Burn Mageia ISO on CD or DVD discs, or, USB device and install “Classic Installation” Mageia (https://www.mageia.org/en/downloads/). Make sure to install the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

TIP – See the following page for information on how to create your Mageia ISO CD/DVD/USB stick (https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installation_Media#Choices)

Once the Mageia9 “Classic Installation” is completely installed, log into your newly created Mageia account on your device. 

On the lower-left-hand side of your bottom taskbar, click once on the MCC icon – a popup window will appear and ask for your “root” password.

*** THE FOLLOWING 3 STEPS ARE IMPORTANT BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THIS TUTORIAL***
 

In MCC “Software Management” – Choose “Configure media sources for install and update”. You will need extra software repositories to make your Mageia installation more functional.

On this page, add extra repositories by clicking on "Add". 
(NOTE: Some of you may have elected to add the repositories at the end of the installation process. If so, go on to the next step.)

Mageia will then ask permission to add media from repositories closest to your geographic region – click OK allowing Mageia to proceed.

*** THE FOLLOWING ARE IMPORTANT STEPS NEEDED BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THIS TUTORIAL***
 

Once the extra repositories are added – checkmark the “Enabled” and “Updates” boxes for the following medium “Mirror Lists” called "Tainted Release" and "Tainted Updates Release" and also “NonFree Release” and “Nonfree Update Release” (64 and 32bit) and un-check all "CD" held repositories. Make sure the “Core Release”->”Enabled” box is check-marked, and, “Core Updates”->”Enabled and “Updates” boxes are also check-marked. 

Un-check any repositories that are labelled CD repositories. ** THIS IS AN IMPORTANT STEP **

Once completed click on the button “OK”, and, 

Choose "Update your system" module (*there may be many updates that will be suggested, click on the bottom button “Update”).

*” IMPORTANT NOTE -- “The Tainted repository includes packages under various licenses, free and nonfree ones, but the main criteria for packages in this repository is that they may infringe patents and copyright laws in some countries in the world (e.g. multimedia codecs needed to play various audio/video files, packages needed to play commercial video DVD... etc); as such the set of the Tainted media is added by default but not enabled by default, i.e. it's completely opt-in; so check your local laws before using packages from this repository.“ [ https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Install_media_in_Mageia_for_beginners#Types_of_Mageia_media]. 

*** THE FOLLOWING ARE IMPORTANT STEPS NEEDED BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THIS TUTORIAL***

Once the updates are completed, choose “Software Management->Install & Remove Software”.

Make sure to click on the top-left-dropdown menu and choose “All” (*this will display the complete available software choices).

*** You are now ready to install the following suggestions below to make your Mageia install more functional and trouble-free.

TIP – You can either install the following below all at the same time, OR, install the following below by section. This author suggests installing by sections as it is more prudent and avoids any unexpected hiccups that may cause installation issues.

MCC – Install Thunderbird; Thunderbird-ServiceMenu (this allows a right-click in Plasma to create an email); you may want to install the Thunderbird language modules if you are looking for anything other than EN-US

MCC – Install the "Tainted" version of VLC, and, all listed “vlc-plugin-***” plugins, and, “phonon4qt5-vlc”, and python3-vlc”. (Note: This will allow VLC to run most if not all of video/audio formats without having to search later for any other appropriate plugins.)

MCC – Install "GRip" (a CD ripper/encoder), and, "lame" for MP3 coding, and, “twolame”, and, libquicktime-lame (tainted version), and, gstreamer1.0-lame, and, gstreamer1.0-twolame, and, lib64mp3lame0, and, lib64twolame0, and, vlc-plugin-twolame (tainted version).

