Installation-Bootstrapping

From Paldo

Setup a proper host system

Download a paldo boot CD ISO image, burn it and let your computer boot from it. You are done then since this CD holds all the necessary tools to build software. You can proceed with the #Bootstrap paldo step.

Note: The default password for the root user is set to "paldo". The default keyboard layout is set to Swiss German. You can switch the layout in the console with

loadkeys <layout>

Bootstrap paldo

By now you should sit in front of a perfectly setup host system. Bootstrapping paldo is a more or less fully automatic task but it needs some thoughts in the beginning. You need to do the following task as root.

1. Choose a partition on your HDD where you'd like to install paldo. A full installation needs approx. 3 GB disk space. To not run out of space in short time, we recommend you to assign 6 GB to the root partition and use the remaining space for the home partition holding your data. cfdisk lets you create your partitions easily.
2. Format your partitions. The standard paldo kernel supports ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, and jfs as file system. Issue mkfs.<your fs> /dev/<paldo partition> to accomplish that, e.g. mkfs.ext3 -L vol-label /dev/sda1 or mkfs.reiserfs -l vol-label /dev/sda1. Optionally initialize your swap partition by executing mkswap -L swap-label /dev/<swap partition>
3. Mount the fresh partition on /upkg (create the directory if necessary), i.e. mount /dev/<paldo partition> /upkg.
4. Start the bootstrap process by issuing upkg-bootstrap --branch=<branch> paldo, where <branch> is one of stable, testing, unstable or experimental. Choose stable in doubt. paldo can be replaced by paldo-desktop, paldo-server or any other package if you don't need the default full installation.

Wait. This can take quite long, depending how fast your internet link and your computer (especially the disk) is. A full installation needs to download approx. 800 MB. The more unstable you have chosen your branch the higher is the chance that you need to build some software locally if there is no binary available on the repository. This will be shown to you in advance and will, of course, consume more time. If this process completes successfully, then you are ready to proceed with the final configuration.

Final mandatory configuration

This step is normally done by an installer provided with an OS. Paldo does not provide such an installer yet and therefore these steps have to be done by the user.

1. Change root to your fresh paldo installation either by issuing upkg-chroot /upkg or chroot by yourself.
2. Replace the host name in /etc/hostname with the name you wish to give the computer.
3. Replace the domain name in /etc/domainname with your domain. This does not need to be a public domain. Just invent something but it's really important that you set the domain name otherwise some core services will fail. Every system needs a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) consisting of 'host.domain'.
4. Edit /etc/hosts to reflect what you have written in the last two files. Make sure you leave the localhost at the end of the 127.0.0.1 line in place.
5. Edit /etc/fstab if you use more than just one root partition.
6. Start grub and issue root <grub name of your paldo partition>, e.g. root (hd0,0) if you're installing paldo on the first partition of your first disk, followed by setup <grub name of your boot disk>, e.g. setup (hd0); this installs grub as the bootloader for your system. Quit grub.
7. The default root password is 'paldo' so I suggest you set up a new one by issuing passwd root.

Your paldo installation is complete by now. Exit chroot with exit and unmount with umount /upkg. Restart your system and load your fresh and shiny paldo system.