Install MEPIS
How to Boot at a Different Display Resolution
When booting from CD, the default display resolution is 1024x768. You may be required to change the resolution in order to successfully boot or you may just want to change it to your preferred resolution.
The resolution when running from CD will be used when you install MEPIS on a hard drive or when you fix your X configuration with the MEPIS Installation Center.
800x600
If your system only supports 800x600, you will need to change the resolution in order to successfully boot from CD.
In this case you can boot MEPIS at 800x600 resolution by typing the following at the CD boot screen:
linux vga=normal xres=800x600
1280x1024
If your preferred resolution is 1280x1024, you can boot by typing this at the CD boot screen:
lin1280
Higher Resolutions
For higher resolutions, you can specify the resolution at CD boot by typing, for example:
linux xres=1400x1050
How to Boot with a Different Keyboard
When booting from CD, the default keyboard and locale is for US English.
There is limited support for specifying a different keyboard and locale at boot by providing a two character code, which is usually, but not always, a country code.
For example the command for a default boot with French keyboard is:
linux fr
The following keyboard codes are explicitly supported.
| country-language | code | keyboard | locale |
| Belgium | be | be-latin1 | default |
| Finland-Finnish | fi | fi-latin1 | fi_FI@euro |
| France-French | fr | fr | fr_FR@euro |
| Germany-German | de | de | de_DE@euro |
| Hungary-Hungarian | hu | hu | hu_HU |
| Italy-Italian | it | it | it_IT@euro |
| Netherlands-Dutch | nl | nl | nl_NL@euro |
| Norway-Norwegian | no | no | no_NO |
| Spain-Spanish | es | es | es_ES@euro |
| Turkey-Turkish | tr | trf | tr_TR |
| United Kingdom-English | uk | uk | en_GB |
| United States-English | us | us | en_US |
How to Burn a CD from ISO
An iso is burned in a special way. The iso file is literally a CD image, not a regular file.
[b]Common CD Burning Options[/b]
Iso images should be burned in Disk at Once mode (DAO).
MEPIS CDs expect that you are using 700MB CD media, not 650MB media.
[b]Easy CD Creator[/b]
If you are using Roxio Easy CD Creator, you need to select to [code]Record CD from CD Image[/code] and then select the iso file to burn.
It may be necessary to select [code]ISO Image Files (.iso)[/code] in the file type combo box.
If you are using an older version of Adaptec EZ CD Creator, you may need to change the iso file extention from iso to cdi or cfi.
[b]Nero Burning ROM[/b]
Select the [code]Burn Image[/code] feature before selecting the iso file.
If you are using an older version of Nero, you may have to change the extention from iso to nrg.
[b]MS-Windows[/b]
CD burning software from Microsoft can't burn CD images from iso files.
[b]Other[/b]
If you are using some other CD burning software, check the manual for instructions regarding the burning of iso disk images.
[b]Confirm Burn as ISO[/b]
If you want to confirm that a CD was burned as an iso image, mount the CD in Windows or Linux and look at the contents. If you see only one file with the same name as the iso file, sorry you did not burn an image. If you see regular files and directories, then the CD was burned as an iso image.
How to Resize an XP Partition
QTPartEd is a utility on the Live-CD that can be used to resize MS-Windows partitions including XP NTFS partitons.
It has a user interface similar to Partition Magic and it can be called directly from the MEPIS Installation Center or it can be launched at KMenu > System > QTParted.
Before resizing a MS-Windows partition, it's important to defragment the partition in MS-Windows.
Sometimes QTPartEd will only be able to partially resize an XP partition. This is due to XP doing an incomplete job of defragging the partition.
How to Use Boot Arguments to Fix Problems
Boot Commands
A boot command can be given when the CD help screen appears or when the Lilo boot screen appears.
If booting from Lilo on a hard drive, press <tab> to get a commandline.
