Installation: Adrenaline v2.5

While most other Debian based Linux distributions have their own custom installers, we decided to go with the standard Debian Installer. There are several advantages of this method. The most obvious one being the ‘Easy Mode’ and the ‘Advanced Mode’ depending upon the available install-time customizations to the OS. This tutorial shows you the easiest way by which you can install Rebellin Adrenaline on your computer.

The Adrenaline installer is bundled out of the ‘live’ mode. This enables you to install Adrenaline on a system with very low system resources as you need not boot into live mode. Here’s the process. We assume you have Windows installed on your computer, so this tutorial teaches you to install Adrenaline alongside Windows. We also assume that you have at least 10GB of contagious free space or an empty partition, which can be used to install Adrenaline.

IMPORTANT! Please disable your internet connection – WiFi/Ethernet/USB before you proceed.

Step 1: Boot the DVD

Put the DVD in your computer and reboot. You will come across the Rebellin Adrenaline DVD boot screen. If not, you may have to adjust your BIOS settings to boot through the DVD. Once you are here, select GUI Install

Step 2: Choose your language

In the next screen, choose your language. And then click continue.

The language you choose here will be the default language for the installed system.

Step 4: Configure the keyboard

In this screen, choose your keyboard layout. If you’re unsure about your keyboard, choose ‘American English’. It’s the most standard form of layout available all over the world.

Step 5: Network Configuration

Depending on your computer hardware, the installer may ask you if you wish to load missing firmware from the removable media (additional DVD/USB)?. The answer is no! Adrenaline is designed to configure automatically on first boot. There is no need of any spoon feeding from the installer. And as such, there is no additional ‘firmware disk’ shipped with Adrenaline anyway!

So select ‘No’ on the next screen and hit ‘Continue’.

If your computer has multiple network interfaces, such as wifi and ethernet, the installer would ask you to choose the default interface to be used. In such a  situation, select the ethernet interface (eth0 in this case) as the default one.

The installer will then attempt to configure the network automatically. This configuration may fail and the installer will display the following on the screen. Even otherwise if you are confused at this step, you can safely skip it. Just click on continue if the screen looks something different than what is shown below:

When you click ‘Continue’ here, you will be taken to the following screen. On this screen select ‘Do not configure the network at this time’ and click ‘Continue’.

Step 6: Enter a hostname

Enter a hostname for this computer. Hostnames are used to identify your computer over a network. For example, if this computer is part of a LAN. Don’t think too much, ‘rebellin’ would do fine in the text box.

Step 7: Set up users and passwords

On this screen, enter a root password. ‘Root’ user is the administrator of the system and has the privileges to alter any system settings. Each time a users attempts to make important changes, he will be asked for this root password. If no root password is supplied, a normal user can use ‘sudo’ command to gain temporary root-level privileges. We recommend you to create a root password and do not share it with anyone, unless you want them to make significant changes to the system. Mind you, users fooling around with root privileges can screw up the whole system.

Step 8: Enter your full name

Enter full name for the user in this screen.

Step 9: Username and Password for your account

Here, provide a username. By default, the installer may select your first name as the user name. If you are fine with it, select continue. If not, make something up here and click continue.

In the next screen, create a password. This is not the root password. This will be the password for YOUR account, and can be used for logging into the system. However, if no root password was selected in the previous step and your account is the first account on the system, you can get temporary root privileges by using the ‘sudo’ command. You will then be asked for your password, which if found to be correct, you will be granted temporary root privileges.

Step 10: Partition set up for Adrenaline

This is a very important step. Once you are done creating users for the system, the installer will start the inbuilt partition manager. We assume you have Windows installed on your hard drive and you wish to install Adrenaline alongside it. For this purpose select ‘Manual’ in the options below. Selecting ‘Guided’ may completely wipe your entire hard drive!

As you can see in the image below, I’ve got 33.7 GB of free space. We have to create 2 partitions in this free space. So ‘double click’ on the free space.

