DrakX DrakX is Mandrakesecurity's installation program. Its ease of use has been enhanced with a graphical user interface, allowing you to move forward and backward through the installation and prompting you when required. With DrakX, it doesn't matter whether you're a new user to Mandrakesecurity or an old pro – DrakX's job is to give you a smooth installation and an easy transition into Mandrakesecurity.

When you begin, the first screen that comes up will present some information and give you installation options. (). Doing nothing will simply begin the installation in normal or linux mode. The next few paragraphs will go over some options and parameters that you can pass to the install program if you run into problems. Pressing F1 will open a help screen. Here are some useful options to choose from: vgalo: installation optionsvgalo if you tried a default installation and did not see the graphical interface as shown below in , you can try to run the installation in low resolution mode. This happens with certain types of graphics cards, so with Mandrakesecurity we give you a number of options to work around problems with older hardware. To try the installation in low resolution mode, type vgalo at the prompt. text: installation optionstext if your video card is very old and graphical installation does not work at all, you can always choose the text mode installation. Because all video cards can display text, this is the installation of last resort. Don't worry though – it's not likely that you'll need to use the text install. expert: installation optionsexpert installation options linuxin some rare cases, your PC may appear to freeze or lock-up during the hardware detection phase. If that happens, then adding the word expert as a parameter will tell the install program to bypass hardware detection. Because DrakX will not scan for hardware, you will need to manually specify hardware parameters later in the installation. The expert parameter can be added to the previous modes, so you may end up specifying boot: vgalo expert to perform a low resolution graphical install without DrakX performing a hardware scan. Selecting the expert mode will ask you for more details about the installation process, letting you perform a more customized installation. kernel options: installation optionskernel optionsKernel options usually aren't required for most machines. There are a few cases of motherboards incorrectly reporting the amount of memory installed due to bugs in the design or in the BIOS. If you need to manually specify the amount of DRAM installed in your PC, use the commands mem= xxxM mem= xxxM parameter. For example, to start the installation in normal mode with a computer having 256 MB of memory, your command line would look like this: boot: linux mem=256M Now that we've gone over what might go wrong, let's move on to the actual installation process. When the installer starts, you'll see a nice graphical interface ( ). On the left will be the various installation steps. Depending on the installation's progress level, some stages may or may not be available. If a particular stage is available it will be highlighted when you move the mouse pointer over it. The colors of the buttons on the left side of the screen let you quickly see what's going on with the installation: red: this installation phase has not yet been carried out orange: the installation stage that is currently being processed green: this installation stage has already been configured. However, nothing stops you from going back to a stage that has already been completed if you need to reconfigure something. This guide assumes that you are performing a standard, step-by-step installation, as described below.

The first step is to choose your preferred language.

language Your choice of preferred language will affect the language of the documentation, the installer and the system in general. Clicking on the Advanced button will allow you to select other languages to be installed on your workstation, thereby installing the language-specific files for system documentation and applications. For example, if you will host users from Spain on your machine, select English as the default language in the tree view and Spanish|Spain in the Advanced section. Note that you're not limited to choosing a single additional language. Once you have selected additional locales, click the OK button to continue. language setting Not all languages listed here are supported in the Mandrakesecurity Web interface.

licenseBefore continuing, you should carefully read the terms of the license. It covers the entire Mandrakesecurity distribution, and if you do not agree with all the terms in it you should click on the Refuse button. This will immediately terminate the installation. Clicking on the Accept button will continue the installation.

DrakX will first detect any IDEdetection IDE devices present in your computer. It will also scan for one or more PCI SCSI SCSI PCI SCSI cards on your system. If a SCSI card is found, DrakX will automatically install the appropriate driver. Because hardware detection is not foolproof, DrakX will ask you if you have a PCI SCSI installed. Clicking Yes will display a list of SCSI cards to choose from. Click No if you know that you have no SCSI hardware in your machine. If you're not sure, you can check the list of hardware detected in your machine by selecting See hardware info and clicking the OK. Examine the list of hardware and then click on the OK button to return to the SCSI interface question. If you had to manually specify your PCI SCSI adapter, DrakX will ask if you want to configure options for it. You should allow DrakX to probe the hardware for the card-specific options which are needed to initialize the adapter. Most of the time, DrakX will get through this step without any issues. If DrakX is not able to probe for the options to automatically determine which parameters need to be passed to the hardware, you'll need to manually configure the driver. hard disk detection

mouse Usually, DrakX has no problems detecting the number of buttons on your mouse. If it does, it assumes you have a two-button mouse and will configure it for third-button emulation. The third-button mouse button of a two-button mouse can be pressed by simultaneously clicking the left and right mouse buttons. DrakX will automatically know whether your mouse uses a PS/2, serial or USB interface. If for some reason you wish to specify a different type of mouse, select it from the provided list. If you choose a mouse other than the default, a test screen will be displayed. Use the buttons and wheel to verify that the settings are correct and that the mouse is working correctly. If the mouse is not working well, press the space bar or Return key to Cancel the test and to go back to the list of choices. mouse wheel Wheel mice are occasionally not detected automatically, so you will need to select your mouse from a list. Be sure to select the one corresponding to the port that your mouse is attached to. After selecting a mouse and pressing the OK button, a mouse image is displayed on-screen. Scroll the mouse wheel to ensure that it is activated correctly. Once you see the on-screen scroll wheel moving as you scroll your mouse wheel, test the buttons and check that the mouse pointer moves on-screen as you move your mouse.

