DrakX, the Mageia InstallerWhether you are new to GNU-Linux or an experienced user, the Mageia
Installer is designed to help make your installation or upgrade as easy as
possible.The installation stepsThe install process is divided into a number of steps - the
status of which is indicated in a panel to the left of the
screen.Each step has one or more screens, which may also have
Advanced sections with extra, less commonly
required options.Most screens have Help buttons for further
details about the particular step.If at some point during the install you decide to abort the
installation, it is possible to reboot, but please think twice before
you do this. Once a partition has been formatted or updates have started
to be installed, your computer is no longer in the same state and
rebooting it could very well leave you with an unusable system.If, in spite of this, you are very sure rebooting is what you
want, go to a text terminal by pressing the keys CtrlAltF2 together. After that, press CtrlAltDelete together to reboot.Installation Welcome ScreenThe particular screen that you will first see when booting from the
Installation media will depend on whether your computer motherboard is of
the Legacy (BIOS) or UEFI type.The welcome menu screen has various options, however the default
option will start the installer, and is normally all that you will
need.Legacy (BIOS) SystemsMenuInstall MageiaInstall Mageia to a hard disk. This is the default option, and
will automatically start after a short while unless another option
is selected.Rescue SystemThis option allows you to either re-install the bootloader for
an existing Mageia installation or you can use it to restore a
Windows bootloader.Memory TestTest the installed RAM by performing multiple read and write
operations. Reboot to end the test.F2: LanguagePress F2 for alternative languages.UEFI SystemsFrom this screen, you can access options by pressing
e to enter the edit mode. To come back to this screen,
press Esc to quit without saving or press
F10 to save and quit.MenuInstall: Start the Install
processRescue: This option allows
you to either re-install the bootloader for an existing Mageia
installation or you can use it to restore a Windows
bootloader.F2: Language: Press
F2 for alternative languages.If you booted from a USB stick, you will see the above options
duplicated, and in this case, you should use the set that will be
suffixed with "USB".Installation Problems and Possible SolutionsNo Graphical InterfaceAfter the initial screen you did not progress to the
Language Selection screen. This can happen with
some graphic cards and older systems. Try using low resolution by
typing vgalo at the prompt.If the hardware is very old, a graphical installation may not
be possible. In this case it is worth trying a text-mode
installation. To use this press Esc at the
Welcome screen and confirm with
ENTER. You will be presented with a black screen
with a boot: prompt. Type text
and press ENTER to continue with the installation
in text mode.The Install FreezesIf the system appeared to freeze during the installation, this may
be a problem with hardware detection. In this case the automatic
hardware detection may be bypassed and dealt with later. To try this,
type noauto at the prompt. This option may also be
combined with other parameters as necessary.RAM problemThis will rarely be needed, but in some cases the hardware may
report the available RAM incorrectly. To specify this manually, you can
use the mem=xxxM
parameter, where xxx is the correct amount of
RAM. e.g. mem=256M would specify 256MB of RAM.Dynamic partitionsIf you converted your hard disk from Basic
format to Dynamic format in Microsoft Windows, then
it is not possible to install Mageia on this disc. To revert to a
Basic disk, see the Microsoft documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776315.aspx.