Radix Fidem Blog

Part 1 and Part 2

At this point, if you have experienced help on hand, or you are willing to study the issues for yourself, you really don’t need any more help from me. What follows are simply my personal suggestions which should allow you to get from here to there the quickest way possible. That said, there is just one more issue to consider before we start the installation: Do you want to keep Windows? If your hard drive is big enough, chances are the installer software will offer to let you keep your Windows installation and let it live on its own space. That way, you can always run Windows if you really need it. It shouldn’t hurt anything to keep it, but if you do, make sure you run Windows Defrag first.

Installation notes: As you follow the steps through the installation process, most of the time you can accept simply what is offered. There are a couple of places where you probably should not do that, or you might be puzzled, and this is what we will cover here. I refer you again to the visual walk-through we looked at previously.

Partition: Linux typically needs a place on your hard drive to store all the data, and another space for swapping. When you get to the partition screen, chances are good you can simply reveiw what is offered and accept it. Change it only if you’ve studied the issues invovled.

Network: On the screen which has “Network Devices” at the top, what you do depends on how you access the Internet. If it’s a dialup modem which Linux knows how to use, you’ll be offered the standard blocks to fill in; this is probably one of the places where you might face a little trouble, but your particular brand of modem is something you should have researched already. Still, it could fail and the installer won’t see it. If so, I recommend you stop here, abort the installation, and contact someone who knows Linux and modems about what to do. Unfortunately, it may require you get a different modem.

For those of you using DSL, cable, or most other types of networking via an ethernet port, there is little you’ll need to worry about. If you know you have to set some information here, have it on hand before you start. You might check with your Internet Service Provider (ISP), but many of them won’t help you. Most of the time, just accept the default answers and keep going.

Timezone: Linux does this a little differently. Make sure to un-check the box which says “System clock uses UTC” unless you know for sure you do use it. For timezone, at least in the US, you choose the nearest city from the list in your time zone:

• Eastern = America/New York
• Central = America/Chicago
• Mountain = America/Denver
• Pacific = America/Los Angeles

For those few places in the US which don’t follow that pattern, you’ll probably recognize which name on the list matches your zone.

Root password: This is the same thing as “superuser,” the master of the computer. By now you should understand there is virtually no reason at all you’ll spend much time logged in as root. You’ll need the password to make administrative changes to the system, but otherwise always run as a user. You will set up that account later.

Software sets: The next screen will offer you several options as “desktop.” Just accept “Desktop Gnome” and click the box for “Packages from CentOS Extra”. It will pop up a window asking to confirm your network settings, simply because a lot of businesses install stuff on a computer in one place, them move it to another place with different settings. This should not apply to you, so just click “OK”.

Desktop Environment: Just accept the default GNOME and keep going.

After a couple more screens, it will begin the actual installation and you can take a break. It won’t need your attention for a while, until it’s time to reboot. At that point, everything is on the hard drive, and there’s some more set up and configuration to do, but it has to be done while running Linux. Reboot, and watch the pretty colors.

Firewall: Unselect everything, unless you know why you need to keep something on that list.

SELinux: Select “Disabled” — you just don’t need this. It will complain by popping up a box to tell you it has to “relabel” the system. That will come later, and you don’t need to do anything special.

Date and Time: After you set the first page, click the second tab marked “Network Time Protocol.” Unless you are on dialup, this is handy to have working. Just click the box “Enable Network Time Protocol” and accept the defaults.

Create User: This is your day-to-day user account. For the block marked “Username” this is typically a 2-4 letter nickname or abbreviation. It’s no secret mine is my initials, jeh. Type twice the password you created earlier and move on.

Sound Card: If the installer finds one it recognizes, it will allow you to test it here. If not, you may need some help getting things to work. On occasion it will find it, but can’t make any sound. Most sound cards or chipsets are discussed on the Net somewhere under Linux.

You probably don’t have any additional CDs, so just reboot. On the way, if you kept your Windows system and installed CentOS beside it, you’ll get a list indicating you can select Windows or CentOS. Unless there is a compelling reason, make sure it’s on CentOS, then hit ENTER. After that, you’ll eventually end up at the login screen. What happens next will be our next episode. Feel free to login and look things over. Find the icon for the web browser; surf the Net a little. Welcome to Linux.

You can view Part 1 here.

For most people, “easy” in computers means “familiar.” When I tell them and show them Linux is different — unfamiliar — that’s usually the end of the discussion. If the price of change is too high, this is not for you. If the price of learning something new is just another of the costs of having a computer in your home, you’ll accept the relatively small price you pay up front for something which gets a lot easier later. If you are still trying to find the “ANY” key, Linux is not for you, especially CentOS. If you have the time and inclination to learn enough to get by, you have come to the right place. The primary advantage of using CentOS in particular, among other types and brand of Linux, is you install it once, and it tends to work exceedingly well until the hardware breaks, as “stability and security” are the primary selling points.

