Revision 6 as of 2014-05-23 13:14:45

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Short help text to install and run the 9w 'NioWill' installer

Background

9w is designed to install operating systems to computers, that have low specifications, e.g. low RAM, where the standard installers do not work.

I'm Nio, which means 9 in Swedish. Will Haley's blog post http://willhaley.com/blog/create-a-custom-debian-live-environment/ taught me how to do it. Hence 'NioWill'.

9w is based on a debian operating system with an i486 kernel.It uses 'mkusb' to install compressed images of any [free] operating system by flashing or cloning the image to a mass storage device, an internal drive (typically a HDD) or external drive (typically a USB pendrive).

After the installation you can use 'gparted' to grow the partitions to fill your target drive.

Backup

9w overwrites the partition table, so the previous data will be erased. This means that you *must backup* all data from the target drive, before you start installing with 9w. This should be no draw-back, because there is hardly any reason to dual boot computers with such low specs, often old computers. By the way, you can dual boot with two drives connected.

Installation

1. Download an iso file from http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/9w/

2. Check the md5sum http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/9w/md5sums.txt.asc

3a. Use a good burning program for example k3b or Brasero to burn the iso file to a CD or DVD disk. Set 'verify data' and the slowest burning speed possible.

3b. Use mkusb or some other tool to 'flash' or 'clone' the iso file to a USB pendrive. It is possible (and very simple) with dd, but risky. dd is nicknamed 'disk destroyer' because it will do what you tell it to do without questions, and if you tell it to wipe your valuable data instead of installing to an empty pendrive ... The fastest way to start running mkusb to make USB boot drives is to download the quick start manual and the shell-script mkusb and check the md5sums.

Get mkusb from this link link http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/mkusb/

3c. In Windows you can use http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager to 'flash' or 'clone' the iso file to a USB pendrive.

Anyway, if only the installer and the target drive are connected, you cannot overwrite any important data. So disconnect all drives, that are not necessary, while you install and edit partitions.

Running

9w 'proper'

The installer 9w boots into a text screen as the user 'root'. Run commands as usual, you can even install tools, that you need (but only into the live system, it is not persistent). You are root, you need not use 'sudo', there is no sudo command installed. Be careful, an installer is powerful and can easily destroy valuable data.

If very low memory, you can run 'mkusb' from the text screen and install the system while running in this text screen. The commands in red text are recommended. Anything after the hash character # is considered a comment, and is ignored by the command line interpreter bash.

If there is enough memory (try!), you can start the LXDE desktop with the command 'startx'.

OBI-9w

The OBI-9w boots into a menu where you can select a graphical user interface when there is enough RAM and the graphics chip/card is supported by a kernel driver. Use the desktop icons.

Otherwise you can run the One Button Installer in text mode.

Manuals

Use the manuals in the folder 'Documents' (from the desktop in the LXDE session when the 9w installer in running live.)

9w 'proper' installs from compressed image files

You can use the manuals mkUSB-quick-start-manual.pdf and GrowIt.pdf locally in LXDE or via the Internet.

OBI-9w installs from from tarballs (One Button Installer)

Start with the manual this OBI quick start manual file and continue with the other manuals available locally in LXDE or at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OBI if you want or need more information.

Terminal window

You can mark the mkusb command line printed when the terminal window is started. Paste it (and press Enter) to start the installation.

mkusb

mkusb can install compressed images of any [free] operating system by flashing or cloning the image to a mass storage device, an internal drive (e.g. HDD) or external drive (e.g. USB pendrive).

go-ahead.png

A desktop icon with a green go-ahead-sign will automatically run mkusb and install from the compressed image file(s) included in the iso file. Close the terminal window with the x symbol at the top right corner when finished (it is 'xterm' with the hold option).

Unmount before unplug

After you have installed the system with mkusb, the drive is not mounted and it can be disconnected (unplugged in case of USB). If you have done other tasks with the drive, and it is mounted, you should unmount it before disconnecting. If pending write operations are interrupted, the drive's file system will be damaged, and it might be impossible to read.

gparted

'gparted' can move the swap partition and grow the root partition of the installed operating system, so that the whole internal drive is used.

gparted works only in graphics mode. In text mode you need a text tool to edit the partitions (cfdisk, fdisk or parted). It is possible, but much more difficult.

poweroff

When you want to shut off the computer, type 'poweroff' and press Enter in the terminal window or in the text screen. Type 'reboot' to reboot.

Do not unplug any USB pendrive until you are sure that the system is halted. Most computers switch off the power, but in some computers the system is halted and waits for you to press the power button. A short click on the power button should be enough, otherwise the system is not halted.

Login and password to the installed system

Boot into the installed system and log in with the user ID and password according to this text file

http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/9w/login-n-password.txt

Return to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/9w