keyboardDepending on the default language you chose in , DrakX will automatically select a particular type of keyboard configuration. However, you might not have a keyboard that corresponds exactly to your language: for example, if you are an English speaking Swiss person, you may have a Swiss keyboard. Or if you speak English but are located in Québec, you may find yourself in the same situation where your native language and keyboard do not match. In either case, this installation step will allow you to select an appropriate keyboard from a list. Click on the More button to be presented with the complete list of supported keyboards.

mount pointsAt this point, you need to decide where you want to install the Mandrakesecurity operating system on your hard drive. If your hard drive is empty or if an existing operating system is using all the available space you will have to partition the drive. Basically, partitioning a hard drive consists of logically dividing it to create the space needed to install your new Mandrakesecurity system. Because the process of partitioning a hard drive is usually irreversible and can lead to lost data if there is an existing operating system already installed on the drive, partitioning can be intimidating and stressful if you are an inexperienced user. Fortunately, DrakX includes a wizard which simplifies this process. Before continuing with this step, read through the rest of this section and above all, take your time. If your hard drive has already been partitioned, either from a previous installation of GNU/Linux or by another partitioning tool, select the appropriate partitions that you want to install your Linux system into. If partitions haven't been configured, you will need to create them using the wizard. Depending on your hard drive configuration, several options are available: Use free space: this option will perform an automatic partitioning of your blank drive(s). If you use this option there will be no further prompts. Use existing partition: the wizard has detected one or more existing Linux partitions on your hard drive. If you want to use them, choose this option. You will then be asked to choose the mount points associated with each of the partitions. The legacy mount points are selected by default, and for the most part it's a good idea to keep them. Use the free space on the Windows partition: if Microsoft® Windows®© is installed on your hard drive and takes all the space available on it, you have to create free space for Linux data. To do so, you can delete your Microsoft Windows® partition and data (see Erase entire disk or Expert mode solutions) or resize your Microsoft Windows® FAT partition. Resizing can be performed without the loss of any data, provided you previously defragment the Windows® partition and that it uses the FAT format. Backing up your data is strongly recommended.. Using this option is recommended if you want to use both Mandrakesecurity and Microsoft Windows® on the same computer. Before choosing this option, please understand that after this procedure, the size of your Microsoft Windows® partition will be smaller then when you started. You will have less free space under Microsoft Windows® to store your data or to install new software. Erase entire disk: if you want to delete all data and all partitions present on your hard drive and replace them with your new Mandrakesecurity system, choose this option. Be careful, because you will not be able to undo your choice after you confirm. If you choose this option, all data on your disk will be deleted. Remove Windows: this will simply erase everything on the drive and begin fresh, partitioning everything from scratch. All data on your disk will be lost. If you choose this option, all data on your disk will be lost. partitions manual formatting partitioning DiskDrake Custom disk partitioning: choose this option if you want to manually partition your hard drive. Be careful –– it is a powerful but dangerous choice and you can very easily lose all your data. That's why this option is really only recommended if you have done something like this before and have some experience. For more instructions on how to use the DiskDrake utility, refer to the online documentation for DiskDrake.

partitions formattingAny partitions that have been newly defined must be formatted for use (formatting means creating a file system). At this time, you may wish to reformat some already existing partitions to erase any data they contain. If you wish to do that, please select those partitions as well. Please note that it is not necessary to reformat all partitions pre-existingpre-existing partitions. You must reformat the partitions containing the operating system (such as /, /usr or /var) but you do not have to reformat partitions containing data that you wish to keep (typically /home). Please be careful when selecting partitions. After formatting, all data on the selected partitions will be deleted and you will not be able to recover it. Click on OK when you are ready to format partitions. Click on Cancel if you want to choose another partition for your new Mandrakesecurity operating system installation. Click on Advanced if you wish to select partitions that will be checked for partitionsbad blocksbad blocks on the disk.

Then comes the actual system installation. The packages list is predefined and cannot be changed at this time. The time required to complete the installation depends on the speed of your hardware. An estimate of the remaining time-to-go will be displayed on-screen to help gauge if there is sufficient time to enjoy a cup of coffee.

