Mandriva:
Ok, this is the next distro that I am going to cover. It is pretty popular.
The first thing that you are going to want to do it put the disk in the drive, and boot up from the boot loader. To do this you will want to press the ESC key or another key a lot until the bootloader starts. Then choose the drive that you put the cd into to load first.
The first screen that you are going to come to is one that asks you to pick a language. You will want to go down to your language and click on it there may be more than one option for that language so then click on your specific language. After you have done that you can click on next.
Next you will get to the license agreement you can go through and read it if you want but it isn’t necessary. Just click on the accept button, then click next. The next screen asks you if you want to upgrade, or install Mandriva, for this walk through, you should choose install. Then click next. This screen asks you to choose your keyboard layout. There a lot of different ways to connect your keyboards, and mouse to your computer. There are options for PS/2, USB, busmouse, serial, none. So go ahead and choose the one that works best for you. If you don’t know what the difference is between some of them, look in the back of your computer. If your keyboard, and mouse connect at the top near all the other components then you probably connect with PS/2 connectors. If you connect with USB, choose that option, most people don’t connect with a serial connection anymore, or a busmouse. Once you are done click next.
Then next section is for your mouse. This just has you test your mouse by clicking on the buttons to make sure that it works fine. After that you can click next.
The next section is security. For most home users, you can choose the “standard” next to the security level section. However Mandriva has started to set the default as “high”, so use your own judgment. Then click next.
This next section allows you do choose what software you want on your computer. There are many different options like “workstation”, “gamestation”, and so on, choose all or any of the ones that you want. You can also choose any of the server components if you want, but that isn’t necessary. Also you are going to want to choose what Graphical Environment you want to have. Choose from KDE, Gnome, or Other. Then click next. The next screen just shows how what components are going to be installed. Click install after you are done.
You may get a warning that you have chosen some server apps, if you choose to install them. Just put a dot next to yes, and click next if everything is fine, if you clicked on them by accident, you can go back and remove them. Then click next. Then comes the installation process. This installer gives you an estimated time until it will be done. If you want to see all that stuff being installed you can click on the details button. If you stay on the main installer page you will get some snapshots of the desktop and other features.
Once the install is complete you will come to the screen that asks you for the root password. Go ahead and enter that, then click next. After that screen you get a screen that allows you to add users, this is where you will add your username and password, and other peoples. Then click next. Next comes the auto login screen. This is pretty self explanatory, but you can choose to use it or not, and what Graphical interface you want to use.
Next is the boot loader install screen, the first option of “first sector of drive MBR” is the easiest. Then you will want to click next. This next screen shows a summary of everything, so that if you want to change anything like the keyboard layout or what is installed you can do it from here. Then click next. After that screen you have all the server apps that have been chosen. You can click next after you make sure that everything is good.
Next is just another summary for you to check, and change if needed. You can click next once done. The last step is to install updates. This is a handy feature or the installer. This way your system will be-up-to-date the very first time you load into it. Click next once done. Finally you have the last screen of the installer. It says congats and all that. Then you will want to click on the reboot button, and you are all set.
There is a graphical walk though here for more information:
http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/install.html