The present guide is basically a long note for myself, so I don't have to look through a bunch of wiki pages and articles each time I install Linux. It may not apply to all distros, but I think it is applicable to most mainstream GUI installers. Use this guide at your own risk! I will laugh at you if you brick your computer.
Contents:
First, download an ISO file of whatever distro you plan on installing. Make sure to select a file corresponding to your system or your needs (for example some installers contain proprietary nVidia drivers). Most distros are 64 bit nowadays, so if you need 32 bit versions, do some research first. Next, get a flash drive ready for creating a bootable USB drive and plug it in. Make sure it has enough space for the ISO to fit.
Next, get a flash drive ready for creating a bootable USB drive and plug it in. Make sure it has enough space for the ISO to fit.
If you are on Windows (cringe), open rufus and select your ISO file from the file picker. Select your USB device that you've plugged in. Then you can select either MBR or GPT partinion tables (MBR for older BIOS systems and GPT for newer ones that support UEFI). You can give the flash drive a name, then press start, wait for it to finish and move on to the next step.
If you are on Linux (based), you will have to use dd. Be very careful with this, since it can flash your root directory and brick your install. First, open your terminal emulatpr and identify your USB device using lsblk. For that, use the following command:
lsblk
If you've identified the flash drive, you can locate your ISO file. Open your file explorer and navigate to the iso file, then copy it (Ctrl+C or right-click and select copy.
If you have done all this, here's the command we will use for dd:
sudo dd bs=4M if=path/to/distro.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress oflag=sync
if= you can delete path/to/distro.iso and paste your ISO direction, while at of=/dev/sdX change X to the correct drive letter.
You can now press enter, and watch it complete. Or just go make coffee, it will take around 5 minutes to finish. When it's done, take your installation USB drive and plug it in to the computer you're trying to install Linux on.
The next step is disabling secure boot in your BIOS settings. This is a different process depending on manifacturer or model, but generally, you have to turn off the computer you are installing on, and start it back again. Start smashing the Esc, F9, F12 or Del keys, usually these will take you to your BIOS.
Go to BIOS settings->Security and turn off secure boot. While you're here, look for an option called USB boot (or boot from USB) and turn it on. You may have a setting between legacy BIOS and UEFI, or a hybdrid one, in most cases you should use UEFI, since new operating systems like Linux distros and Windows 10 both use it. You can now save and exit.
If you've followed the steps correctly, there will be a quick message telling you to press any key to boot from USB drive. Press any key you like and linux should start booting. Generally a live USB will be booted. Take your time to try out the system, since you can easily decide wether you want to actually use and install it or if you have second guesses now. If you've made up your mind, you can select an "install distro name" icon somewhere on the desktop or the sidebar. This will start the actual installation.
Most settings are pretty self-explanatory, but choosing a password that you will remember is vital, since you need to use it for lots of things. Make sure you remember it or write it down so you won't lose it.
Now after configuring basic settings, you will get to the fun part: creating partitions. You CAN go and click on automatic partition creation, however, I never go for that. When you select 'costumize partitions', you will be welcomed with a screen showing you all installed drives and partitions on your computer. Identify the drive you want to use for the installation (usually the SSD).
From this drive, you may have to delete some leftover Windows or other partitions to create a clean install. If you opt for deleting all previous partitions off of your install drive, you will have one, big free space, from which you create all the needed partitions. Here's what you'll need:
FAT32. Mount this on either /boot on BIOS systems or /boot/efi on UEFI systems, and set a boot flag (optional).linux-swap.ext4 and you need to mount it on /. You can set the size to be the remaining storage in your drive./home and set its file system to ext4.If you're all done with configuring your partitions, you can proceed with the installation. After the installer finishes, you can boot into your new GNU/Linux install and enjoy it to its full extent. Congratulations!
If you have any suggestions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at mr.zergeboglar (at) gmail.com!