This is the most crucial decision point for the security of your GNU/Linux system: you have to enter the root password password root root password. Root is the system administrator and is the only one authorized to make updates, add users, change the overall system configuration, and so on. In short, root can do everything! That is why you must choose a password that is difficult to guess – DrakX will tell you if the password that you chose is too easy. As you can see, you are not forced to enter a password, but we strongly advise you against. GNU/Linux is as prone to operator error as any other operating system. Since root can overcome all limitations and unintentionally erase all data on partitions by carelessly accessing the partitions themselves, it is important that it be difficult to become root. The msec security level is set to 4 (high) by default. The password should be a mixture of alphanumeric characters and must be at least 8 characters long. Never write down the root password –– it makes it too easy to compromise a system. One caveat –– do not make the password too long or complicated because you must be able to remember it! The password will not be displayed on screen as you type it in. To reduce the chance of a blind typing error you will need to enter the password twice. If you do happen to make the same typing error twice, this incorrect password will have to be used the first time you connect.

You are then asked to enter the password for the system administrator (login: admin). It is differentiated from the root user, for security reasons, and also because it may not be the same person. It is that admin account that will be required to access the Mandrakesecurity Web interface. The criterion for choosing this password are the same as for the root password.

All necessary users have already been added, and you shouldn't need adding more users for normal Mandrakesecurity operations. However, if you plan to use the squid PAM authentication feature, you can add here the users that will be authorized. The first field asks you for a real name. Of course, this is not mandatory –– you can actually enter whatever you like. DrakX will use the first word you typed in and copy it to the User name field, which is the name this user will enter to log onto the system. If you like, you may override the default and change the username. The next step is to enter a password. From a security point of view, a non-privileged (regular) user password is not as crucial as the root password, but that is no reason to neglect it by making it blank or too simple: after all, your files could be the ones at risk. You can then choose to make that user member of one or more special groups that will give him special priviledges. Check the button for the priviledges you want for that user. Once you click on Accept user, you can add additional users. Select Done when you have finished adding users. Clicking the Advanced button allows you to change the default shell for that user (bash by default).

You will now set up your local network connection (LAN). Mandrakesecurity will attempt to autodetect network devices and modems. If this detection fails, uncheck the Use auto detection box. Even though many connection types are offered here, do not configure your Internet connection now. You should now limit yourself to configuring the Ethernet LAN access, so that you can later connect to the administration interface and configure other connections easily through it. We will not detail each configuration option –  just make sure that you have all the parameters, such as IP address, default gateway, DNS servers, etc. from your Internet Service Provider or system administrator. You will be able to configure all your other network interfaces (Internet, DMZ, etc.) later on through Mandrakesecurity interface.

You must indicate where you wish to place the information the bootloader requires to boot to GNU/Linux. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, choose First sector of drive (MBR). You are then presented the different boot entries that will be proposed at system boot. You can modify them here.

The Mandrakesecurity CD-ROM has a built-in rescue mode. You can access it by booting the CD-ROM, pressing the F1 key at boot and typing rescue at the prompt. If your computer cannot boot from the CD-ROM, there are at least two situations where having a boot floppy is critical: when installing the bootloader bootloader, DrakX will rewrite the boot sector ( MBRMBR) of your main disk (unless you are using another boot manager), to allow you to start up with either Windows® or GNU/Linux (assuming you have Windows® on your system). If at some point you need to reinstall Windows®, the Microsoft install process will rewrite the boot sector and remove your ability to start GNU/Linux! if a problem arises and you cannot start GNU/Linux from the hard disk, this boot diskfloppy will be the only means of starting up GNU/Linux. It contains a fair number of system tools for restoring a system that has crashed due to a power failure, an unfortunate typing error, a forgotten root password, or any other reason. If you say Yes, you will be asked to insert a disk in the drive. The floppy disk must be blank or have non-critical data on it – DrakX will format the floppy and will rewrite the whole disk.

At the time you are installing Mandrakesecurity, it is likely that some packages have been updated since the initial release. Bugs may have been fixed, security issues resolved. To allow you to benefit from these updates, you are now able to download them from the Internet. Choose Yes if you have a working Internet connection, or No if you prefer to install updated packages later. Choosing Yes displays a list of places from which updates can be retrieved. Choose the one nearest you. A package-selection tree will appear: review the selection, and press Install to retrieve and install the selected package(s), or Cancel to abort.

boot dual-bootThere you are. Installation is now complete and your GNU/Linux system is ready to use. Carefully write down the URL given in that dialog, it's the address you'll have to use in your Web browser to access the Mandrakesecurity Web interface with admin account. Now, just click OK twice to reboot the system.

The uninstallation process consists of two steps: Delete all partitions on your hard drive and replace them by a single FAT partition with DiskDrake. Uninstall the bootloader uninstall bootloader (generally GRUB) from the Master Boot Record (MBR). To do so, boot under DOS and run the fdisk /mbr command. If you have another OS, please consult its documentation to determine how to perform the same step. Goodbye, and thank you for using Mandrakesecurity!