It's wise to collect configuration information on your hardware
before installing. Know the vendor and model number of each card
in your machine; collect the IRQs and DMA channel numbers. You
probably won't need this information -- but if it turns out you do,
you'll need it very badly.
If you want to run a "dual-boot" system (Linux and DOS or Windows or
both), rearrange (repartition) your disk to make room for Linux. If you're
wise, you'll back up everything first!.
If you have an EIDE/ATAPI CDROM (normal these days), check your machine's
BIOS settings to see if it has the capability to boot from CD-ROM. Most
machines made after mid-1997 can do this.
If yours is among them, change the settings so that the CD-ROM is checked
first. This is often in a 'BIOS FEATURES' submenu of the BIOS
configuration menus.
Then insert the installation CD-ROM. Reboot. You're started.
If you have a SCSI CDROM you can often still boot from it, but it gets
a little more motherboard/BIOS dependent. Those who know enough to
spend the extra dollars on a SCSI CDROM drive probably know enough to
figure it out.
Prepare the Linux filesystems. (If you didn't edit the
disk partition table earlier, you will at this stage.)
Install a basic production Linux from the
CD-ROM.
Boot Linux from the hard drive.
(Optional) Install more packages from CD-ROM.
Here are the basic parts of an installable distribution:
The README and FAQ files. These will usually be
located in the top-level directory of your CD-ROM and be readable
once the CD-ROM has been mounted under Linux. (Depending on how
the CD-ROM was generated, they may even be visible under
DOS/Windows.) It is a good idea to read these files as soon as you
have access to them, to become aware of important updates or
changes.
A number of
bootdisk images (often in
a subdirectory). If your CD-ROM is not bootable, one of these is the file
that you will write to a floppy to create the boot disk. You'll select
one of the above bootdisk images, depending on the
type of hardware that you have in your system.
The issue here is that some hardware drivers conflict with each
other in strange ways, and instead of attempting to debug hardware
problems on your system it's easier to use a boot floppy image with
only the drivers you need enabled. (This will have the nice side
effect of making your kernel smaller.)
A rescue disk image. This is a disk containing a basic
kernel and tools for disaster recovery in case something trashes
the kernel or boot block of your hard disk.
RAWRITE.EXE. This is an MS-DOS program that will write
the contents of a file (such as a bootdisk image) directly
to a floppy, without regard to format.
You only need RAWRITE.EXE if you plan to create your boot and
root floppies from an MS-DOS system. If you have access to a UNIX
workstation with a floppy drive instead, you can create the
floppies from there, using the `dd' command, or possibly a
vendor-provided build script. See the man page for dd(1) and ask
your local UNIX gurus for assistance. There's a dd example later
in this document.
The CD-ROM itself. The purpose of the boot disk is to get
your machine ready to load the root or installation disks, which in
turn are just devices for preparing your hard disk and copying
portions of the CD-ROM to it. If your CD-ROM is bootable, you can boot
it and skip right to preparing your disk.
Take our 
