STARTING REFRACTA INSTALLER (9.4.x) *** NEW in 9.4 *** - UEFI and BIOS installers have been merged (both gui and cli scripts) - Installer supports gpt disk with bios boot. (special partition needed) - Installer supports full-disk encryption (no separate /boot partition) KNOWN BUG: If you run the graphical installer in a VirtualBox VM AND you are using yad-0.38 (from stretch/ascii) you might not see some of the windows. Use the text-only installer instead. (Run 'refractainstaller' from root terminal.) Refracta Installer will install the operating system to hard drive from a running live-CD or live-USB session. The running system will be copied exactly - any changes you make to the running system, including desktop preferences, configuration changes, or added software will be copied to the installed system. You can run 'refractainstaller' from a terminal for the cli version. For the graphical version, run Refracta Installer from the application menu or start it from command line with 'refractainstaller-yad'. See comments in /etc/refractainstaller.conf for various options that can be set there. Run pre-install scripts and Run post install scripts will enable any scripts in /usr/lib/refractainstaller/pre-install or post-install to run. See /usr/lib/refractainstaller/installer_exclude.list if you want to change the list of files/directories that won't be copied to the installed system. Partitioning the disk(s) can be done before running the installer or from within the installer. There is no automatic partitioning. New feature: the installer will let you return to the partitioner before proceeding, in case you want to change something. If you are in a graphical environment, you can use gparted. If you are not in a graphical environment, the installer will run either cfdisk or gdisk (if a gpt partition table is detected.) If you want to use some filesystem other than ext2/3/4, pre-format your partition(s) and select "Do not format" from the options menu. For the text installer, set no_format="yes" in the config file. INSTALLATION PROCEDURE Start the installer. Graphical installer opens a window with a checklist of options. Text installer uses config file for options or else asks you. Change user name Create a new, separate /home partition Use an existing /home partition. (Keep old files) Create a separate /boot partition Use existing swap partition (instead of swapfile.) Encrypt the root filesystem (with or without separate /boot) Encrypt the /home partition (separate /home required) Write random data to encrypted partitions (more secure) Write zeroes to all partitions (to erase previous data) Do not format filesystems. (You can format them before running the installer.) Use UUID in etc/fstab and crypttab. (Useful if drive order changes.) Use filesystem labels (disk labels) in etc/fstab. (GUI installer only.) Change hostname. Disable automatic login to desktop. Disable automatic login to console. (Use stock Debian inittab) Move selected directories to separate partitions. Run pre-install scripts Run post-install scripts Run the partitioner if you need to. Choose partition(s) and filesystem format(s) for installation. Enter information if requested (new host name, disk labels, passphrases for encryption) Sit back and watch for a few minutes. Enter new username and password, root password or choose sudo. Select any directories you want moved to another partition. Reboot into the new installation. FULL-DISK ENCRYPTION If you want your /boot directory to be encrypted, select encryption for the root filesystem and DO NOT create or select a separate /boot partition. CREATING ADDITIONAL SEPARATE PARTITIONS If you chose to put /boot or /home on a separate partition, it (or they) will be copied to the designated partition during the main part of the installation. If you want any directories other than /boot or /home on separate partitions, for the gui installer, check "Move selected directories to separate partitions" in the expert options window, and for the text installer, edit the config file to set additional_partitions="yes" You must create and format the extra partitions during the partitioning phase of the installation or before running the installer. At the end of the installation, you will be asked to select the directories you want separate, and they will be copied to the selected partitions. The contents of the original directory on the root filesystem will then be deleted. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS (for Devuan-Live and Refracta isos) For UEFI Install: grub-efi-amd64 is installed. Near the end of the installation, you will be given a choice to install the bootloader or not. Be sure you have a proper EFI partition: 50-500MB, FAT32, with esp flag in gparted or EF00 in gdisk. For BIOS Install: grub-pc package is in the root of the filesystem, and the installer will know what to do with it. Let the installer copy the package to /target and install the bootloader. You can also skip the bootloader if you plan to use another. For 32-bit grub with 64-bit system: grub-efi-ia32 package is in the root of the file system. Install the package before you run refractainstaller or install it to /target in a chroot. The installer will pause to let you do this before it installs the bootloader. It may also work if you let the installer copy the package to /target during the installation. For BIOS install with GPT partition table: You will need to create a small partition (>1M), unformatted, with bios_grub flag in parted/gparted or EF02 in gdisk. Otherwise, you will need to boot from a disk that has dos partition table. More info: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html"