As a review, DrakX will present a summary of information it has about your system. Depending on your installed hardware, you may have some or all of the following entries. Each entry is made up of the configuration item to be configured, followed by a quick summary of the current configuration. Click on the corresponding button to change that.
Keyboard: check the current keyboard map configuration and change it if necessary.
Country / Region: check the current country selection. If you are not in this country, click on the button and choose another one. If your country is not in the first list shown, click the button to get the complete country list.
Timezone: By default, DrakX deduces your time zone based on the country you have chosen. You can click on the button here if this is not correct.
Mouse: check the current mouse configuration and click on the button to change it if necessary.
Printer: clicking on the button will open the printer configuration wizard. Consult the corresponding chapter of the Starter Guide for more information on how to setup a new printer. The interface presented there is similar to the one used during installation.
Sound card: if a sound card is detected on your system, it is displayed here. If you notice the sound card displayed is not the one that is actually present on your system, you can click on the button and choose another driver.
Graphical Interface: by default, DrakX configures your graphical interface in 800x600 or 1024x768 resolution. If that does not suit you, click on to reconfigure your graphical interface.
TV card: if a TV card is detected on your system, it is displayed here. If you have a TV card and it is not detected, click on to try to configure it manually.
ISDN card: if an ISDN card is detected on your system, it will be displayed here. You can click on to change the parameters associated with the card.
Network: If you wish to configure your Internet or local network access now.
Security Level: this entry allows you to redefine the security level as set in a previous step (the section called “Security Level”).
Firewall: if you plan to connect your machine to the Internet, it's a good idea to protect yourself from intrusions by setting up a firewall. Consult the corresponding section of the Starter Guide for details about firewall settings.
Bootloader: if you wish to change your bootloader configuration, click that button. This should be reserved to advanced users.
Services: here you'll be able to fine control which services will be run on your machine. If you plan to use this machine as a server it's a good idea to review this setup.
This dialog appears after selecting a new time zone in the time zones list. After you have chosen the place nearest to you in your time zone, two more options are shown.
GNU/Linux manages time in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and translates it to local time according to the time zone you selected. If the clock on your motherboard is set to local time, you may deactivate this by unselecting Hardware clock set to GMT, which will let GNU/Linux know that the system clock and the hardware clock are in the same time zone. This is useful when the machine also hosts another operating system like Windows.
The Automatic time synchronization option will automatically regulate the clock by connecting to a remote time server on the Internet. For this feature to work, you must have a working Internet connection. It is best to choose a time server located near you. This option actually installs a time server that can be used by other machines on your local network as well.
X (for X Window System) is the heart of the GNU/Linux graphical interface on which all the graphical environments (KDE, GNOME, AfterStep, WindowMaker, etc.) bundled with Mandrake Linux rely upon.
You will be presented with a list of different parameters to change to get an optimal graphical display:
The installer will normally automatically detect and configure the graphic card installed on your machine. If it is not the case, you can choose from this list the card you actually have installed.
In the situation where different servers are available for your card, with or without 3D acceleration, you are asked to choose the server that best suits your needs.
The installer will normally automatically detect and configure the monitor connected to your machine. If it is incorrect, you can choose from this list the monitor you actually have connected to your computer.
Here you can choose the resolutions and color depths available for your hardware. Choose the one that best suits your needs (you will be able to change that after installation though). A sample of the chosen configuration is shown in the monitor picture.
the system will try to open a graphical screen at the desired resolution. If you can see the message during the test and answer , then DrakX will proceed to the next step. If you cannot see the message, it means that some part of the auto-detected configuration was incorrect and the test will automatically end after 12 seconds, bringing you back to the menu. Change settings until you get a correct graphical display.
Here you can choose whether you want to have your machine automatically switch to a graphical interface at boot. Obviously, you want to check No if your machine is to act as a server, or if you were not successful in getting the display configured.
This step is generally ignored for Recommended mode.
You will now set up your Internet/network connection. If you wish to connect your computer to the Internet or to a local network, click . Mandrake Linux will attempt to auto-detect network devices and modems. If this detection fails, uncheck the Use auto detection box. You may also choose not to configure the network, or to do it later, in which case clicking the button will take you to the next step.
When configuring your network, the available connections options are: Normal modem connection, Winmodem connection, ISDN modem, ADSL connection, cable modem, and finally a simple LAN connection (Ethernet).
We will not detail each configuration option – just make sure that you have all the parameters, such as IP address, default gateway, DNS servers, etc. from your Internet Service Provider or system administrator.
About Winmodem Connection. Winmodems are special integrated low-end modems that require additional software to work compared to Normal modems. Some of those modems actually work under Mandrake Linux, some others do not. You can consult the list of supported modems at LinModems.
You can consult the Starter Guide chapter about Internet connections for details about the configuration, or simply wait until your system is installed and use the program described there to configure your connection.
This step is generally ignored for Recommended mode.
This dialog allows you to fine tune your bootloader:
Bootloader to use: there are three choices for your bootloader:
Boot device: in most cases, you will not change the default (/dev/hda), but if you prefer, the bootloader can be installed on the second hard drive (/dev/hdb), or even on a floppy disk (/dev/fd0);
Delay before booting the default image: after a boot or a reboot of the computer, this is the delay given to the user at the console to select a boot entry other than the default.
Enable ACPI: ACPI is a new standard (appeared during year 2002) for power management, notably for laptops. If you know your hardware supports it and you need it, check this box.
Force no APIC: If you noticed hardware problems on your machine (IRQ conflicts, instabilities, machine freeze, ...) you should try disabling APIC by checking this box.
This step is generally ignored for Recommended mode.
After you have configured the general bootloader parameters, the list of boot options that will be available at boot time will be displayed.
If there are other operating systems installed on your machine they will automatically be added to the boot menu. You can fine-tune the existing options by clicking to create a new entry; selecting an entry and clicking or to modify or remove it. validates your changes.
You may also not want to give access to these other operating systems to anyone who goes to the console and reboots the machine. You can delete the corresponding entries for the operating systems to remove them from the bootloader menu, but you will need a boot disk in order to boot those other operating systems!
This step is generally ignored for Recommended mode.
This dialog is used to choose which services you wish to start at boot time.
DrakX will list all the services available on the current installation. Review each one carefully and uncheck those which are not needed at boot time.