Linux InstallFest LXXIV

Date and Time

Saturday, February 21, 2026 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Location

UMass/Boston, University Hall, 2nd floor, room 2-2110

Summary

A periodic get-together where volunteers from our group help people with Linux installation and other hands-on issues.

Abstract

We invite you to become a member of the Boston area Linux community and offer our assistance in getting Linux installed on your computer.

We hold our InstallFests several times each year; we meet on a weekend at a location where people can bring in their computers and we can help them install Linux or other Unix variants. It's also a great way to get together and share our collective experience with each other in a hands-on learning environment, in the grand tradition of the UNIX community.

At our InstallFests, our volunteers are here to assist you, whether you''re new to Linux and need help installing it on your PC and/or laptop, or you''re experienced but could use another set of eyes to help you resolve some issue.

We have limited space, so first come first served.

We will have a PXE boot server at the InstallFet with a variety of different Linux distributions you can choose from, to install or just to try out. Most modern hardware has an option in the BIOS for booting from a network, and the PXE server provides the boot media for that, in the form of ISO images that you can boot from directly over the network. If your machine doesn''t have a network boot option, we also have USB thumb drives with several of the more popular distributions, and we can easily copy any other distribution from the PXE server to a thumb drive, or burn it to a DVD if necessary.

If you have a particular distribution you''d like help installing, you can always bring a copy of its installation media.

Please bring your complete system for installations. We don't provide monitors, keyboards, mice, power cords, etc., so be sure to bring all the components to make the machine operational. If your setup needs multiple outlets, e.g. for a tower and a monitor, then please bring a power strip.

Getting There

UMB's Shuttle busses run on Saturdays from the JFK/UMass station on the MBTA Red Line to the UMB campus center, from 7:30 AM to 1:30 AM.