Getting Started

0. Mental migration: It’s an old computer geek joke to start a numbered list with zero, but it serves to symbolize the different mindset required for Linux compared to Windows. The first thing you need to reconcile yourself with is the trade-offs. While it’s possible these days to run a Windows emulator under Linux, and keep your old Windows favorites, it requires a bit of extra horsepower, and can be quite tricky. In the long run, it’s best to change your expectations. For the average home user, there’s a Linux tool which does just about everything you’ve done in Windows. Sometimes it’s not as neatly integrated as it seems to be on Windows, but that’s because Windows is pretty much one thing, whereas Linux is all sorts of different things. We will try to explain how to make CentOS offer the cool stuff you take for granted under Windows, but we will also discuss the cool things Linux offers which you may not do, or won’t do quite so easily, under Windows. If you really struggle with the different assumptions, but are determined to see it through, perhaps you might benefit from reading some of The Clueless User’s Guide to Free and Opens Source Software (FOSS).

1. Chasing information: Preparation for this migration requires time and effort, not money. This is do-it-yourself territory, but you’re never alone. Using your favorite search engine (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.), use the search terms which characterize your hardware alongside the abbreviation “rhel” — the most common shorthand for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, from which CentOS is derived. In fact, CentOS is essentially Red Hat with different artwork. For example, I typed in “inspiron 4100 rhel” and found some useful information about someone who had installed an earlier version of Red Hat. I ran another search substituting “centos” for “rhel” and got slightly different results, but less usable info, since a lot fewer folks are commenting on CentOS compared to Red Hat. If your machine is built from scratch or highly modified, start by researching the motherboard name and model. Either way, some of what you find will inevitably be highly technical, and will require you read it more than once to follow. I believe it’s worth the persistence.

Be aware of one significant item: When the Linux folks come up with a driver for some piece of computer hardware or peripheral, Linux will always have that driver. Microsoft has to make a profit, and can’t afford to support every piece of old hardware, even if it still works. Most of the time, the company which produced the hardware has to create the Windows drivers, and they tend to drop older products. Some drivers are simply no longer available for companies that folded. There are lots of things you could use with Windows 98 which won’t work at all under XP, and you may know with Vista and Windows 7, drivers are a major problem. For Linux, the vast majority of hardware drivers are written by someone who has to analyze the hardware and make it work, all without any help from the manufacturer. Once they make it work, it will likely always work in Linux. I use some ancient hardware which Linux recognizes instantly, and it works quite well, but for which there are no Windows drivers anywhere, not for any version.

One of the things you really need to read through at last once is an installation guide. You can find the official version online, but it’s overkill for most of us. Much simpler walk-throughs, with graphics, are also available (especially the first three pages). Please note: The instructions are the same for any part of version 5, so “5.1” is the same as “5.3” in terms of what you experience.

2. Getting the software: Assuming you have reason to believe CentOS will run on your hardware, the next step is getting the means to install it. If you have a really good, fast Internet connection, the best bet is to do what’s called a “netinstall” — booting from a minimal CD and installing straight from the package libraries online. This way it will be up to date from the start. Next best is the full installer DVD. If you don’t have a DVD reader on your hardware, you’ll have to settle for the stack of 6 CDs. If you are able to burn your own DVD/CDs, the place to start is here. Choose one of the links to a server offering the ISO images, a big fat file designed to be written as a usable DVD/CD. If you lack experience in that, you can look it up on the Net; there are hundreds of places explaining how to do it. Of course, you can skip the whole thing by paying someone a few bucks for the trouble. They can’t charge you for the software legally, but for the service of creating and shipping you a disk. Again, you’ll find them by searching the Net, probably using terms like “buy centos dvd”.

3. Schedule installation: It’s possible for an experienced installer to have everything completed in one hour, and in two hours have all the various enhancements and modifications we will do later. If you simply have some savvy, the basic installation can be under two hours. The delay is often figuring out what to choose at certain points. By reading through an installation guide first, you can be primed to choose more quickly. The best situation, of course, is having the help of someone who is familiar with Linux. Let them talk you through the installation process and explain the whys and wherefores of various choices, along with initial use of it.

4. Transitional learning curve: If your first experience with a PC was DOS, OS/2 or an early version of Windows, you had to learn a basic set of habits and expectations. Now you learn some more. Literally millions of ordinary folks have already done it. Honestly, the majority of them are not hobby users, but folks like you who are content to know enough to get by. Once CentOS has been installed, and is running, give yourself some time to get used to it. It won’t sing and dance, you may still have to make adjustments (some rather cryptic), but it’s largely a matter of trading one set of conveniences for another. You may well be surprised at just how much overlap there is. The one thing which does not overlap is the virus and spyware stuff. I’m exaggerating only mildly when I say you can forget about that completely, because, not only have I never faced that on Linux, I don’t even know anyone who has. Running CentOS is as close to immunity as you’ll get with so little work.

