Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

DidierSpaier
Posts: 518
Joined: 20. Jun 2016, 20:15

Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by DidierSpaier »

Hi all,

The most recent Slint ISO available here provides a "guided" installation mode alongside the usual "manual" mode running 'setup' This new mode is provided by a single (but not so short) shell script named 'auto'.

This installer is still accessible with Braille and speech by default. After having selected your sound board if several are detected, you select the language for installation, confirm or not that you want speech during installation (if yes the installed system will have speech too), then are presented the menu below:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Slint installer! (version 14.2.1)

Available commands (do not type the quotes):

'doc' to know the features and usage of the installer.
'auto' to start a semi-automatic, guided installation.
'setup' to start a manual installation.

We recommend that you type 'doc' first to prepare a manual installation, or if
you want to encrypt the drive where Slint will be installed, or if you need to
reduce the size of a partition to make room for Slint alongside another system.
When you finish reading this menu will be displayed again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For folks not at ease with the command line the 'auto' mode allows to install without typing a Linux command, just answering questions, and includes a contextual help to answer several of these questions when asked.

The new 'auto' script is now being translated. Thanks to Dimitris Tzemos who already began translating to Greek.

Our user Pawel Loba has kindly provided a quick audio walk-through of installation in 'auto' mode:
https://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint ... hrough.mp3
Since he recorded it I made a few changes in the installer but you get the idea.

In 'auto' mode the installer first lists the drives on which Slint can be installed, if several lets the user choose which one to use.

If possible the installer lets the user choose among several possibilities:
_ dedicate the drive to Slint.
_ use the free space at end of the drive to install Slint (allowed for a drive with a GPT having booted in EFI mode)
_ shrink the last partition of the drive to make room from Slint (allowed for a drive with a GPT having booted in EFI mode)

The restriction in the latter cases are to make sure that existing OS will still boot after having installed Slint.

The installer can shrink the last partition of a drive if it has a file system of type ext, commonly used for Linux partitions. In case of a partition of type ntfs used by Windows, the user need to shrink it from Windows before installing Slint. Instructions to do so are provided in the document FreeSpace.

When the last partition of the drive has been shrunk the user can still choose between dedicating the drive to Slint and installing Slint in the freed space.

If the drive is not dedicated to Slint all data previously stored in it are preserved, including existing OS. This allows to set up a multi-boot installation and also to install Slint on a drive previously used only for data storage.

If the drive is dedicated to Slint and is connected through USB the user can choose to make it portable, allowing to use it on any computer able to boot off an USB attached drive.

If the drive is dedicated to Slint the installer can optionally encrypt this drive. Then the GRUB boot loader asks the passphrase registered during installation before displaying the boot menu. The Slint system partition is encrypted and also the optional additional partition. This is a protection against the theft of data in case of loss or theft of the drive or computer.

According to the size of the available space on the drive the user can choose the size of the main Slint partition, and if it remains enough free space chooses the size of an additional partition.

In case of installation on an eMMC drive or a SD card, an f2fs file system that fits these kinds of devices will be used to format the partitions.

When all done, a summary of these choices is presented to the user who can accept or change them before the installer puts them into effect.

If available a wired internet connection is used, else if possible a wireless one is set up, the user indicating which network to use and the associated passphrase or password. This allows to install directly from mirrors of Slackware and Slint packages more recent than the ones found on the ISO, case occurring.

If available, the Internet connection is also used to propose the timezone associated to the machine's location according to its network address.

When preparing the drive the installer creates a swap file on the system partition instead of a swap partition. It also installs a script that will create a swap space on zram at each boot, with a higher priority than the swap file. This minimizes the writes on disk, thus the wear out of flash drives, and also increases the usable RAM size multiplying it by about 1.75 by default.

At end of installation, users tell if they will use a braille devices on Slint. If speech was used during installation it will also be available on Slint.

The user chooses to start Slint in console or graphical mode. This can be changed after installation, as well as the desktop used in graphical mode, Mate by default.

The user is also proposed to make of an USB flash drive a rescue boot stick.

The GRUB boot manager is used in all contexts (BIOS or Legacy as well as EFI) and a "generic" kernel associated to an initrd installed.

The GRUB boot menu always include a "rescue" boot entry to detect and boot almost any installed operating system.

When installation is finished and before rebooting the user can display a preview of the GRUB boot menu that will be displayed at next boot.

It goes without saying that I will be glad to help incorporating some or all of the features of the new installer to Salix and Slackel.

Cheers,
Didier
hugok
Posts: 373
Joined: 7. Dec 2011, 22:44
Location: Portugal
Contact:

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by hugok »

Hi Didier.
Great news :D

I have been busy translating all the desktop environments into Portuguese and for the most part they are or are being concluded.
However, I already saw that the slint project introduced the “auto” to translate in the transifex. I'll see if I can finish the translation this week.

Cheers
Hugo Carvalho
Portuguese translator

https://github.com/hugok79
djemos
Salix Warrior
Posts: 1433
Joined: 29. Dec 2009, 13:45
Location: Greece

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by djemos »

Hi Didier.
I want to ask about translation in Greek where it says (y/N) to keep y/N or to use Greek ν/O nai/oxi ?
I hope to finish "auto" translation in Greek this weekend.
Dimitris
DidierSpaier
Posts: 518
Joined: 20. Jun 2016, 20:15

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by DidierSpaier »

Hi Dimitris,

you should keep (y/N), possibly saying the meaning, as that's what the script expects as input. Same for "no" or "yes".

Thanks!
hugok
Posts: 373
Joined: 7. Dec 2011, 22:44
Location: Portugal
Contact:

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by hugok »

I also had this doubt...
Thanks
Hugo Carvalho
Portuguese translator

https://github.com/hugok79
DidierSpaier
Posts: 518
Joined: 20. Jun 2016, 20:15

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by DidierSpaier »

hugok wrote: 20. Feb 2021, 12:29 I also had this doubt...
Thanks
Thanks for translating, Hugo!
djemos
Salix Warrior
Posts: 1433
Joined: 29. Dec 2009, 13:45
Location: Greece

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by djemos »

Greek translation of "auto" is complete.
hugok
Posts: 373
Joined: 7. Dec 2011, 22:44
Location: Portugal
Contact:

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by hugok »

Well done djemos!
Hugo Carvalho
Portuguese translator

https://github.com/hugok79
hugok
Posts: 373
Joined: 7. Dec 2011, 22:44
Location: Portugal
Contact:

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by hugok »

In strings like this:

Type yes to use it, no to try another one or q to give up:

Once we have to leave the yes the no and the q also, can use quotes?
Ex: 'yes' 'no' 'q'
Hugo Carvalho
Portuguese translator

https://github.com/hugok79
djemos
Salix Warrior
Posts: 1433
Joined: 29. Dec 2009, 13:45
Location: Greece

Re: Slint got a beginner-friendly installer.

Post by djemos »

No.
Just translate all except yes, no, q
e.g. Type yes to use it, no to try another one or q to give up:
Πληκτρολογήστε yes για να το χρησιμοποιήσετε, no για να δοκιμάσετε ένα άλλο ή q για να σταματήσετε:
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