Variations of these commands can be used to overcome boot problems.
| Command | Description |
linux |
Normal boot, 1024x768 display, acpi=on |
lin1280 |
Normal boot, 1280x1024 display, acpi=on |
failsafe |
1024x768 display, acpi=off; try if boot hangs initializing hardware |
memtest |
test your computer's memory |
Common MEPIS Boot Arguments
Boot arguments are used to modify what happens when a boot command is executed.
To change your hard drive boot configuration see: How to Modify Boot Arguments for the LiLo Bootloader
| Argument | Description |
acpi=off |
disable legacy free bios support; can help if machine hangs during boot |
ide=nodma |
resolves some dma conflicts; can fix disk read problems; is needed if boot stops while "looking for MEPIS Linux" |
aa |
use a different keyboard layout; for example de, fr, or us |
noauto |
disables autodetect; use if autodetect hangs |
nofloppy |
disables floppy probe; use if no floppy drive |
nomce |
disable cpu self-checks |
nonet |
forces the network to be off at boot, including loopback |
nopcmcia |
disables pcmcia initialization |
nousb |
don't probe for usb devices |
smouse |
enable a serial mouse |
vga=xxx |
use xxx vga mode during boot; for example mode 794 = 1280x1024; vga=normal for default resolution |
xres=yyy |
use yyy resolution in X; for example 1280x1024 |
xdrvr=abc |
use abc display driver in X; try vesa or fbdev as last resort |
Examples
A boot command is followed by the arguments.
| Example | Description |
linux nofloppy |
boot normal but don't look for a floppy drive |
lin1280 fr |
boot at 1280x1024 with the fr (French) keyboard |
linux xdrvr=fbdev |
boot with the simplest video driver possible |
linux xres=800x600 vga=normal |
boot normal but at 800x600 |
Installation Tips
Passwords
The root password is 'root' and the demo password is 'demo.'
Obviously, these passwords are public knowledge. When you install MEPIS on a hard drive, it is very important that you select new passwords, as soon as possible!
Installation
Start the MEPIS installer by clicking on its desktop icon and then follow the instructions provided.
You will need at least 2.5 GB of free space on the hard drive.
The installation usually takes between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on whether you are doing a fresh install or an upgrade. The speed is also affected by the performance of your system.
Troubleshooting CD Read Errors
The Live-CD is the install CD. Sometimes this same problem shows up when running a regular install CD from any Linux distro.
If you get error messages when using a burned CD, there are a few possible causes:
1. If you burned a CD using a different CD drive, the drives may be out of alignment with each other. This can cause read errors.
Or a particular CD could have a poorly burned spot, especially if it was burned on an inexpensive computer running MS-Windows.
Also if the CD media is inexpensive it may not reflect the laser beam very well. Lesser quality CD media appears more transparent when you try to look through it. This can also make a burned CD difficult to read, especially with older drives. Often burning a new CD at a lower speed will improve the quality of the burn and can reduce alignment problems as well.
Mitsui and Taiyo Yuden are the best brands of CDs. Both are of archival quality. In bulk, Taiyo Yuden can be found at bargain prices. FYI, T-D invented CD recording technology.
If you don't have any problems reading CDs burned for other pruposes, then this is probably not the problem.
2. A CD can become dirty or scratched even if it was freshly burned. In this case inspection of the bottom surface of the CD should reveal any such problem.
3. Any Linux Live-CD or installation CD uses a ramdisk to simulate a hard drive. This makes heavy use of ALL of the RAM in the system. This will most likely show up during the boot of the Live-CD, it is unlikely to be the problem if read error occur during the installation process.
If you have a flaky RAM chip or aggressive timing of the RAM subsystem on your motherboard, you may have trouble booting a Linux CD. And it's very possible that the trouble might be reported as disk read errors, although it would really be RAM buffer errors.
Obviously a flaky RAM chip would need to be replaced. RAM timing might be adjustable in the system BIOS to reduce or eliminate a RAM problem.
4. There can be other timimg issues in a computer that do not show up when running MS-Windows but that do show up when running Linux. When a system is behaving in an erratic manner, it's a good idea to turn off any performance enhancements in the BIOS, and try Linux again. Or one could try to reboot Linux with hard drive dma turned off using the 'ide=nodma' option.