LinuxBBQ Tiny: Installation notes

[machinebacon]

===== STEP 1 - From USB to Tiny =====

We assume you have successfully downloaded the LinuxBBQ Tiny no-X base, put it onto a stick
or CD and booted into the live session. You are greeted with a TTY asking for login name and
password. Enter bbq for both. As next, you find youself in tmux, as you can tell from the
panel down south. Let's install the base system.

Do you have a partition (free or used) that you want to overwrite and install Tiny on?
If yes, skip the next sections.

So, you first want to create a partition of at least 1G (That's the absolute minimum!
if you plan to create an ISO later on, you need around 5GB of space, depending on how
full-featured your installation will be. 5GB is a good number for a standard LXDE/XFCE, though)
We can use cfdisk to create the partition. Mint users: Don't expect a shiny interface.

Do you have more than one hard drive (external and/or internal)? If no, skip the next section.

We should find out the exact device names of your drives. This is an extremely important step to
prevent accidents. We use the commands

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sudo blkid -o list
sudo fdisk -l

for an overview. We assume you have unpartitioned space on the /dev/sdb drive, and there are
already partitions in use (sdb1 sdb2 sdb5 sdb6) - we don't need to care for the device name,
cfdisk will do that for us. We just need to find the 'unpartitioned space'. So, let's start
cfdisk and point it at the device (sdb, and not sdbX)

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sudo cfdisk /dev/sdb

We see a nice curses-based partition table. Move the white bar down to the "Free Space", using the
cursor keys. Make sure [New] is selected in the bottom line (use cursor Left and Right to move the
menu selector). So, choose [New] and press Enter.
We put the new partition at the [Beginning] of the free space. Hit Enter again. Then enter a size
in MB. Type in some sexy number followed by MB, for example 6688MB. Hit Enter and you see a long
list of things that first look like "anusfs" or "fat" - these are filesystems. We don't discuss
stuff like TRIM and solid state drives - simply pick ext4 if you run desktop or laptop computer.
ext2 (without journaling) is a good idea for netbooks with very small drives or SD cards. The BBQ
recommends ext4. Choose it, hit Enter, and you are in the last (and most important) screen, where
you can submit the changes. You can create another partition by choosing [Make FS], for example if
you want a swap partition or a separate Home folder. Let's assume we want to finish here! Make
sure the menu selector is placed on [Commit] and hit Enter. You will be asked if you are sure, hit
Enter and the changes are submitted instantly. Back in the main screen select [Quit]. This was the
hardest part.


Let's start the BBQ Installer by submitting

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sudo bbqinstaller

In the first menu, we select "I already have a partition prepared". Of course you can play around
with parted or cfdisk if it makes you happy.
Select Yes (simply hit Enter) in the next screen to verify the available partitions. Let's assume
you have two drives, /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, each with some partitions. You already have a Linux
on /dev/sda1 but want to install to /dev/sdb7. The swap on /dev/sda5. We're just assuming, right. Hit Enter.

First question: Where should GRUB be placed? Usually, it is a good idea to take the drive which
already has a Linux installation. In our example, we install GRUB on: /dev/sda
Do you have a separate /boot partition? Usually not needed, but some people like to
make stuff complicated. Then, in the next screen, we get to the most important step: where should
Tiny be installed? In our example, we enter: /dev/sdb7 - exactly like this.

Next are questions about encryption, whether we want to create a separated /home folder, about a swap space (we don't need one now), and the hostname.
Old grill-heads simply hit the Enter key a few times. The installation will then start, and take
around 2 minutes (the GRUB installation might take a bit longer, depending on how complex your
setup is).

Finally, you get to the point where you have to enter your password. Don't f*ck around too much,
enter a password directly, hit Enter, type in your password again, and hit Enter.

You can then reboot.
In the freshly installed session, the username is bbq or root, the password is what you provided.
You want to add users, do this using the useradd command, as root:

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sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -G sudo,audio,netdev,storage -m USERNAME

If you want to get rid of the existing bbq user (I'd keep it there as rescue login, but it's your
life), log in with your new user or as root, and issue:

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sudo deluser bbq

===== STEP 2 - Make stuff work =====

Let's split tmux! Press [Ctrl] and [a], then [%].
Looks better, right. And now?

We first need an internet connection. Enter

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sudo ceni

then select your network card using the Tab key, hit Enter to enter and Space to select. Generally,
it is a good idea to use 8.8.8.8 or 208.67.220.220 as DNS servers.

We need to sync the local package database with that on the server.

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upd

does this for us. You can also use the command

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upg

instead, this will update and dist-upgrade your installation. Promise you read the output.

Meanwhile, let's do something else. Press [Ctrl] and [a], then the left cursor. We're back in the
left pane again, but why?!

We at the BBQ warmly recommend to spend a few minutes (actually, weeks) in a pure no-X environment,
like the one that you see right there after booting into Tiny. Basically, you can do all daily
tasks (except of watching YouTube clips) in the console. You can surf the web, listen to the radio,
your music collection, you can read RSS feeds, write documents, spreadsheets, read your emails,
chat on IRC or via instant messenger, move your files around, repair your broken Windows, play
some old-fashioned games like Pac*Man or Tetris. You think that's bullshit? You, Sir, are wrong:

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bbq

enter this, and you'll see a sexy dialog. Feel free to move around in the Accessories, the Office,
the Multimedia and the Games section. We don't f*ck around with the other points now. Play Hangman!

At some point of time, your update has finally finished. Let's leave the Hangman behind, switch the
tmux pane (guess how!) and fix stuff like keyboard layout, or the hardware time.

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bbq

and select the first entry, Fix your system. Go through the first four points there. When you
finished, hit [x] and press Enter.

===== STEP 3 - Let's get bloated! =====

In a few words: things already work well now. Everything that comes now is just of cosmetic nature.
Display managers, Desktop environments, Graphical User Interfaces for the most ridiculous tasks can
all be installed via APT:

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sudo apt-get install <packagename>

translates to

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ins <packagename>

Other useful shortcuts:

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search 
policy
depends
purge

You want a user interface? You love to travel with your finger on the map? Here you go:

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roastyourown

Ways to bork your system? It's over 9000! Happy roastin', sausageface ;)

[DebianJoe]

This post linked to in the wiki.

[wuxmedia]

amazing,
one thing that borked me a few moons back;

IIRC menu headed 'separate /home partition, makes a *NEW* home folder on chosen partition. Ie it wipes /home clean.
not sure if thats changed, this was a while ago.

looks snappy with the dialog front end and a great walkthough, thanks!

[machinebacon]

Thanks wux, the issue with the /home folder will be fixed for everything uploaded later than August 23, 2013.