This stage of the installation is the most critical one for the user. At this stage, a platform for the future installation of ALT Linux is prepared and the required space is allocated on the hard drive. Also, such system properties that are difficult to modify at a later moment are determined at this stage. One should not hurry with answers to questions at this point. If something is unclear, the best thing is to turn to a manual, which contains short explanations of each step. During the installation it is also possible to read a more detailed manual. To do this, one should press the «Menu
» button and choose «Manual
». The manual window also opens when the user clicks on an appropriate link in the short tip text. To close the manual, one should click on the relevant box in the upper right corner of the screen.
At this stage of the bootup system's installation, the following steps are executed:
It is possible to cancel the installation of the system. To do this, one should press the «Menu
» button in the lower part of the screen and then select the option «Abort installation
». An unfinished installation may have various consequences, depending on which steps have been taken already. It is absolutely safe to exit the installation before the «Disk Partitioning
» stage, because up to this moment no modifications are made in the computer's hard drive. Exiting after disk partitioning but before the installation of the boot loader is dangerous because if the system has been installed to the hard drive, you may not be able to load it. If another operating system has been previously installed, it is quite possible that you may not be able to load it, either. This is determined by the modifications made during disk partitioning and by the partitions that have been formatted.
If all steps have been executed successfully, the installed bootup system will be loaded. No full restart of the computer takes place, but the screen goes out for a while and service messages about the startup of various system components are displayed on it. Afterwards, the window of the next installation stage is displayed on the monitor. Thus the initial configuration of the system starts.