WiFi setup in 4MLinux

It's not difficult to setup wireless networking in 4MLinux. Let's do it together now!

Note:
Network Configurator offers the quickest way to connect to your WiFi network:

* * * * *

System-wide Configuration Procedure.

1) Select WiFiScan from the Settings Menu:

2) Now you should be able to see all available WiFi networks (in our example, the network "xenu" has been detected that uses the "wlan0" interface):

3) Select NetConfig from the Settings Menu:

4) A terminal window will be opened. Choose '2' and press Enter:

5) Considering the result of our scanning (see: point 2), you already know that the 'wlan0' interface will be used, so you can choose 'n' and press Enter again:

6) And once again: considering the result of our scanning, you already know that the name of the network is "xenu", so your next answer must be as follows:

7) If you don't know how to answer the next question, then you should choose 'n' (because nearly all networks use dynamic IPs):

8) It is also possible to edit the advanced options if needed. We are skipping this stage now:

 9) It's time to connect to the the Internet.  You can do it by executing the "connect" command in your terminal:

Done!

NOTE:
If your network is password-protected, then you should use WPA Supplicant to configure your WiFi. The only difference will be an option to enter your password (which is "dfgr234!" in the picture below):

Custom 4MLinux Desktop

You can change the appearance of your 4MLinux desktop just in a few clicks!

1) System monitoring software (Conky) is enabled by default. You can disable it by clicking the ConkyON/OFF icon:

And after your click:

2) Program launcher (Wbar) is enabled by default too. You can disable it by clicking the Wbar On/Off icon:

And after your click:

3) Let's change your wallpaper in 2 clicks :-)  The first one:

And the second one:

Ready!

Note: 4MLinux remembers your settings, meaning that you don't need to repeat this procedure each time when you start X.

Need more options? Continue your reading here.

How to create the 4MLinux LiveCD/LiveUSB ?

Fortunately, there are many good resources in the Internet. You will find my recommendations below.

1) Download the following items:

  - InfraRecoder (if you wish to create live CD),  

  - UNetbootin (if you wish to create live USB), 

  - 4MLinux itself :-)

2) Watch this video to learn how to burn ISO with InfraRecoder, or follow this tutorial if you are going to use a live USB.

3) Boot your 4MLinux Live CD (or Live USB).

That's it!

Installing 4MLinux to your HDD.

4MLinux 20.0 (and later) supports all possible boot options:
- BIOS with 32-bit CPU,
- BIOS with 64-bit CPU,
- UEFI with 32-bit firmware,
- UEFI with 64-bit firmware.

The default filesystem in 4MLinux is ext4. However, 4MLinux 23.0 (and later) can also be installed on ext2, ext3, reiserfs, jfs, xfs, btrfs, and nilfs2  partitions.

The 4MLinux installation script assumes that you have an already formatted partition (1GB or bigger), which you can use for your new system. Otherwise, please read this guide to learn how to perform disk partitioning.

Remember to make a backup of all your important data before installing any new operating system!

1) Select Installer from the 4MLinux menu.

2) The script starts with the Welcome screen. Read the instructions and press Enter to continue.

3) Let's say that you want to install 4MLinux on /dev/sda2, so you must choose '2' on the screen pictured below.

4) The script warns you that /dev/sda2 is NTFS formatted. If you are absolutely sure that you can use this partition, then you can choose 'y'.

5) Next, the script informs you about the necessity to install a new boot loader. By default, 4MLinux uses LILO (for computers with BIOS) and mini GRUB (for computers with UEFI).

6) After pressing Enter, you will see the summary screen. If everything is OK, you can choose 'y' and press Enter again. Otherwise (when you choose 'n') the script will quit without making any changes in your computer.

7) The script does its main work very quickly (in seconds rather than in minutes). Boot loader warnings can be safely ignored.

8) After rebooting your machine, you must setup root's password needed to log in. Next you can execute the startx command to start the X Window System

9) Have you any other operating system installed in your computer? If so, one more obligatory step: boot your new 4MLinux and select GNU GRUB from the Maintenance menu. 4MLinux will now install (or reinstall) GRUB adding all your operating systems to the boot menu. This is a fully automatic process. 

 

Done!

Time to customize your new 4MLinux. Continue your reading here.

Partitioning in 4MLinux.

The main objective of this post is to describe how to perform disk partitioning before installing 4MLinux to a blank hard disk drive. 

Note:
The default filesystem in 4MLinux is ext4, and therefore it will be used here (see the point 3 below). However, 4MLinux 23.0 (and later) can also be installed on ext2, ext3, reiserfs, jfs, xfs, btrfs, and nilfs2 partitions.

1) Boot your copy of 4MLinux Live CD (or Live USB) and select GParted from the Maintenance menu.

2) Create a new partition table. You should choose MSDOS (old standard) or GPT (modern solution). 

3) Create an ext4 partition (at least 1 GB in size) for your new 4MLinux.

4) Do you have an older machine with low RAM? If so, it is recommended to create a swap partition.

5) Are you going to use UEFI to boot? If so, you will need a FAT32 partition.

6) Time to apply changes.

7) The final step: you must set the FAT32 partition flag to ESP (EFI System Partition).

Done!

4MLinux login.

Assuming that your copy of 4MLinux Live CD is ready, it's time to try it! Some people have a problem to log in into 4MLinux live CD. There is no default password in 4MLinux. You will be asked to choose one during the boot time.

Update:
New versions of 4MLinux LiveCD do not require any password to enter X.Org session, which is started automatically without needing to log in.
You still have to to setup root's password to be able to log in into 4MLinux, that is installed to a hard disk drive.

1) Boot your 4MLinux CD (or USB):

2) On the 1st screen you are asked to choose a password for root:

 

3) ...and to repeat this password:

Note: If you see any warnings ("Bad password: too short" or "Bad password: too weak"), you can ignore them now, meaning that you should repeat the same ("bad") password again. You'll be able to change it later. 


4) On the 2nd screen you can log in as "root", using this new password chosen by you:

 

Welcome to your 4MLinux Box!
Are you going to install 4MLinux to a hard disk drive? If so, please continue your reading here.

Welcome to 4MLinux blog!

My son told me that 4MLinux was the most stupid Linux distro ever, and (in a sense) he was right  :-)  4MLinux does many things in its very special way, which you will not find in any other distro. This is why I have decided to start this blog. You will find various 4MLinux tutorials here.

So once again : Welcome to 4MLinux blog!