The last item is reminding you before you start to create two very good passwords. I prefer the method of picking a song (title or line from it) or sentence I’ll always remember. Take the first letter from each word in the line, capitalized as appropriate, along with any punctuation. If you are creative, you can subsitute numbers for letters (1 = i, 4 = t or f, 3 = e, etc.), and so forth. You need 7-9 characters, so sometimes a critical word can be abbreviated. Here’s an example I once used: an old favorite song from the `80s, “God Is in Control” = Giictrl! Notice I took the common abbreviation for the “control” key to make it come up with enough characters, adding an exclamation point. As long as I associate that song with typing my password, I’ll never forget it. Best of all, tests have shown even the smartest computer cracker is unlikely to guess it, nor is cracking software likely to get it. Create two passwords like this, one for “root” and one for a user account.

You are ready to install.

Intended audience: (1) Those folks who use PCs, but don’t particularly love them. It’s just a basic convenience, on a par with telephones, washer & dryer, refrigerator, etc. This is easily the majority of Americans who own a PC, and perhaps a big part of the rest of the world. (2) Small business owners who have workstations for pretty much the same reasons — an asset which improves the profit margin, may even be critical to operations, but is not the primary nature of the business.

A major element in understanding these users is realizing, while they aren’t cheapskates, they hope to minimize the investment of time and resources into their PCs. If it consumes too much, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. There are trade offs involved, but the most important thing to understand is the computer is just a tool, not the central function, not even a hobby. This is no place for purists and zealots. Nor will this series be of much use to those who must run specialized applications on those computers. The primary use pattern is common documents, standard communications and research, with a minor concern for mere entertainment.

Why would you consider migrating from Windows to Linux? In my work as a volunteer computer service technician, the one thing which finds traction is the impending death of XP. That Vista is significantly different without necessarily being better, and requires hardware they can’t afford, while their current machine is still in good shape, and perhaps the fear (justified or not) which results from all the sales pitches they can’t avoid designed to prod them into buying the next new security package, are all contributing factors. But they don’t want a new hobby; they just want their computer to work with less hassle.

I tell these people there is no magic pill. Switching is a way of shifting the cost profile, which includes time and money. When you start having more time than money, Linux starts to look a lot better. If you aren’t willing to invest that time up front, you can’t get past the hump of migration. If you can put some effort into it, you can afford to relax a lot more on the other side. Naturally this calls for a Linux which doesn’t require constant attention, and there’s precious few projects which consider this at all important, as noted in the past. There are two paths I recommend to folks considering migration: Ubuntu and CentOS.

Try Ubuntu first. There are multiple versions offered at any one time, but for those seeking stability, look for the “LTS” label. Never allow yourself to be tricked into using the most current just because it’s the latest and greatest. Six months from now you’ll have to update, and it will surely break things. If you don’t consider your computer a hobby, stick with the LTS releases, because they are good for a couple of years. Next, join the Ubuntu forums; it’s the best and cheapest support system you’ll ever find for installation and initial setup. Be prepared to explain every time you aren’t a hobbyist and LTS is essential to your purpose. Don’t be drawn into discussions which revolve around why “you just gotta run the latest”. Those who actually can help you the most will understand.

It’s possible you won’t be happy with Ubuntu. The biggest issue is hardware setup, followed closely by the particular system of The Ubuntu Way of doing things. It’s not for everyone. Also, please note as your LTS version ages, somewhere short of two years from the release date, the volunteer support degrades rapidly. The term “support” is a bit ambiguous here. The company which produces Ubuntu offers support in the sense you can expect them to keep providing updates and fixes for the operating system and some of the packages which run on top of that system. They also sell the other kind of support, where you can contact someone who will help you with specific issues. The forums are a way of avoiding the costs of that second kind of support. But the free forum support is provided mostly by Linux enthusiasts and serious hobby users, and they tend to lose interest when you don’t keep up with them. Otherwise, they are some really nice people, and this is about as good as it gets.

If the problem is your hardware is just not powerful enough to run Ubuntu, but is in pretty good shape still, you will need to accept the necessity of spending a lot more time making this work. You can try Puppy Linux. The folks on the forums are just as nice, just as helpful, but the project is much smaller. Also, it simply won’t work on some older laptops, for example. Still, for older machines, it’s one of the best options.

If your PC is less than six years old, and you are more independent, capable of chasing solutions scattered randomly across the web using search engines, or finding and reading somewhat more technical documentation which comes with the system, then I recommend CentOS. This is a project based on the commercial grade Red Hat Enterprise Linux. You can pay for a Red Hat license and get their business grade support (help), or you can use CentOS for free, and still benefit from their system support (updates and fixes). Know up front, this is a more no-nonsense approach to things, but with that comes stability. You install once, and keep it working just fine for a long time — at least five years.

Let’s be frank here: The folks who offer CentOS aren’t all that helpful if you aren’t running a server. That’s the focus of their work, and most of them simply don’t have the mindset for typical consumer computer habits. You can join the forum, but you may be disappointed. However, the product is versatile enough to be used on a home PC with some modicum of effort. As the information for this tends to be scattered and scant in some areas, the rest of this series will be dedicated to describing how most common home PC users can tame CentOS. Most of this is explained elsewhere, but the writing tends to assume a level of expertise most home users don’t have and don’t want to cultivate. You don’t really need to, at least not right away.