Carbs Linux Installation Guide

1. Preparing Environment -
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2. Chroot -
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3. System Configuration -
- 3.1. Configuring hostname
- 3.2. Hosts file
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4. Kernel -
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5. Making your system bootable -
- 5.1. Bootloader -
  - 5.1.1. GRUB BIOS installation
  - 5.1.2. GRUB UEFI installation
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- 5.2. Init scripts
- 5.3. Fstab
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6. Post-installation -
- 6.1. KISS repositories
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-These are the step-by-step instructions for installing Carbs Linux. It can be -acquired as plain-text to be viewed offline with a pager from -https://carbslinux.org/docs/install.txt. -

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1 Preparing Environment

-To install Carbs Linux, you will need a Live Linux ISO. For that purpose, you -can obtain a Gentoo or Void Linux live image. You can follow their instructions -to boot and setup your network. -

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-You will need the following programs in order to install Carbs Linux: -

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tar
wget
xz
some form of base utilities (coreutils, sbase, busybox, etc.)

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-Rest of these instructions will assume that you have set all of these up, and -will continue on that point. -

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1.1 Download

-First, we need to download the rootfs tarball. You can do the following in order -to obtain the rootfs. If you are using an i686 machine, replace the x86_64 -with i686. We are setting this in a URL variable so that we don't have to -write it every time. -

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wget $URL/carbs-rootfs.tar.xz.sha256
-sha256sum -c carbs-rootfs.tar.xz.sha256
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1.2 Signature verification

-It is highly recommended to verify the signature of the tarball. You will need -GPG for this. -

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wget $URL/carbs-rootfs.tar.xz.sig
-gpg --recv-keys FF484BDFEFCEF8FF
-gpg --verify carbs-rootfs.tar.xz.sig
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1.3 Extracting the tarball

-You will need to extract the tarball to your desired location. For partitioning, -you can follow this guide. This will assume that you will be mounting your root -partition to /mnt. -

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mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt
-tar xf carbs-rootfs.tar.xz -C /mnt
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1.4 Obtain the chroot helper

-You can obtain the cpt-chroot script in order to do a simple chroot into your -new root filesystem. -

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wget https://dl.carbslinux.org/distfiles/cpt-chroot
-chmod a+x cpt-chroot
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2 Chroot

-Chroot into Carbs Linux! -

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./cpt-chroot /mnt
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2.1 Setting up repositories

-Newest tarballs do not come with repositories, so you will need to manually -obtain them, and set your CPT_PATH environment variable. Carbs Linux -repositories can either be obtained by git or rsync. While rsync -repositories are overall faster and smaller, git offers the whole history of the -repository and a means to manipulate your repository as you like it. If you want -to obtain the git repository, you will need to install git itself. -

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-The following guide will assume that you put the repositories into ~/repos/ -directory, but you can put the repositories into any directory you want. So go -ahead and create that directory: -

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mkdir -p $HOME/repos
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2.1.1 Obtaining from git

-Carbs Linux git repositories can be found both from the main server and GitHub -(mirror). Here are both their repository links. You can clone any of them. -

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git://git.carbslinux.org/repository
https://github.com/carbslinux/repository

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git clone git://git.carbslinux.org/repository $HOME/repos/carbs
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2.1.2 Obtaining from rsync

-Carbs Linux rsync repositories live in rsync://carbslinux.org/repo. In -order to obtain it, run the following: -

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rsync -avc rsync://carbslinux.org/repo $HOME/repos/carbs
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2.1.3 Making the package manager use the repositories

-In your shell's configuration file, or in your ~/.profile file, add the -following lines: -

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CPT_PATH=$HOME/repos/carbs/core
-CPT_PATH=$CPT_PATH:$HOME/repos/carbs/extra
-CPT_PATH=$CPT_PATH:$HOME/repos/carbs/xorg
-CPT_PATH=$CPT_PATH:$HOME/repos/carbs/community
-export CPT_PATH
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2.2 Updating packages

-It is good practice to make sure your system is up to date, especially before -building new packages. If there is an update for the package manager you will -need to update twice. -

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cpt-update && cpt-update
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2.3 Installing packages

-Since you are operating on a really small base, you might need to build and -install new programs to extend the functionality of your system. In order to -build and install packages new packages in Carbs, you need to execute the -following. "Package" is not actually a package and is given as an example. -

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cpt-build   package
-cpt-install package
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2.4 Essential Software

-Here is a list of software that you might want to have on your system. -

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-BOOTLOADERS -

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efibootmgr
grub

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-FILESYSTEMS -

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e2fsprogs
dosfstools
ntfs-3g

