Starting the Installation

We are going to walk through the installation process of the Linux operating system—focusing on the Debian Linux installation first, showing you every step. Then I will show you the openSUSE Linux installation step by step. You should notice some striking similarities. Frankly, once you are comfortable with the installation of one or two distributions, you should have no problem installing any Linux distribution.

There are some basic processes that apply to any distribution installation. To begin the process, simply place the installation CD in your CD ROM drive and reboot your machine. Make sure that you boot from the CD. With most computers, you can press a key such as F12 early in the boot process in order to get a boot menu. Note that while F12 is a very common way to get to the boot menu, some systems use Fl or F2. You might see a message during boot-up that says “Press X for boot menu” or some other option to access the boot menu—this would depend on your specific machine. Using the boot menu will allow you to select “Boot from CD.” You might also be instructed to “Press any key to boot from the CD.” It is also possible that your machine will realize there is an installation CD available and load it immediately without you needing to find the boot menu.