You will then be taken to the next window. Here select ‘Create a new partition’ and click ‘Continue’.

The partition we are about to make, will be used for installing the Operating System. This means, it has to be sufficiently big. Therefore, of the 33.7 GB of Free Space I have selected 33 GB for this partition. You can enter a comparable value in the text box, just make sure it’s sufficiently large. But don’t use the entire partition as we have to create one more! For example, if you have 10GB of Free Space, you can use 8.5 – 9GB for this partition. Enter a value here and click ‘Continue’.

In the next window, select ‘Beginning’ and click ‘Continue’.

You will then be taken to the next screen. Double click to change settings here. Set the values as follows:

1. In ‘Use As’, select ‘Ext4 journaling file system’

2. In ‘Format the partition’, select ‘yes, format it’ (This option may not be visible if partition is new)

3. In ‘Mount point’ select ‘ / ‘

Leave everything as it is. Select ‘Done setting up the partition’ and click ‘Continue’.

All done? Excellent! Just a little more patience, and we’ll be through with the installation. On to the next screen then, here’s what you should find –

As you can see, a new 5th partition was added, the one we just created. Now have to create just one more, the last one. Double click on the ‘Free Space’ to start the process of partition creating again. Select ‘Create a partition’. I’ve 669.3 MB remaining. Let’s use all of that. So keeping the numbers in the textbox unchanged, just click on ‘Continue’. Then select ‘Beginning’. For me, this will be a logical partition as well.

In the next screen. double click to change settings. Use the following value:

1. In ‘Use As’ select ‘swap area’

Let everything else be as it is. Select ‘Done setting up the partition’ and click ‘Continue’.

A new ‘Swap Partition’ will get added to the list of your partitions. Swap area is used when the amount of RAM in your computer is low for the programs to run. Yes, it’s similar to ‘Virtual Memory’ in windows. We’re finally done with all the partitioning. Now select ‘Finish Partitioning and write changes to disk’ and click on ‘Continue’.

The installer will ask for confirmation whether all the changes are correct or not. As you see in the screenshot above, the partitions we created were numbered 6 and 7 (though chronologically they are 5th and 6th). The same numbers are represented in the following screen. This shows everything is okay. Go ahead, select ‘Yes’ and click ‘Continue’.

Done? Awesome! The installer will now create the partitions and will begin installing the Operating System on your computer. This process make take about 20-25 minutes. Make yourself a cup of coffee and relax.

Step 11: Package Manager Configuration

Once the installer has copied all the files to the partitions we made, it will scan and attempt to configure a network mirror for the package manager. Network mirror is basically the Debian repository closest to your location from where you can download software packages. It’s not gonna work. Why? Cos I’d asked you to disable your internet! Don’t worry. Rebellin will set itself automatically on first boot and there is no need of this spoon feeding from the installer. So when the installer asks you to ‘Continue without a network mirror?’, select ‘Yes’ and click on ‘Continue’.

Step 12: GRUB Configuration

In the next screen you will asked whether to install GRUB in the master boot record of your hard drive. GRUB is the boot loader used for starting up the systems installed on your computer. GRUB will provide you with a menu where you can select your desired OS to start – Adrenaline or Windows.

Go ahead, select ‘Yes’ and click on ‘Continue’.

Step 13: Installation complete. Reboot!

Once GRUB installation is finished, the installer will check whether all the steps have been completed and will display the ‘Installation Complete’ screen. Congratulations! You have successfully installed Rebellin Adrenaline in your computer. You are now ready to fire up the new system. Click on ‘Continue’ to reboot. Adrenaline disk will be automatically ejected. Remove it so that the installed system starts.

Step 14: Help us! 🙂

Oops! Thirteen is an unlucky number and we’re quite a superstitious lot! So here’s step 14. Do tell all your friends about Rebellin Linux. Help us grow! Cheers!

I hope all my instructions were clear. If you still have any problems, please feel free to comment. I will definitely solve all your troubles. Enjoy your new Linux world.

Namaste!