Ubuntu Edgy Eft Installation

Ubuntu 6.10, codename Edgy Eft, has been released on the 26th October 2006. This is the latest version of Ubuntu available and is
This tutorial will go through the installation process of Ubuntu Edgy Eft using the 6.10 release.

1. Getting started:

First of all, you need to get either a CD or DVD iso image of ubuntu edgy eft distribution from Ubuntu.
You can get Edgy Eft DVD and Edgy Eft CD released from Ubuntu official site.

Once downloaded, burn it onto a CD/DVD, make sure your BIOS is set in such a way that it will try to boot up on a CD/DVD reader, insert your CD/DVD in that reader and reboot.

Ubuntu Edgy Eft Boot splash screenUbuntu Edgy Eft Boot splash screen
Once the CD/DVD boots, you will be greated with a screen asking you wether you want to:

If you just want to try Ubuntu Edgy Eft or want to install it in graphical mode, choose Start or install Ubuntu.
As you can see, there is a few option you can change, such as keyboard layout (F3), so you might customize a bit your booting parameters.

Now press Enter in order to boot the live CD/DVD up. After a while, you should get logged into Ubuntu live cd default account.
At this point, you might need to change you keyboard layout settings if you are not using a US-english keyboard. To do so, go to the menu item: System->Preferences->Keyboard, a window will open, select the tab layout, add your layout , tick it as default and move it up.

Okie, we are done for the default settings, it is time to install Ubuntu.

2. Starting the installation

Install iconInstall iconWelcome messageWelcome message

As you can see on your default desktop background, there is an Install icon.

Clicking on that icon will launch the installation process.

First of all, you will have to choose the language you wish to use during the installation. As the community is really active, almost any language is accessible.

The installer will bring you through different questions in order to get your system configure.


Ubuntu Edgy Eft Installation -- page 2

3. Defining basic settings

Among the require information you need to give the installer, there is:
defining your time zonedefining your time zone
setting up your keybord layoutsetting up your keybord layout

The time zone is determined using a map, you simply have to click on your location's capital to get your timezone setted up.
Concerning the keyboard layout, you simply have to choose the name of the country your keyboard belongs to.

4. Creating the first user

Who are you?Who are you?
Now, it is time to create your first user. This user will have administration rights such as installing new software, configuring network devices, add printers... anything that you need to do to run your machine. You will need to supply your name, the name you want to use as your login name, a password that you need to retype in order to avoid typing errors (you don't want to be left with a computer you can't log into, do you?), as well as the name of your computer. This name will be used to recognize your computer on a network, for instance when sharing files with windows machine using samba.

Now that the basic settings are sorted, it is time for the tricky part: selecting the partition where your system will be installed on.

5. Partitioning your hard-drive

select a diskselect a diskGnome Partition EditorGnome Partition Editor
If you have already partitioned your hard disk properly, I guess you could safely use the automatic installer. As I didn't do so, and because I want to have control over my partitions I chose the manual installation.

Once you chose Manually edit partition table, the installer will trigger gparted, The Gnome Partition Editor. Using this tool, you will be able to get a view of your hard disk partition. As you can see on the snapshot, my hard disk is a big mess :) as my previous installation had separate /var, /tmp, /boot, /usr and /home partitions. In this setting I used the following partitions:

This setting is good enough for a desktop use. If you were to install a server, you might want to decide to use separated /tmp and /var, but anyway, you wouldn't be using the graphical installer :).

Important note: You should write down the number of the partitions you intend to use, like: sda5-> /home, sda2->swap, sda7->/, sda6->/mnt/fat as during the next step you will be asked for the mount points

Once you created your partitions with gparted, click on forward in order to get your partition written to disk.

The next step is to inform the installer about which partition to be mounted.


Ubuntu Edgy Eft Installation -- page 3

6. Preparing Mount Points

Preparing mount pointsPreparing mount points

It is now time to build up your file system.

The installer needs to know which partition will be used as the root filesystem (/), the swap space and any other partitions that you might want to be automatically mounted when booting up.

This is actually when the earlier important note comes handy.

So here we go, In my case, I inform the installer that "/" was the mount point of /dev/sda7 and that this partition should be reformated, the swap partition is /dev/sda2 and /home is the mount point of /dev/sda5.

If you need to add more partition and want to give them custom name, simply type the name in the mount point text box.

Once you are done, double check that you have given the right names and partitions and that you are not going to reformat partitions you want to keep intact ;).

Press Forward ... and this is the last step! The installer will remind you the setting you entered and warn you about the fact that this is the last step before datas get actually written to disk.
If you believe that the information you have given are correct, then press Install.
Installing...Installing...
Installation will proceed, this took about 15-20 minutes on my machine, so have a coffee or simply enjoy your future operating system by using the session you are logged in.

After the time is passed, you should get a confirmation window telling you that your operating system is now installed and that you can now restart your computer to start using it.Installation completeInstallation complete

That's it, now you got edgy eft installed on your computer and you can start using one of the most (if not the most) cutting edge linux distribution.

7. Conclusion

The installation process ran flawlessly on my machine, all hardware was detected and my laptop could be used out of the box :).
I say cheers to everybody who contributed to ubuntu edgy eft ;).