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The Perfect Desktop - PCLinuxOS 2007

Author: Falko Timme

The Perfect Desktop - PCLinuxOS 2007

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme

This tutorial shows how you can set up a PCLinuxOS 2007 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

I found that PCLinuxOS is really easy to install and use, and it's a real alternative. Up to now I was thinking that Ubuntu is the best Linux desktop distribution, but I'm not so sure anymore now that I've used PCLinuxOS. I'm really impressed.

I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

 

1 Preliminary Note

To fully replace a Windows desktop, I want the PCLinuxOS 2007 desktop to have the following software installed:

Graphics:

Internet:

Office:

Sound & Video:

Programming:

Other:

PCLinuxOS 2007 installs KDE (K Desktop Environment) by default.

I will use the username falko in this tutorial, and I will download all necessary files to falko's desktop which is equivalent to the directory /home/falko/Desktop. If you use another username (which you most probably do ;-)), please replace falko with your own username. So when I use a command like

cd /home/falko/Desktop

you must replace falko.

 

2 Installing The Base System

Download the PCLinuxOS 2007 CD iso image from http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_ionfiles&Itemid=28, burn it onto a CD, and boot your computer from it. At the boot prompt, select LiveCD:

The system boots and starts a desktop that is run entirely in the RAM of your system (the PCLinuxOS installation CD is also a Live-CD) without changing anything on your hard disk. This has the advantage that you can test how PCLinuxOS works on your hardware before you finally install it.

Select your keyboard layout:

Then select your timezone:

If you like you can enable automatic time synchronization (NTP):

Next configure your network connection. My system is in a local network, so I select Ethernet:

Select the network device you want to configure (if you have just one network device, there's not much to select ;-)):

We don't need a static IP address on a desktop computer, so it's ok to select Automatic IP (BOOTP/DHCP):

Enable Get DNS servers from DHCP and Assign host name from DHCP address:

Select Start the connection at boot. Don't select Allow users to manage the connection unless you want normal desktop users to have full control over the network settings:

Start the network connection now:

We're finished now with the network settings:

Next the login screen to our LiveCD desktop comes up. There are two logins:

We log in as guest:

The desktop is being initialized:

This is how the LiveCD desktop looks. Click on Install PCLinuxOS to start the installation to the hard disk:

The Perfect Desktop - PCLinuxOS 2007