This method of installation is designed for each user, novice or experienced administrator. During the process you will be asked in interactive way for elements of your future system. This is the short list, what kind of information you should prepare before you start: IP Addresses of your machine, network prefix, gateway, DNS server; if you have DHCP Server in your subnet, you have to assure it is working properly. If you do not have modern hardware, you should check IRQ and IO address of Network Interface Card. If you are ready, let us start. Please choose "Installation Wizard" from main installer menu:

Installer - main menu

Now you have to point at place which contains distribution tree:

Installer - source of installation

It may be: CD-ROM drive with PLD Linux Distro, Network server, this requires permanent access to Internet or local PLD mirror somewhere in Intranet. Server can be accessed by FTP or HTTP protocols. NFS, it requires local PLD mirror in your Intranet, we do not provide public NFS server with PLD Distro. Harddrive, if you previously have downloaded distribution to disk. In next examples I will try to install PLD from ftp network server, because I think it is the most common way.

Installer - location of installation tree

If you would like to use our main FTP server, you can accept default values, but I strongly recommend to use the nearest FTP mirror. For example if you live in US, use ftp.rpmfind.net server located at MIT, Boston:

Installer - choosing FTP location

So, choose the desirable mirror, confirm it and we could go to the next step.

Installer - NIC detection/selection

If you have modern hardware, your network card is automatically detected. If not, or you have PCMCIA card, you have to specify IRQ or/and IO. If you are ready, we can go to next screen:

Installer - manually specify network addresses

Now you have to tell about your harddrive(s), in other words make and/or specify partitions for new installation.

Installer - partition scheme

In above example I use proposed default partition scheme: small (20 MB) boot partition - the place for keeping kernel image and initrd file(s), default (based on counted RAM) swap partition - 322 MB, one root directory, which takes the rest of the whole hard drive. Of course you can divide the disk as you want to, and there is possibility to share PLD installation with other systems on different partitions. This option is wider described later

Installer - loading needed modules and programs

The Installation Wizard automatically loads indispensable modules from installation source specified earlier.

Installer - creating disk label for unpartitioned disk

If you are using a new hard drive, installer asks you to create disk label for it. But watch out! - this step is irreparable.

Installer - partition editor main menu

This screenshot presents empty 4 GB SCSI hard drive. We are going to create 3 GB XFS partition.

Installer - Partitioner - choosing partition type

Size is given in MB.

Installer - Partitioner - choosing partition size

In this simple example we make one root partition and one swap partition, of course if you are planning a real server or workstation, we are strongly encourage to make different partitions for /var, /boot, /usr and /home mountpoints.

Installer - Partitioner - choosing mountpoint

So we have one XFS partition, we can make swap now.

Installer - Partitioner - main menu with one partition made

The method of creating all types of partitions is the same, so we can easy imagine the rest of swap creation process.

Installer - Partitioner - choosing partition type for swap

Installer - Partitioner - choosing swap size

We have minimal set of partitions now.

Installer - Partitioner - main menu with created two partitions

There are several installer pre-sets: base - Just very basic packages, don't select unless you're doing embedded system; basic - Base PLD Linux installation, ~200 MB with all docs and locales; devel - Base PLD Linux installation + few development packages; gnome-workstation - X workstation running GNOME; kde-workstation - X workstation running KDE; wm-workstation - X workstation running WindowMaker; mini-iso - Base packages + ppp, poldek, Select this if you're installing from MINI-ISO, ~110 MB with docs, all locales;

Installer - choosing system profile

In our example installation I choose KDE Workstation. There is a chance for adjusting package selection for your own needs, but I do not use this option, because default one is enough for me.

Installer - a chance for detailed package selection

Of course you may select Fine-grained packages selection to make your own package choice. Documentation and localization files take a lot of place on hard drive, so you may give installation of that files up or select only required parts of i18n files.

Installer - questions about installing documentation and localization files

Enter allin input box above to install all languages (safe choice). Otherwise enter eg. string like 'pl_PL:de_DE:en_US' to install Polish, German and American English locales. The next quuestion is to specify target network setup.

Installer - target system network configuration

The network configuration is the same as we do it previously, but you can choose differenet setup for target system. Root password is essential for system's security, if you use your PLD Linux system in network environment, please set it with particular attention.

Installer - setting root password

Passwords may be displayed on screen to make your life easier. Optionally it is possible to add regular (non root) users in your system. Sergiusz Pawlowicz is of course me -)

Installer - optional - adding regular user

Almost all my users are Polish native speakers, so I set Polish locale as default. Warsaw is Polish capital, it is not very big country and we have one time zone.

Installer - language environment and timezone

The next step is last moment for changing something enetered in all previous steps if need be. Please to think the matter over and if you are sure you are ready, select Finish to run the installer.

Installer - let us run the installer

Installation process could take serveral minutes or hours, it depends on source of installation and, if you choose network, on quality and efficiency of your Internet connection.

Installer - running installer

That is all - if installation went without problems, you can restart your machine and login into fresh PLD Linux system.