MCC – Install the next software packages (* This author strongly suggests you install half of these and then the other half of these packages. This will avoid any issues with the software installations.): EOG; WINE; Audacity; Timidity++; Timidity++-interfaces extra; timidity-patch-fluid; timidity-patch-freepats Xsane; Cheese; GTKPod; Xsane-GIMP; faad (packages that include “faad” (tainted versions); gstreamer-10-faad; gstreamer.10-mms; gstreamer-10.ugly (tainted version); install gstreamer plugins (tainted 64 bit versions); luckybackup (backup software); Mscore (MuseScore – powerful music notation software); OpenShot (video creator); Inkscape -> “elementary-icon-theme-inkscape-palette”, and, “inkscape”, and, “python3sphinxcontrib-inkscapeconverter”; mencoder; quicktime, and, all quicktime plugins (tainted versions); task-codec-audio; task-codec-video; soundconverter; pdfArranger; Strawberry (KDE music player); deja-dup (backup software); can also install CLInfo, EGLInfo (used in KDE System Configuration module); *IMPORTANT INSTALL the Discover package (KDE flatpak manager)
 

TIP: Once you have installed the "Discover" package, you can find a LibreCanada tutorial on how to prepare the app at this location on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/librecanada/posts/pfbid02GBTTWecQPBeMLzpBszrnWvZJDx5bFfdiijNBtydfnFYBbxoh5qqug2sEWutC7z1Tl].

REMOVE: Abiword (Unecessary Wordprocessor); GpicView (Picture viewer, unnecessary for this install)

ADD through Discover (KDE flatpak manager)(*** Tip -you will find the “Discover” software package in lower-left-bottom-taskbar->Start Button ->Tools->SystemTools->Discover): Install Google Chrome (stable); Spotify; Zoom.

The following may need hand installation (you may find some notes on the Mageia site): Add free Microsoft fonts to system, or, you may add non-free MSFonts if there is a MSWindows license sticker on your computer box. Please respect the MSWindows font copyright.

MCC – Go to Hardware -> Configure printers – * Mageia will install automatically the CUPS packages and any other needed printer software packages; 

TIP: If you are looking for a good linux compatible printer brand, look at the Brother printer line.

Go to Hardware -> Configure scanner – * Mageia will also add automatically supplementary software necessary for scanning devices.

Modify email preferences for LibreOffice in “Tools->Options->Internet” and add your email program. This will enable you to email documents from inside LibreOffice. Very useful!

On the lower-left-bottom taskbar, you will notice a file folder icon called “Dolphin”, click on the Dolphin icon once and a window will appear. In the top-menu-line, choose “View” and check mark “Show Preview”.

Update again your system once more through MCC->Software Management->Update your system. Mageia will re-scan your installed software and suggest updates where necessary. Agree to update all suggestions.

TIP – If your computer has a DVD or Blueray drive, insert a DVD-video-movie into the drive and then, open the software package “VLC” and check to see if the DVD, or, CD, or Blueray work. 

TIP – If there are any issues in playback, it is recommended that you join the Mageia forum and seek some advice. *TIP – VLC is a very solid video player and has large community support.

TIP – On the lower-left-hand taskbar, you will notice a KDE Configuration icon, click on this icon once and the KDE Configuration package will open allowing you to manage your KDE Plasma desktop environment. 

Find and set "Default Applications"; set "Desktop Effects"; set "Font Management" (add MS fonts if you have some legal fonts copies -- *you can also add fonts through the MCC); 

TIP – Should your setup ever get “munged” due to choosing the wrong video card choice, restart your computer in safe-mode, and, log in with your root password. Type in the following command 
“drakxconf” which will enable you to correct your video setup. Mageia will choose the most appropriate setup for your system automatically and then recommend you restart your computer. You can navigate on this Konsole with the tab and return and/or error keys.

TIP – KEEPING YOUR MAGEIA9 COMPUTER UPDATED AND SAFE

Mageia Update Applet – Mageia takes care of polling your computer device and notifying your of an impending update. You will notice a red or orange icon on the lower-right-hand lower taskbar. When the Mageia update applet appears, click once on it and a popup window will appear where you will be asked for your Mageia account password (NOT THE ROOT PASSWORD!). Once you have typed in your account password, you will be presented with a list of impending/needed updates. Click on the bottom button “Update” and Mageia will go ahead and update the listed packages.

KDE Plasma Discover Update Applet – The KDE Plasma “Discover” package also polls your computer for any impending flatpak package updates. You will notice a “Discover” icon (the icon look is dependent on the “theme” you installed on your computer). When the KDE Plasma Discover Applet appears, click once on it and a popup window will appear showing all of the list of updates. Click on the upper-right-hand menu item “Update all” and Discover will update all of the necessary updates. Once done, you should ask Discover to “Refresh” to poll a second time for any updates. Update any that may appear.