The slitaz-installer installs SliTaz in a partition or a hard drive as most Linux distributions do. However, there are many other ways to install SliTaz…

The following configurations are using the SliTaz 4.0 boot loader grub4dos-linux.

Most kernel command line arguments are processed by /init during the boot process.

You don't need a special partition, the system runs in RAM like a Live CD…

See frugal install and ISO image install

…it can be tuned to your needs a little bit.

See tune boot

You can also use a LORAM flavor created with tazlitobox and The filesystem is always in RAM…

…or The filesystem may be on a small CDROM. Install the CD-ROM files /boot/bzImage and /boot/rootfs.gz and copy the /rootfs.gz . Say into /this/directory . Now get the label of the partition. Say mypartition:

# blkid

And append the param loram= to the cmdline:

kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=normal loram=LABEL=mypartition,this/directory

This is a mix between a frugal and traditional install. The system runs fully in RAM but the home directory is always on the key. You can modify the system (configure, install packages) and then save the new system on the key . See tazusb manual

# tazusb gen-iso2usb slitaz-cooking.iso

This install method will erase all of your key and install a unmodifiable SliTaz. You can create a custom system with tazlito or tazlitobox. Each Slitaz ISO image is hybrid.

# dd if=slitaz-cooking.iso of=/dev/usbkey
# fdisk /dev/usbkey

Imagine you have a very old PC with a floppy drive and a hard disk. No CD-ROM, no network card, and no USB. The hard disk works only with this machine. You can't plug it into your friend's PC or into an USB disk box.

Get a floppy set from http://mirror.slitaz.org/floppies/. The base subset should be sufficient (6 floppies).

Build a data floppy set from the ISO image:

# echo "slitaz.iso" | cpio -o -H newc | split -b 1440k /dev/stdin iso
# dd if=isoaa of=/dev/fd0
# dd if=isoab of=/dev/fd0
# ...

Boot from the slitaz floppy set, mount a hard disk partition in /mnt and restore the data floppy set in /mnt:

# cd /mnt
# dd if=/dev/fd0 of=fdiso01
# dd if=/dev/fd0 of=fdiso02
...
# cat fdiso* | cpio -i
# rm fdiso*

for i in fdiso*; do cat $i; rm -f $i; done | cpio -i

# mount -o loop,ro slitaz.iso /media/cdrom
# slitaz-installer

# mkdir boot && cp /media/cdrom/boot/bzImage /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz boot && rm slitaz.iso

# unlzma -c boot/rootfs.gz | cpio -id 

If you want to install SliTaz on a disk (not a frugal install), and you don't want to create a partition for SliTaz, but you have enough room in a feature-poor filesystem (FAT32 or NTFS)…

… create a loop file and install SliTaz into it!

The problem is: what size? 200MB should be the minimum. Imagine, you could like it and install many more packages!

You can create the loop file with mountbox (click loop, enter the file name, then click create, enter the size, the units, click create) or with the command line:

# dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=200 of=slitaz.fs

You now need to create a filesystem in this loopfile:

# yes | mke2fs -j slitaz.fs

Later, if the loopfile is too small you can extend it (assuming you don't boot from the loopfile, but a Slitaz Live CD for example):

# dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=100 >> slitaz.fs
# resize2fs slitaz.fs

Copy files from the rootfs.gz archive of a cdrom into the loopfile:

# mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
# mount -o loop,rw slitaz.fs /mnt
# unlzma -c /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | ( cd /mnt; cpio -idmu )
# umount -d /mnt
# umount /media/cdrom

Get a preinit iso file with same version (the kernel version must match the modules version in the root filesystem). The partition storing the loopfile (say /dev/hda1) and its path into the partition (say /data/slitaz.fs) is defined by the mount and loopfs arguments:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage mount=/dev/hda1 loopfs=data/slitaz.fs
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

# tazlito get-flavor preinit
# tazlito gen-distro

title SliTaz cooking in loop file
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-cooking.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage mount=/dev/hda1 loopfs=data/slitaz.fs
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz
  
title SliTaz cooking in RAM (like the Live CD)
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-cooking.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage rw root=/dev/null autologin
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

Or, you can replace the device name of the mount variable by the UUID or LABEL returned by blkid:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage mount=a4b346ee-4c7b-46aa-9fd4-6bc39ab4fa96 loopfs=data/slitaz.fs
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

If you want install SliTaz on a disk (not a frugal install), and you don't want to create a partition for SliTaz, but you have room in a filesystem for another Unix and you don't know how much space to reserve for SliTaz…

… create a subdirectory and install SliTaz into it!

