in the freed space. Note that if you have an empty Windows partition on which you want to install Mageia, do not choose this option. In fact it only permits shrinking a Windows partition, not deleting it. Therefore it requires using Custom partitioning.
- Use existing partitions : the installer has found partitions that can be used directly by Linux. It can therefore be used to avoid creating new partitions. On the other hand, if these partitions contain a Linux system you want to preserve, do not choose this option.
- Erase and use the entire disc. : clearly, this choice will lead to erasing all disc partitions to create new ones for Mageia. The new partitions (3) will be of sizes adjusted by automatic Mageia choices. This option clearly leads to complete deletion of existing data on the hard drive.
- Custom partitioning : the most complete option, which allows total control of partitioning. It is not exclusively reserved for specialists but it must be kept in mind that an error can be fatal, which is why it is necessary to be rigorously careful with this option which is nonetheless highly instructive. This option should be chosen if you want to transform an entire Windows partition for installing Mageia.
| Note: For a double-boot (or multi-boot with a double system of Windows and Mageia), it is advisable to install Windows first. |
Deleting unused packages and drivers
This is a function which permits you to gain disc space by not installing packages you do not need.
In fact, so that the Mageia LiveCD can function with as many computers as possible and in the native language of users anywhere in the world, the maximum number of drivers and language packages are included on the CD. This step permits you to:
- skip installing packages such as language packages . It would be useless to install language packages for Spanish, German... if you want a system exclusively in French.
- skip installing drivers unused by your computer.. It would be useless to install ATI drivers if you have Nvidia for example.
We recommend you preserve the choice of uninstalling useless packages (later) by simply clicking on Next
Copying files to the hard drive
Copying files to the hard drive begins - it will be necessary to wait a few minutes...
While you are waiting those few minutes, you can use your Live system which remains completely functional!
| Note: In order to simplify the installation process by reducing the number of questions posed of the user, Mageia LiveCD does not offer a choice of packages to be installed. If you want to choose by yourself which packages to install, use a Mageia installation DVD other than a LiveCD. |
The Bootloader
Before ending the installation, there remains one last step, which is configuring the bootlaoder.
The bootloader (or chargeur de démarrage in French) is the program that allows you to choose which system to boot when starting your computer.
| Note: An article on the wiki treats bootloader configuration (drakboot) more thoroughly. |
The configuration assistant for the bootloader is made up of two parts:
- the first permits configuring the general options of the bootloader. In the majority of cases it is sufficient to choose the default, which is to install
Grubon the MBR, by clicking on Next.
- the second step permits modifying the menu entries offered when the computer boots. The assistant has detected the group of systems already present on your hard drive! It is therefore sufficient to validate the default choice by clicking on Next
Finishing installation
Et voilà: the installation is already finished!
Click on Finish to exit the installation program.
All you need to do now is:
- reboot the computer
- Then choose to boot your Mageia LiveCD as installed on your hard drive in order to fully exploit the performance of your computer.
After the installation
At the first booting of the Mageia LiveCD freshly installed on your hard drive, a configuration assistant will launch automatically to help you finalize the installation.
Choice of nation
The first step of the post-installation assistant lets you choose your nation.
This choice will permit the assistant to select automatically the type of keyboard and language to be used by default.
Automatic configuration of repositories
At this stage, if the configuration assistant determines only one internet connection is available, it automatically connects to the different repositories to give you access to the multitude of programs packaged for Mageia GNU/Linux but not included by default on the CD.
Configuring Users
This operation consists of:
- defining the password for root (in other words the Administrator of the system).
This is the password of the System administrator (keyword: root). You must use it for every operation that modifies the system for configuring the installation of programs so that the security of your system remains intact. Do not forget it!
- creating a username under which you sign in for daily use of your system.
Once you have finished, click on "Next".
End of Post-Installation
Et voilà, to end the post-installation, simply click on Next
You are now ready for full enjoyment of your new Mageia One system !
Happy discovery!
