Currently, you can install Chimera using the images that are available on the Downloads page.
Keep in mind that those images are provided for preview purposes and installation is currently officially unsupported.
Following is an example for an x86_64 EFI machine (for EFI machines of other architectures, it should be largely equivalent, besides some minor things). Other architectures and firmwares may need various alterations to the process.
First, log in as root. Then, locate the drive you will be installing on. Let’s
use /dev/sda
as an example.
# wipefs -a /dev/sda
# cfdisk /dev/sda
Create a partition table (GPT for EFI) and on it two partitions (~200MB first
partition of type EFI System
, and a regular Linux partition on the rest).
Now format them:
# mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
Mount the root partition:
# mkdir /media/root
# mount /dev/sda2 /media/root
Install Chimera:
# chimera-live-install /media/root
Bind pseudo-filesystems:
# mount --rbind /dev /media/root/dev
# mount --rbind /proc /media/root/proc
# mount --rbind /sys /media/root/sys
# mount --rbind /tmp /media/root/tmp
Change into the target system:
# chroot /media/root
Then from within, install the bootloader:
# mkdir /boot/efi
# mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
# grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi
# update-grub
Add a user, set a password for it and root, add it to groups you want:
# useradd myuser
# passwd myuser
# passwd root
# usermod -a -G other,groups,you,want myuser
Pre-enable some services; you can also do this from a booted system with
the dinitctl
command, but it’s good to do this ahead of time. Following
is an example that enables udevd
for early target, dhcpcd
for network
target, syslog-ng
, elogind
and dbus
for login
target and gdm
for boot
target. An equivalent with dinitctl
would be something like
dinitctl enable --from login dbus
(without --from
, boot
is assumed).
# cd /etc/dinit.d/init.d
# ln -s ../udevd .
# cd ../network.d
# ln -s ../dhcpcd .
# cd ../login.d
# ln -s ../elogind .
# ln -s ../dbus .
# cd ../boot.d
# ln -s ../gdm .
Set a hostname:
# echo chimera > /etc/hostname
Also add it to /etc/hosts
; this prevents syslog-ng
from doing a blocking
DNS lookup, which may take some time:
# echo 127.0.0.1 chimera >> /etc/hosts
# echo ::1 chimera >> /etc/hosts
Certain EFI firmwares require a bootable file at a known location before they show any NVRAM entries. In this case, the system may not boot. This does not affect most systems, but for some you may want to put GRUB at the fallback boot path:
# mv /boot/efi/EFI/chimera /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
# mv /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
You can then perform whatever other post-installation tasks you want before rebooting. When you are done, simply reboot into the new system and log in.