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The installation of the operating system may seem mysterious, but it is actually very simple. Here are the steps for successfully installing Linux.

In 2021, there are more reasons for people to like Linux. In this series, I'll share 21 different reasons for using Linux. Here is how to install Linux.

Installing an operating system (OS) is always daunting. For most people, this is a difficult problem. Installing the operating system cannot be done from within the operating system because it is either not installed or is about to be replaced by another operating system, so how does it happen? To make matters worse, it usually involves a series of confusing questions such as hard drive format, installation location, time zone, user name, password, and so on. Linux distributions know this, so they have been trying for years to minimize the amount of time you spend on operating system installers.

What happened during installation?

Whether you install an application or an entire operating system, the installation process is just a fancy way to copy files from one medium to another. No matter what the user interface or how highly specialized the installation process is disguised by animation, it is ultimately the same thing: files that were once stored on a CD or drive are copied to a specific location on the hard drive.

When an application is installed, the effective location of these files is highly limited to your file system or the part of your hard drive that your operating system knows it can use. This is important because it divides the hard drive into different spaces (Apple used this technique in Bootcamp in the early 2000s, allowing users to install macOS and Windows on a single hard drive, but as separate entities). When you install an operating system, some special files are installed on the hard drive, which is usually a restricted area. More importantly, at least by default, all existing data on your hard drive is erased to make room for the new system, so it is necessary to create a backup.

Installation program

Technically, you don't actually need an installer to install applications or even operating systems. Believe it or not, some people install Linux manually by mounting a blank hard drive, compiling code, and copying files. This is done with the help of a project called Linux From Scratch (LFS). This project aims to help enthusiasts, students and future operating system designers learn more about how computers work and the functions performed by each component. This is not the recommended way to install Linux, but you will find that in open source, it usually goes like this: if something can be done, then someone is doing it. And that's a good thing, because these minority interests tend to lead to surprisingly useful innovations.

Assuming you don't want to reverse engineer Linux, the normal way to install it is to use an installation disc or image.

3 simple steps to install Linux

When you boot from a Linux installation DVD or USB disk, you are exposed to a minimal operating environment designed to run one or more useful applications. The installer is the primary application, but because Linux is such a flexible system, you can usually run standard desktop applications to get a feel for what the operating system looks like before you decide to install it.

Different Linux distributions have different installer interfaces. Here are two examples.

Fedora Linux has a flexible installer (called Anaconda) that enables complex system configurations:

Anaconda installer on Fedora

Elementary OS has a simple installer designed primarily for installation on personal computers:

Elementary OS installer

1. Get the installer

The first step in installing Linux is to download an installer. You can get a Linux installation image from the distribution you choose to try.

Fedora is known for being the first to update software. Linux Mint provides an easy option to install missing drivers. Elementary provides a beautiful desktop experience and several special, customized applications.

The Linux installer is an .iso file and is the "blueprint" for DVD media. If you are still using optical media, you can burn the .iso file to DVD-R, or you can burn it to a U disk (make sure it is an empty U disk, because when the image is burned to it, all its contents will be deleted). To burn the image to a USB drive, you can use the open source Etcher application.

The Etcher application can burn USB drives.

Now you can install Linux.

2. Boot sequence

To install the operating system on your computer, you must boot to the operating system installer. This is not a common behavior for a computer because very few people do it. In theory, you only need to install the operating system once, and then you will keep updating it. When you choose to install a different operating system on your computer, you interrupt this normal life cycle. This is not a bad thing. This is your computer, so you have the right to replan it. However, this is different from the default behavior of a computer, which is to boot to any operating system found on the hard drive immediately after boot.

Before installing Linux, you must back up any data you have on the target computer because it will be erased during installation.

Suppose you have saved the data to an external hard drive, and then you store it secretly in a safe place (instead of connecting to your computer), then you can continue.

First, connect the USB disk with the Linux installer to the computer. Turn on the computer and see if there are any instructions on the screen on how to interrupt its default boot sequence. These are usually keys like F2, F8, Esc or even Del, but vary depending on your motherboard manufacturer. If you miss this time window, just wait for the default operating system to load, then reboot and try again.

When you interrupt the startup sequence, the computer will prompt you to guide the command. Specifically, the firmware embedded in the motherboard needs to know which drive to look for an operating system that can be loaded. In this case, you want the computer to boot from a USB disk that contains a Linux image. How to prompt you for this information depends on the motherboard manufacturer. Sometimes, it asks you directly and comes with a menu:

Launch the device selection menu

At other times, you will be brought into a rudimentary interface that you can use to set the boot sequence. The computer is usually set to view the internal hard drive first by default. If the boot fails, it moves to a USB drive, network drive, or CD-ROM drive. You need to tell your computer to look for a U disk first so that it will bypass its internal hard drive and boot the Linux image on the U disk.

BIOS selection screen

At first, this may be daunting, but once you are familiar with the interface, it is a quick and easy task. Once you have installed Linux, you don't have to do this, because after that, you will want your computer to boot from the internal hard drive again. This is a good technique, because the key reason for using Linux on USB drives is to test your computer's Linux compatibility before installation and general troubleshooting regardless of the operating system involved.

Once you have selected your USB drive as the boot device, save your settings, let the computer reset, and then boot to the Linux image.

3. Install Linux

Once you have started into the Linux installer, just follow the prompts.

The Fedora installer Anaconda provides you with a "menu" of all the things you can customize before installation. Most of them are set to reasonable default values, which may not require your interaction, but some are marked with warning symbols to indicate that your configuration cannot be safely guessed, so it needs to be set. These configurations include the location of the hard drive where you want to install the operating system and the user name you want to use for your account. You cannot proceed with the installation until you solve these problems.

For the location of the hard drive, you must know which hard drive you want to erase and then rewrite it with the Linux distribution of your choice. This may be an obvious choice for a laptop with only one hard drive.

Select the hard drive on which you want to install the operating system (in this case there is only one hard drive).

If you have more than one hard drive in your computer, and you only want to install Linux on one of the hard drives, or if you want to use two hard drives as one hard drive, you must help the installer understand your goals. The easiest way is to assign only one hard drive to Linux and let the installer perform automatic partitioning and formatting, but for advanced users, there are many other options.

Your computer must have at least one user, so create a user account for yourself. When you are done, you can finally click the Done button to install Linux.

The Anaconda option is complete and ready to install

Other installers may be simpler, so what you see may be different from the pictures in this article. In any case, apart from the pre-installed operating system, this installation process is one of the easiest operating system installation processes, so don't let the idea of installing the operating system scare you. This is your computer. You can and should install an operating system that you own.

Own your computer.

Eventually, Linux became your operating system. It is an operating system developed by people from all over the world, and its core is one: to create a computing culture of participation, co-ownership and cooperative management. If you are interested in learning more about open source, then please take a step forward, learn about its brilliant example Linux, and install it.

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