Running Netrunner in 3 easy steps
STEP 1. Make a bootable LIVE-USB or DVD
STEP 2. Install from LIVE-USB or DVD
STEP 3 (optional). Read Post Installation Tips
Minimum requirements (tested on samsung netbook n110):
CPU 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270
RAM 1GB
Hard Drive Size 10GB
Graphics Card Intel GMA 945
Video Memory 128MB
Note:
If you want to try out Netrunner in a VirtualBox, please make sure to give it 1024 MB RAM.
STEP 1. Make a bootable LIVE-USB or DVD
What you need
» Netrunner ISO
» Unetbootin or Imagewriter (both are programs that will create a bootable USB from an ISO)
» 2 GB (or larger) USB Stick or drive
64bit: If your 64bit machine with (U)EFI crashes during installation, it is advised to use imagewriter, as it does use another bootlader, which makes the ISO install fine.
Instructions
Download unetbootin from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net
Download Imagewriter for Windows: Image Writer (for Windows)
or install package “usb-imagewriter” (for linux).
(Tip: To restore the usb pen back to full usage, on windows download bootice from here and follow these instructions (windows and linux)).
Format the USB Stick
Start UNetbootin » Select the ISO location (Diskimage) » Select the USB drive
Press “OK”. UNetbootin creates a Live-USB and you should see something like this:
You now have a LIVE USB stick with Netrunner on it, ready to boot!
If you want to run or install Netrunner on the current machine, press “Reboot Now”.
If you want to wait until later, or run or install Netrunner on a different machine, press “Exit”.
STEP 2. Boot from LIVE-USB/DVD to Install
» This will be performed on the machine on which you wish to install Netrunner.
» This step is “non-destructive”, that means:
You do not have to permanently install Netrunner at this point. You can explore the operating system from your USB-Stick to see how you like it without affecting your existing setup.
What you need
» An USB-stick/DVD with Netrunner installed (see instructions above).
Instructions
1. Insert the Netrunner USB-stick into the USB slot of the machine you want to test
Note: Make sure your machine is set to boot from USB first. You may need to check your BIOS to enable this functionality.
2. Boot the machine and watch stuff happen!
Once Netrunner is up and running you should see something like this:
3. Explore Netrunner
Note: In the LiveUSB environment you can explore Netrunner without making any changes to your existing system. In the LiveUSB environment the performance will be much less compared to the normal, installed mode.
Once you are ready, click on “Install Netrunner”!
4. Click on “Install Netrunner” to begin the install process
First choose your preferred language.
5. Prepare
Simply tests for available Disk Space and Internet Connection (not needed in case you do not want to install language packs or updates)
6. Disk Setup
Partitioning is usually the one area that trips up newcomers to Linux. You have two basic options:
Option A: Install Netrunner “side-by-side” an existing OS, giving it a portion of the hard drive.
Option B: Install Netrunner only, giving it the entire hard drive and erasing all other data.
In this screenshot, I’m choosing Option A and giving Netrunner a portion of the disk, while leaving the other system unaffected and ready for selection on boot.
Of course, the installer has also C. Manual advanced option where you can set the partitions to your exact liking if you are in need of that level of control!
7. Timezone and Keyboard
Those are pretty much self-explanatory, so we will continue and go straight to:
8. User Info
Here you enter your name, username, password and choose the name for your computer and a default login option.
If you are ready to install the system, click continue and Installation begins.
9. Install! (Installation progress)
The installer will display progress and status information as it installs.
The percentages give you an estimates and may spring back a few times to a lower percentage to reflect it still needs to install locales or file-system.
At times, it seems the installer just hangs because there seems to be no progress – that’s not unusual, so don’t worry and just give it some time to finish.
At a maximum, the installation process should take about 30-40 minutes, much more likely are 15-30 minutes though (depending on the cpu, memory and hard drive of the machine).
After installation is finished, the system will return to the live-screen again and ask you to restart or continue:
If you restart, let the system power down, then remove the stick and reboot.
Step 3. (optional): Please look out for the other tutorials with tips what you may do at your first boot into Netrunner:
You can give feedback for this article or further discuss it in the forum linked below.
