En:Beginners Guide
Through this Wiki, on several places you can find Documentations and visual tours about how to install, and use Sabayon Linux.
To give you a overview, all those articles are merged here, into one synoptic page.
Contents
System Requirements
- Live Environment - No 3D Desktop:
- i686 Processor
- at least 512 MB of RAM (1 GB suggested)
- a 2D graphics card
- a DDC capable Monitor
- mouse and keyboard
- Live Environment - 3D Desktop:
- Installation:
A full KDE Desktop for example, CAN run with only 1 GB RAM, but you will most likely run out of memory during a session.
Especially when running programs, such as firefox or thunderbird. Please keep that in mind.- i686 Processor
- at least 512 MB of RAM (1 GB suggested for decent eyecandy effects)
- an OpenGL capable 3D graphics card (mostly NVIDIA, ATI, Intel, VIA)
- 20 GB of free space, that is bare minimum DVD Install. 30+ GB is highly recommended.
- 8 GB of free space for miniCD. 10+ GB is recommended
- Internet connection (not mandatory but highly suggested)
- a DDC capable Monitor
- mouse and keyboard
The live CD/DVD
What Editions are available in Sabayon Linux?
Sabayon is all about choice. You have many flavors to choose from.
You can download them from the mirrors, here:
The following choices are the main releases available in 32Bit (x86) or 64Bit (amd64):
1. KDE 2. Gnome 3. LXDE 4. MATE 5. XFCE 6. Enlightenment
All of the above mentioned Desktop Environments are fully featured.
7. CoreCDX CoreCDX is a minimal install for those wishing to configure the system more to their liking, (for more advanced users) in 32bit or 64bit., and uses the Fluxbox Window Manager.
burning / checking the .iso image
One of the most common problems with burning a Linux install CD/DVD is that people sometimes don't understand that an iso image file is not a normal file. You cannot just burn the iso to disc to and expect it to work. I repeat: you cannot simply put the iso file on a blank disk and expect it to work. In order to properly make a CD or DVD out of an iso image, you need special software. Instructions for Nero and Isorecorder are included; for other programs, see the manual for the software, or just give one of these a shot.
With Nero you just select file and burn image, then select the .iso file you want to burn. The software handles the rest.
If you're looking for a good, alternative freeware solution, you can download a free image burner.
isorecorder [1] Simply download and install the correct version for your version of windows, then right click on the .iso and tell it to burn.
checking the integrity of the burned disc
Many people know they can check if a downloaded ISO file is OK by comparing the md5sum of the ISO file against the md5sum posted on the SL mirrors. For example:
# md5sum -c SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4f.iso.md5 SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4f.iso: OK
cf. the contents of ftp://bo.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/sabayonlinux/SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4f.iso.md5 which are: 645600788920443b372baae3544acffa SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4f.iso
so the ISO I downloaded was good.
Remember - verify the MD5 sum for the version of Sabayon that you downloaded - they are all different. The MD5s can be found on the mirrors listed at: http://www.sabayonlinux.org/mirrors
But a different method is needed to verify the integrity of the LiveDVD/CD itself. You should select the verify written data checkbox in K3b before burning the DVD/CD, but if you forgot or still have doubts then the following method can be used to check the integrity of the burnt LiveDVD/CD:
If you only have Windows installed on your HDD, apparently you can use a Windows shareware application, see the following Web page for details: http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php?title=Checking_the_integrity_of_a_Live_CD
A WARNING:
1. I have not checked if the method for Windows on the above-mentioned Web page actually works, so use it at your own risk.
Under Linux:
Insert the LiveDVD into the optical drive, let the disc spin up and then enter the following three commands:
md5sum /dev/cdrom | awk '{print $1}' > md5a.txt
md5sum ~/Sabayon_Linux_8_amd64_K.iso | awk '{print $1}' > md5b.txt
diff -qs md5a.txt md5b.txt
(Obviously change the path and/or the ISO file name to match your circumstances.)
If you get an error message while the md5sum is reading the disc, there must be something wrong either with the burn or with the optical drive itself.
If you get the message "Files md5a.txt and md5b.txt differ" then the burn was bad.
If you get the message "Files md5a.txt and md5b.txt are identical" then the burn was good.
Passwords on live CD/DVD
- The root password:
no password is required: just press the Enter key.
- The sabayonuser password:
no password is required: just press the Enter key.
- For older releases (version 6 and earlier) the password for Root is "root" (without the quotes) and the password for Sabayonuser is "sabayonuser" (without the quotes).
Visual walkthrough Booting process
Please see: Visual_Tour:_Boot-menu_Sabayon_LiveCD/DVD
There is nothing wrong with the ISOs, it is because "nvidia-drivers-304.64" or higher is installed by default.
You can bypass that by hitting ctrl-alt-f1, remove the nvidia-drivers, (nouveau is installed too), and restart xdm., as explained below:Removing latest nvidia-drivers:
# Press the "CTRL-ALT-F1" key combination.
"#" is just indicated that you have to be root, so do not include that with the actual commands...
# su
# equo remove nvidia-drivers --ask
Check that "x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers" got removed, and confirm with "yes"
Restart XDM:
# /etc/init.d/xdm restart
For a overall view of which cards support what driver., please see: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html
The following visual tour will show you how to edit Xorg.conf: Visual_Tour:_Part_2_Editing_the_xorg.conf
Installing Sabayon
For a installation guide, step-by-step, please see: En:Introduction#Installation_Guide:_Step_by_Step
We also offer a visual walkthrough about installing Sabayon, please see: Visual_Tour:_Installing_Sabayon
Partitioning
When installing, Sabayon offers a standard partitioning scheme using LVM, and leaves Windows partitions untouched.
If you wish to manually partition, or add mountpoints, please see: HOWTO:_Manual_Partitioning_with_Sabayon_Linux
For GPT partitioning: HOWTO:_Install_Sabayon_with_GRUB2_and_GPT_on_a_New_System
Advice on the hostname:
HOWTO:_Advice_on_the_hostname_to_specify_when_installing_Sabayon_Linux
Dual boot with Windows
If you want to Dual boot with Windows, or first need to reduce the size of the existing partitions, please see: HOWTO:_Dual_boot_Sabayon_Linux_and_Windows
Install the Gentoo way
HOWTO:_Install_from_an_existing_Linux_system
FAQ
Troubleshooting
boot parameters
En:Sabayon_Linux#Boot_parameters_and_workarounds_for_problematic_Hardware