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-NETWORKING -

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dhcpcd
wpa_supplicant

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-TEXT EDITORS -

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nano
vim
neatvi
emacs
emacs-nox (terminal-only version of emacs)

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-USER SHELLS -

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bash
zsh
oksh
rc

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-POSIX BASE UTILITIES -

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busybox
sbase
coreutils

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-DOCUMENTATION -

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carbs-docs
man-pages
man-pages-posix

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2.5 Obtaining the documentation

-All the documentation for Carbs Linux can be found on a single info manual to be -viewed offline. You can obtain texinfo or the info (standalone) package in order -to view the documentation. -

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# Install the documentation.
-cpt b carbs-docs && cpt i carbs-docs
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-# Install either texinfo or the info package. We will be installing standalone info
-# as it doesn't need perl.
-cpt b info && cpt i info
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-# You can then run info and navigate through the documentation.
-info carbslinux
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3 System Configuration

-After you have finished installing some extra packages, you can configure your -system to your liking. -

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3.1 Configuring hostname

-You might want to add a hostname, especially in a networked environment. Your -hostname will default to 'carbslinux' unless you set this. -

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echo your-hostname > /etc/hostname
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3.2 Hosts file

-You can edit your /etc/hosts file, which is the static lookup table for host -names. By default, there are two entries for localhost which are OKAY. You can -replace the 'localhost' part of these entries to your hostname. -

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-127.0.0.1  localhost.localdomain localhost
-::1        localhost.localdomain localhost ip6-localhost
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4 Kernel

-Kernel isn't managed under the main repositories, even though you could package -one for your personal use. Here is an example kernel package, which you will -need to reconfigure for your specific setup if you want to make use of it. -

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4.1 Obtaining the kernel sources

-You can visit the https://kernel.org website to choose a kernel that you want -to install. Though only the latest stable and longterm (LTS) versions are -supported. -

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# Download the kernel and extract it
-wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/linux-5.9.1.tar.xz
-tar xf linux-5.9.1.tar.xz
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-# Change directory into the kernel sources
-cd linux-5.9.1
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4.2 Kernel dependencies

-In order to compile the kernel you will need to install some dependencies. You -will need libelf to compile the kernel. If you want to configure using the -menu interface you will also need ncurses. -

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# The package manager asks to install if you are building more than one package,
-# so no need to run 'cpt i ...'
-cpt b libelf ncurses
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-In the vanilla kernel sources, you need perl to compile the kernel, but it can -be easily patched out. You will need to apply the following patch. Patch was -written by E5ten. You will need to obtain and apply the patch in the kernel -source directory. -

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wget https://dl.carbslinux.org/distfiles/kernel-no-perl.patch
-patch -p1 < kernel-no-perl.patch
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4.3 Building the kernel

-Next step is configuring and building the kernel. You can check Gentoo's -kernel configuration guide to learn more about the matter. Overall, Gentoo Wiki -is a good place to learn about configuration according to your hardware. The -following will assume a monolithic kernel. -

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make menuconfig
-make
-install -Dm755 $(make -s image_name) /boot/vmlinuz-linux
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5 Making your system bootable

-In order to be able to boot your fresh system, wou will need an init-daemon, -init-scripts and a bootloader. The init daemon is already provided by busybox, -but you can optionally change it. -

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5.1 Bootloader

-In the main repository, there is efibootmgr and grub to serve as bootloaders. -efibootmgr can be used as a standalone bootloader, or can be used to install -grub in a UEFI environment. efibootmgr is needed unless you are using a device -without UEFI support (or you really want to use BIOS for a reason). -

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5.1.1 GRUB BIOS installation

cpt b grub && cpt i grub
-grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sdX
-grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
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5.1.2 GRUB UEFI installation

cpt b efibootmgr && cpt i efibootmgr
-cpt b grub && cpt i grub
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-grub-install --target=x86_64-efi \
-             --efi-directory=esp \
-             --bootloader-id=CarbsLinux
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-grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
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5.2 Init scripts

-Only thing left to do is installing the init-scripts, and now you are almost -ready to boot your system! -

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cpt b carbs-init && cpt i carbs-init
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5.3 Fstab

-You can now manually edit your fstab entry, or you can use the genfstab tool. -If you want to use the tool, exit the chroot and run the following: -

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wget https://github.com/cemkeylan/genfstab/raw/master/genfstab
-chmod +x genfstab
-./genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
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6 Post-installation

-The base installation is now complete, you can now fine tune your system -according to your needs. Rest of these instructions are completely optional. -You can check the rest of the documentation to learn more about the system. -

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6.1 KISS repositories

-While not 100% compatible with cpt, you can use kiss repositories in your -system the same way you are using the distribution repositories. Here is an -example for the KISS Linux Community repository. -