Install Porteus as only OS on laptop

[joutlan]

I have used Slackware in past and like it, which I why I'm interested in Porteus. I'm also a big KDE4 fan, and I've never used Slax. If I want to install Porteus as the sole OS on my laptop, the partitions are already laid out, how would I go about that? The installer discussion confused me a little. I assumed it probably installed similar to ZenWalk. Have an install guide link? I read the FAQ and looked around a bit but didn't see anything.

thanks...this is my second post here

[Ahau]

Welcome!!

What version are you trying to install? V0.9, or V1.0?

You'll want to perform a 'frugal' install, meaning you will copy the porteus data (/boot and /porteus folders from the .iso image) to the partition you are looking to boot from. Then you need to install a bootloader or point your existing bootloader to the porteus kernel and data, take a look at /boot/porteus.cfg.

If you don't have a bootloader already installed, then we'll need to know the version of porteus you're installing and what filesystem your hard drive is formatted to.

[joutlan]

It would be version 1.0 x64. Are you guys working on an installer? Such a nice job pity with no installer. Thanks!

EDIT: I use Scientific Linux 6 as my main distro (for business and home use both), and actually am an administrator of the SL Forum (in sig); however I have a second laptop that I'd like to try this on. I've always had soft spot for Slackware based distros

Nice job!

[Ahau]

Yes, we have an installer. We built a new one for version 1.0, which is why I asked what version you're using. I wanted to point you to the right place.

Assuming you're using the spakin-new RC2 of V1.0, the installer is located at /boot/lin_start_here.sh. So, to install, you need to copy the data from the porteus .iso (/boot/ and /porteus/ directories) to the root of the partition to which you are installing porteus (e.g. sda1). Then, navigate to /mnt/sda1/boot/ and execute the install script (./lin_start_here.sh). This script will provide an option for installing a bootloader, either for an EXT, FAT, or linux partition.

Because porteus is designed to run from compressed modules, there is no 'installation' in the typical sense. You just copy the folders to your drive and install the bootloader to that drives' MBR using the installation script. If you don't have an OS already running on that machine, you can burn the porteus .iso to a CD (or install it to a flash drive) and boot from that, then copy the files from that CD to the harddrive and execute lin_start_here.sh.

There's more information in the installation guide, which you can read by pressing 3 at the lin_start_here.sh menu, or you can open it directly, from /boot/docs/install.txt, inside the porteus iso. That document will be posted to our main website when we release the final version of version 1.0. I imagine installation would not be very easy if you were reading the install docs for Version 0.9 and trying to get V1.0 up and running.

I hope this helps -- if not, let us know.

Thanks!

[joutlan]

Thank you very much for the info, Ahau! I'm good to go then! I'll do an install after I get some work done today.

C ya around the forums!

john

[Hamza]

@joutlan
You're welcome!

[brokenman]

Can someone take care of the difficulty in finding an install guide please?

The front of the website has to very large buttons - 'download it' & 'install it' - perhaps the HD install can be added there along with the docs section. Thanks.

[Ahau]

@Hamza, I'll post the installguide to the main site tonight, with a note saying that it's for V1 and not V09 (with a link to the install page for V09). Once I have that up, would you please make a button for the main page, linking to this doc?

Thanks!

[Hamza]

@Ahau,

No problem!

[Ahau]

Thanks, Hamza! I see you already have the button!

Here's the link:

http://porteus.org/info/docs/37-install ... -v-10.html

It needs some cleaning up -- the headings came out different sizes than I thought they would, and the code blocks overlap each other in a very annoying way...

But, it's there, and you can point your button to it. I'll work on it more tomorrow.

Thanks!

[Hamza]

I'll post the link on the front page.