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 initial menu screen has various options, however the default one
will start the installer, which will normally be all that you will
need.From this first screen, it is possible to set some personal
preferences:The language (for the installation only, may be different that the
chosen language for the system) by pressing the key F2Use the arrow keys to select the language and press the key
Enter.Here is for example, the French welcome screen when using a Live
DVD/CD. Note that the Live DVD/CD menu does not propose:
Rescue System, Memory test and Hardware
Detection Tool.Change the screen resolution by pressing the F3 key.Add some kernel options by pressing the F6 key.If the installation fails, then it may be necessary to try again
using one of the extra options. The menu called by F6 displays a new
line called Boot options and propose four
entries:- Default, it doesn't alter anything in the default
options.- Safe Settings, priority is given to the safer options to the
detriment of performances.- No ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface), power
management isn't taken into account.- No Local APIC (Local Advanced Programmable Interrupt
Controller), it is about CPU interruptions, select this option if you
are asked for.When you select one of these entries, it modifies the default options
displayed in the Boot Options line.In some Mageia releases, it may happen that the entries selected
with the key F6 does not appear in the Boot Options line, however, they
are really taken into account.Add more kernel options by pressing the key F1Pressing F1 opens a new window with more available options. Select
one with the arrow keys and press Enter to have more details or press
the Esc key to go back to the welcome screen.The detailed view about the option splash. Press Esc or select
Return to Boot Options to go back to the options
list. These options can by added by hand in the Boot
options line.The help is translated in the chosen language with the F2
key.Here is the default welcome screen when using a Wired Network-based
Installation CD (Boot.iso or Boot-Nonfree.iso images):It does not allow to change the language, the available options are
described in the screen. For more information about using a Wired
Network-based Installation CD, see the Mageia WikiThe keyboard layout is the American one.The installation stepsThe install process is divided into a number of steps, which can be
followed on the side panel of the screen.Each step has one or more screens which may also have
Advanced buttons with extra, less commonly
required, options.Most screens have Help buttons which give
further explanations about the current step.If somewhere during install you decide to stop 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 three keys Alt Ctrl F2 at the same
time. After that, press Alt Ctrl Delete
simultaneously to reboot.Installation Problems and
Possible SolutionsNo Graphical InterfaceAfter the initial screen you did not reach 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 hit ESC at the first welcome
screen and confirm with ENTER. You will be presented with a black
screen with the word "boot:". Type "text" and hit ENTER. Now
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
detection of hardware may be bypassed and dealt with later. To try
this, type noauto at the prompt. This option may also be
combined with other options as necessary.RAM problemThese 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.