Linux mint 12 review: pt. 1 Installation

This slide-show shows you around, while you are waiting for the installer to finish.

I had so much to say about this Linux distribution, that I am breaking it up into several parts.

Live mode worked great for me to poke around, and get my bearings within Linux Mint. I am really grateful that my task-bar has been returned to me.

I used k3b on Linux mint 11 to burn the project. Which is great, because it takes a check-sum of the .iso before attempting the burn. Then after the disk is burned you can choose to save, &/or verify your data. Although I have had the problem, of k3b being rather picky about accepting discs.

 k3b is my preferred Linux burning program, no matter which platform it is on. I really wish that it had a windows equivalent. I have never had any burn failures, while using k3b.

BIOS chip.

Because my windows refuses to do the factory reset from the main HDD(hard-disk drive) hidden rescue partition. I am guessing because I had to replace the mother-board. The mother-board has the same exact physical make-up, except for a slightly newer version of the BIOS(Basic Input/Output system).

All that means is that I have another whole HDD to install and test Linux distribution’s in bare-metal form. Although I do plan to test many Linux installs within Linux Mint 12. I have decided to keep my Linux Mint 11 intact on my other internal 360 GB HDD.

I want to go into some of the basics of choosing a partition scheme, file-system format, and mount-points. I do this so that you won’t have any trouble making changes on your own computer. I will include slides from my own desktop, and net-book.

The complicated part of the install doesn’t even start, until you get to this screen. Many people get scared of this step, because it could wipe out other operating systems, or personal data. If you have properly prepared, you will have nothing to worry about.

It is crucial that you click something else, if you want to multi-boot Linux mint 12 with other Operating systems. I would only use erase/install if you are sure your files are backed up, and you just want a simple

• PARTITION SCHEME:
  

  notice the 10gb partition(far right)_windows restore(primary) Notice that the extended partition has two sub-partitions.

creating a SWAP file.

•  Well There are two types of primary partition’s main primary, and extended primary.
• Extended primary partitions, are partition’s that have been sub-divided into logical partitions.
• Lucky for Linux is that it can boot from logical, or primary partitions.
• A SWAP partition is used when your programs can’t fully fit into RAM, those files will be swapped to the HDD.
• Although HDD’s are slow compared to RAM. So Ideally you want to have as much memory as possible. Windows has the same principle with it’s Swap file. Although windows swap file is on the main system drive. This is a huge success in ensuring a stable Linux Operating system install.
• FILE-SYSTEM FORMAT:

Linux mint HDD partition scheme viewed with Gparted partition editor.

• NTFS is the default windows file-system for many years now
• Ext4 journaling is the standard Linux desktop file-system right now.
• btrfs aka butterFS is getting ready to replace ext4 in the future.  
• the SWAP file should be @ least equal to double, the amount of physical memory in your computer. 
• MOUNT-POINT selection:
  

  My primary Linux drive partition scheme.

• / is the base of the Linux file-system. Also known as root.
• You can remap parts of the file-system to other partition’s.
• /boot is often put on a separate 100-200 MB partition to ensure proper working of the GRUB2 boot loader.
• GRUB is what switches between Operating systems at boot time.
   
• /media is often set aside on a separate file system, So that the / partition including system files will not overfill. That would cause a real slowdown.  I would give as much as possible to this partition. These are where your personal files will be stored
• I am going to finish up this review with a slide-show from the install.

  Just click continue if you Live in the USA.

  just click continue if the right time-zone has been selected. It does not matter if the city is correct, only the time zone.

Compared to the partition steps all the rest of the steps as you can see, are really simple. 
Although I will not show it here There is a step where you input your user name, real-name, and password. On that same screen you can choose to login automatically, although I only choose this for guest accounts on desktop computers. 
You can also choose to encrypt your home folder, so that all of your personal files are safe from prying eyes. I choose not to do this, on my desktop, but do do this on my net-book. It is a lot more likely that my net-book could be compromised.
Which brings us to the final step:

Just click install now. You still have the user information screen, but after which you are treated to a slide-show to introduce you to Linux mint. It will tell you when to reboot your computer, marking the finish of your Linux mint 12 install.