Pre-installation tasks

Does the user really want Linux?

(Flesh this out. -P.)

We set up this project in the hope that users would be able to get free, useful, easy-to-use software for their new computers. However, some users may not want to use Linux. You should point out the advantages and disadvantages of installing Linux on their new computer. Be honest. Don't try to force Linux onto people who do not want it: that hurts the images of the Computer Recycling program, Linux and the Working Centre.

Some reasons why users might want our Linux selection on their system include:

• The user does not have software of his or her own to install. Our standard installation allows users to carry out the following tasks:
  • Word processing

  • Web surfing, e-mail and newsgroup access, and instant messaging (Note that the user has to arrange ISP service by themselves to do this.)

  • Game playing

  There are all sorts of other programs available for our Linux distribution as well. See Section 11.1 for other examples.

• The user does not have money to purchase software elsewhere. All of the software in our distribution is available free of charge.

• The user wants to “learn about computers.” Our software allows people to learn about computers at a high level (by using graphical applications) and at lower levels (by playing with command line utilities, or by programming).

  Many of the skills users learn on their Linux system are transferable to other operating systems.

• The user has heard of Linux and wants to use it, but does not know where to start.

Some reasons why users might not want our Linux selection on their system include:

• The user wants to run Windows software on the system. Linux is not Windows, and for all practical purposes you cannot run standard Windows software on these systems. We provide some software that produces files compatible with those produced by Windows applications, but we do not provide standard Windows applications (for example, Microsoft Office) themselves.

  Also keep in mind that compatibility between our programs and their Windows counterparts is not always perfect. For example, Abiword will read Rich Text Format files, but it does not handle tables very well.

  Another consideration is that the user might be studying for Microsoft-specific certifications, such as MOUS (Microsoft Office User Specialist). In such cases, the user is better off using Microsoft software, which corresponds exactly to the training material.

• The user already owns software for the system, or plans to get software for the system themselves.

• The user wants UNIX-like Linux on their system. In such a case, the user might be better off installing a more typical Linux configuration from a standard distribution. Since we do not hide the UNIX layer, our software will work - but to conserve space we do eliminate some common UNIX software (for example, Emacs and gcc) found on most Linux systems.

• The user wants to run intensive applications, such as
  • Modern 3D games

  • Heavy programming - compiling big projects will take a long time on lower-end processors. However, you can learn programming on one of our machines.

  • MP3 playing

  • MPEG decoding for watching movies

  In these cases, I question why the user wants one of our systems, since the hardware limits the user's capabilities.

  It is worth noting that 486 systems will have problems playing MP3s, but higher-end Pentiums (133MHz and up) will be able to manage. Also, any computer can play CDs from a CD-ROM.

• The user already owns hardware that is not supported by Linux. Some printers and scanners fall into this category, but Linux support is getting better for these things.

Get user configuration decisions

We have a form to gather the user preferences listed below. It is titled “Your System's Configuration.” You can have users write down their preferences on this sheet.

Some of the preferences you will need to gather include:

• Whether the user wants separate accounts for each user, or whether the household will use a single account.

  If there will be separate users, then it makes sense to get user names for each person who will have an account. That way you can create accounts for the user.

• A name for the machine. This is called a hostname. It is not so important, but hostnames are easy to set in Linux and it's fun to give machines names.

• Whether the system should log in automatically upon bootup. This makes the most sense for a single-user account, but it is possible to configure gdm to log in a user after waiting for a specified amount of time. The most usual way to do this is by enabling the AUTOLOGIN class. For more information, see Section 4.3.1 and Section 5.3.2 .

• Whether the user will be using this computer to connect to the Internet. If the user plans to connect to the Internet, you should find out whether the user plans to use a dial-up account or broadband (cable or ADSL) access. The user might not know the difference between the two; in this case you should install both PPP configuration software, and any broadband configuration software we have.

  If the user already has ISP information available, you should take down this information so you can pre-configure the system to connect to the Internet. See Section 5.9.1 for more information.

• What additional peripherals - if any - the user will use with this machine. Some common peripherals include printers, scanners and webcams. If the user already owns the peripheral in question, you should see whether the user is willing to bring its information up so you can look it up in the Linux Compatibility HOWTO. (Where is this? -P.)

• What additional software the user would like installed. Often users will not know the names of specific programs, but if they do you can install these packages. More often the user will know what they want to do on the machine. Then you can look around for appropriate packages to install. We have listed some software we have tried out in Section 11.1 . Section 8.6 lists some ways to search for new software packages. (point to synaptic-searches instead -P.)

  Feel free to demo packages on a test machine (or the server), so that the user can decide whether they want the programs or not. If you are installing packages on the server, however, you should limit yourself to Debian packages - and don't break the server!

  You should not install illegal software on the user's machine.

  Also keep in mind hard drive limitations when deciding to install software. A system that comes with a 400MB hard drive will not have the capacity to store much additional software.

• Whether the user does not want any of the standard components installed. In most cases the answer to this will be “no.” However, some users may know that they will never use certain software, in which case you may be able to remove it. However, the standard installer currently does not support this level of customization; you have to go “under the hood” and edit some files yourself. To learn more about this, see Section 8.6

Get hardware information

In order to configure the system you need some hardware-specific information. Information you need includes:

• The make of the monitor, and its vertical and horizontal refresh rates. If you cannot find this information (In Appendix A.2 or on the Internet) then you have two choices: either get a new monitor or hope that the monitor has reasonable ranges.

• The type of mouse (PS/2 or serial), and preferably the mouse protocol it uses. There exists a program called mdetect that might help you figure out mouse protocols.

  Often, serial mice will use the “Microsoft” or “Mousesystems” protocols, and PS/2 mice will use the “PS/2” protocol.

• Whether the keyboard is a standard 101-key type, or whether it is a 104-key keyboard. The latter type comes with extra “Windows” keys.

• The make of the video card. You need this to decide which X-server package to use, and to figure out the maximum resolution and colour depths the card supports. On the server, type

  zcat /usr/share/doc/xserver-xfree86/Status.gz | less

  to see information about X-servers. You can also use the detect program to determine the make of the video card.

• The size and number of hard drives. Currently we only support installations on one hard drive, but this may change in the future.

• The make and model of the sound card, if one is to be installed.

Information that is not always needed but is nice to have includes:

• The make of any peripherals, such as printers.

• The make and model of the network card that will be used for installation.

• The make and model of the modem, if one is installed. ISP information is useful as well.

Install a network card

Since the installer works off the network, you will have to ensure that the client machine has a network card. If there is no network card in the machine already, then you should install one. Most ISA or PCI network cards will work with the installer.