Simply install SliTaz file in a subdirectory (say /var/slitaz) of another linux partition:

# mkdir /mnt/var/slitaz
# unlzma -c /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | ( cd /mnt/var/slitaz ; cpio -idmu )

Like a loop install, you need a preinit iso file with a matching version. The partition (say /dev/hda1) and the path into the partition are defined by the mount and subroot arguments:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage mount=/dev/hda1 subroot=var/slitaz
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

Both notes in 'Loop install' section about bzImage extraction and UUID/LABEL also apply here.

$ sudo dpkg -i slitaz-<VERSION>-1_armhf.deb

You want to install SliTaz in a subdirectory but the filesystem (NTFS or VFAT) does not fully support UNIX features.

Use posixovl !

You need to mount the target subdirectory (say /slitaz) with posixovl before installing the files.

# mkdir /mnt/slitaz
# mount.posixovl /mnt/slitaz
# unlzma -c /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | ( cd /mnt/slitaz ; cpio -idmu )

Like a loop install, you need a preinit iso file with a matching version. The partition (say /dev/hda1) and the path into the partition are defined by the mount, subroot and posixovl arguments:

title SliTaz cooking
  map --mem --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage mount=/dev/hda1 subroot=slitaz posixovl
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

Both notes in 'Loop install' section about bzImage extraction and UUID/LABEL also apply here.

You want to see the host partition while running SliTaz like UMSDOS does with /DOS.

Create the mount point:

# mkdir /mnt/slitaz/Windows

And update the boot arguments:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage mount=/dev/hda1 subroot=slitaz posixovl bindfs=.,slitaz/Windows
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

The Logical Volume Manager can manage (add disks, replace disks …) and logically freeze any disks for backup (snapshots) without disrupting service. See Logical_Volume_Manager_(Linux)

A small amount of storage (depending on the disk activity, likely between 1% and 15%) is used by snapshots to hold frozen data during a backup. Assuming we use the sda1 partition with 5% reserved for snapshots:

# tazpkg get-install lvm2
# modprobe dm-mod
# pvcreate /dev/sda1
# vgcreate slitaz /dev/sda1
# lvcreate -l 95%VG slitaz -n root 
# mke2fs -j /dev/mapper/slitaz-root        
# tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/mapper/slitaz-root
# mount /dev/mapper/slitaz-root /mnt

Similar to a loop install:

# unlzma -c /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | ( cd /mnt ; cpio -idmu )

Like a loop install, you need a preinit iso file with a matching version. The argument lvmroot holds the volume name:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage lvmroot=slitaz-root
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

Full hardware RAID is transparent for SliTaz. The disk array is seen as a single disk and nothing special has to be done to install SliTaz.

The RAID array is built with the BIOS menus. SliTaz needs the driver dmraid to see the array and not only each hard disk:

# tazpkg get-install lvm2
# tazpkg get-install dmraid
# dmraid -s            <== shows raid infomation
# modprobe raid1       <== could be raid0, raid456 or raid10
# dmraid -ay           <== activates the array in /dev/mapper
# mount /etc/mapper/myraid /media
# unlzma -c /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | ( cd /mnt ; cpio -idmu )

Like a loop install, you need a preinit iso file with a matching version. The argument dmraid holds the volume name:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage dmraid=myraid
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

The array does not need the BIOS and can be fully administered remotely!

Example for mirroring (raid1) devices /dev/sda3 and /dev/sdb3:

# tazpkg get-install lvm2
# tazpkg get-install mdadm
# echo y | mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3 --bitmap=internal --assume-clean
# modprobe raid1
# mdadm --assemble --scan
# mount /dev/md0 /media
# unlzma -c /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | ( cd /mnt ; cpio -idmu )

Like a loop install, you need a preinit iso file with a matching version. The argument softraid holds the device name:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage softraid=/dev/md0
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

LUKS replaces the Cryptoloop and Loop-AES formats now.

Create the encrypted device with mountbox (crypto button). You may have to accept the missing packages installation. Select the device (say /dev/sda3) and click the create button. Now you can start to format it:

# mke2fs -j /dev/mapper/crypto-sda3
# tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/mapper/crypto-sda3
# mount /dev/mapper/crypto-sda3 /media
# unlzma -c /media/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | ( cd /mnt ; cpio -idmu )

Like a loop install, you need a preinit iso file with a matching version. The argument cryptoroot holds the volume name:

title SliTaz cooking
  map (hd0,0)/boot/slitaz-preinit.iso (hd1)
  map --hook
  kernel (hd1)/boot/bzImage cryptoroot=sda3
  initrd (hd1)/boot/rootfs.gz

This deprecated format needs the same boot setup as LUKS.

You can mix several above methods using one device access and/or one filesystem access.

Add network support: nbd/iscsi + RAID 1 net&local + crypto

You can setup a PXE server (well… you need to configure your server) or a PXE forwarder, see the Embedded Web Boot with PXE boot PROM (the SliTaz team has configured the server for you )