SliTaz Doc

Installation

Tazinst installs SliTaz from the live system to a partition of a hard disk, an SSD or a USB key, on BIOS machines, and on UEFI machines from the x86_64 images. It is on every image, with its graphical interface on SliTaz Core, Core Retro and Firefox.

Prepare the partitions

Tazinst does not create partitions: prepare them first. The installed system takes less than 1 GB; give the root partition a few GB to have room for packages. A separate /home partition makes future reinstalls easy.

GParted is on SliTaz Firefox and can be installed on the others (spk-add gparted). In text mode, use fdisk or parted (spk-add parted on SliTaz Base x86_64), and on x86_64 also gdisk.

Install from the desktop

Click Install SliTaz in the welcome window, or open SliTaz Installer from the Dash, and give the root password (root on the live system). The installer asks for:

• the source: the live CD or USB key, or an ISO image file;
• the root partition and whether to format it (ext4 recommended);
• optionally a /home partition, formatted or kept as is;
• the machine name, the root password, the first user and their password;
• the boot loader, and a Windows entry if Windows is on the disk.

A summary is shown before anything is written. The installation takes a minute or two; its log is /var/log/tazinst.log.

Install from the command line

On SliTaz Base or from a terminal, run slitaz-installer (text dialogs) or tazinst-tui, or drive tazinst with an install file, useful for repeated installs:

# tazinst new
# tazinst set mode install
# tazinst set media usb
# tazinst set source /dev/sdb1
# tazinst set root_uuid /dev/sda2
# tazinst set root_format ext4
# tazinst set root_pwd mysecret
# tazinst set user_login alice
# tazinst set user_pwd alicepass
# tazinst set bootloader auto
# tazinst check
# tazinst plan               # show what execute will do
# tazinst execute

The settings are stored in ./tazinst.rc. tazinst list partitions shows the partitions it can use, tazinst help <setting> explains a setting, and media is cdrom, usb or iso (then source is the path to the image). The full reference is the Tazinst manual.

Boot loader and dual boot

Tazinst installs GRUB2 for every way the disk can boot: BIOS when the disk has an MBR table or a BIOS boot partition, UEFI when it has an EFI System Partition. With winboot, a Windows entry is added to the menu. The menu also has a SliTaz rescue (reprise) entry to repair the system, see Repair.

The installed menu is /boot/grub/grub.cfg; the default entry and delay are set with trame boot, see System settings.

Install on a USB key

Boot the live system from one key and install to a partition of a second key, like on a hard disk. On a removable disk, GRUB is installed in the standard UEFI location (/EFI/BOOT) so the key boots on any machine. For UEFI, the key needs an EFI System Partition; for BIOS, an MBR table is enough.

Coming from SliTaz 4.0

Many years and a new architecture separate SliTaz 4.0 and 5.1: make a fresh installation from a 5.1 image, and keep your data by giving your existing /home partition to the installer without formatting it.

After the installation

Remove the live media and reboot. Log in with the user you created, then update the system and add your applications:

# spk-up
# spk-add firefox-official    # x86_64, or i486 with SSE2