This guide misses out all the obvious steps to make it as concise as possible, concentrating only on the things that may confuse the Linux newbie. The following instructions will work for Red Hat 5.1, 5.2, 6.0 and 6.1.

Red Hat 6.1 now has a Windows-style installation program, making installation easier, thanks to help given at every stage. I'd still take a quick read of this section, but really, this guide is for the text-based install. I strongly recommend using the text-based installer after a few installs, since it's far quicker to make your selections, and enter the required info. To activate the text-based installer, enter: text at the welcome screen.

Before beginning to install Linux, make sure you have a blank disk ready to create an emergency Linux bootdisk, when prompted.

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At the welcome screen, press the Enter key. Use the Enter key for all selections, the cursor keys to move about, and the Spacebar to select ([*]) and deselect ([ ]) options.

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At the 'Installation Class' screen, select 'Custom'.

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Unless you have a SCSI device like a hard drive or a Parallel/External Zip drive, select 'No' when asked if you have any SCSI adapters.

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Select Disk Druid to setup your hard drive.

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1. Press F1 to add a partition.
2. Enter / for 'Mount Point'.
3. Leave 'Size' as 1.
4. Select 'Grow to fill disk'. ([*])
5. Leave 'Type' as 'Linux Native'.
6. Select 'Ok'.

Creating The 'Swap' Partition

1. Press F1 to add a partition.
2. Change 'Type' to 'Linux Swap'.

3. Enter 128 (RH 5.1 & 5.2 = 127 max) for 'Size' (or less if you're hurting for space).

4. Do not select 'Grow to fill disk'.
5. Select 'Ok'.

If you have more than one hard drive, then you may want to select specific drives to put the partition on. I for example, have two hard drives, designated hda (Primary Master EIDE) and hdc (Secondary Master EIDE). I don't want Linux touching hda which I use solely for Windows 98, so I deselect it for each partition I setup.

The following info is for Red Hat 6.0. If you're installing RH5.2 or even RH5.1 then I'll leave it to you to work out.

At the 'Components To Install' screen, select 'Printer Support' if you have a printer, and you'll definitely kick yourself if you don't select 'KDE' and find out about it later! This will mean 294 packages are installed and require 342Mb. In contrast, a minimum install is 115 packages requiring 112Mb, and a full installation is 627 packages taking up a whopping 1142Mb!

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At the 'Configure Mouse' screen, make sure you select 'Emulate 3 Buttons' if you only have a 2 button mouse. The middle button is required in X (Linux's GUI), and can be activated by pressing the left and right mouse buttons, simultaneously.

If your mouse is not directly supported, or you're not sure, select one of the 'generics' (serial connectors are flat, whilst PS/2 connectors are round).

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At the 'Lilo Installation' screen, select 'Master Boot Record' as the place to install the bootloader. Lilo (Linux Loader) is a funky little piece of software that asks you which OS you'd like to use every time you switch on your computer. It can handle up to 16 operating systems!

Next you'll arrive at the 'Bootable Partitions' screen. You're probably not ready to make Linux your main operating system, so to make Windows boot by default, select the partition with the Boot label 'dos' and press F2.

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Now it's time to select your monitor. Chances are, your monitor is not on the list of directly supported monitors (although the list is very impressive). I don't recommend selecting 'Custom' as this involves some technical know-how about your monitor, and could in fact damage your monitor if you don't know what you're doing (although advice is given).

I recommend trying out 'Generic Multisync' (this works with both my monitors). This gives me a maximum screen resolution in X (Linux's GUI) of 1024 x 768 and 16.7 million colours (24-bit), whilst 'Generic Monitor' only gives me a maximum of 640 x 480 and 256 colours (8-bit). If 'Generic Multisync' doesn't work for you, then select 'Custom' - but first make sure you dig out your monitor's manual for the settings!

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When asked if you would like to automatically start X upon booting, I recommend answering 'No'. Answering 'Yes' is too much Windows and not enough Linux, for my liking. Besides, you can change this at any time by entering: setup (more on this later).

After your computer has restarted, you'll see a LILO boot: prompt. Entering nothing and pressing Enter, or waiting for 5 seconds, will boot your default operating system. If there's more than one operating system on your computer, then you'll need to enter that operating system's boot label. To display a list of the boot labels available, press the Tab key. Although delving into more about Lilo is too advanced for you at the moment, if you want you can find out more here.