4. Installation

4.1 Find out if your hardware is supported by Linux

Go to SuSE's web site at the following address and check out their hardware database http//:www.suse.com this contains a database for many devices and their current state of support in Linux. A RedHat specific list can be found here http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/?pagename=hcl . For Mandrake specific try here http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3 . Hardware database at ZDNET http://lhd.zdnet.com . For video cards you might want to look here http://www.xfree86.org/cardlist . For scanners go here http://www.mostang.com/sane/sane-backends.html . There is also a hardware compatibility HowTo located at the Linux Documentation Project http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO.html

4.2 Find out about installation issues.

Usually the doc directory on your installation CD will have many documents on installation and setup. Also be sure to check the manufacturers web site, and any  distribution specific newsgroups

4.3 Install without making a boot disk first.

Most distribution CDs are bootable, providing your computer system supports booting from CD. Change the BIOS settings (usually you enter the BIOS by pressing the Del key during boot up). Change the boot sequence so that the CD-ROM is listed first. Save and reboot. 

4.4 Make a boot disk within Windows.

Use rawrite. It's in the dosutils directory of your CD. For the most part images are in the images directory (how convenient :0). Read the README file or INSTALL file for more information. 

4.5 Make a boot disk within Linux.

Open up a terminal cd to the images directory and type dd if=xxxx.img of=/dev/fd0 where xxxx is the name of the image.
Read the README file or INSTALL file for more information. 

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