How To Install Solus Linux
Lately, the Linux community is singing praises of Solus Linux. It’s not hard to see why. It’s a beautiful operating system with a lot of great things to offer. In a world where most popular Linux distributions are “Ubuntu derivatives,” it stands out. Installing a Linux distribution can be tough, especially for those who are new (though Solus is much simpler than most). That’s why in this article, we’ll go over exactly how to get the Solus Linux operating up and running.
SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial at the end of this article.
Solus Linux Live Disk
The first step in installing a Linux distribution is creating the installation medium. For most people, this means burning it to a USB flash drive. There are many ways to do this on a computer, but perhaps the easiest (and most universal) is to use the Etcher imaging tool. The reason to go with Etcher is that the program works on MacOS, Linux, and Windows, ensuring that no matter what OS you burn your Solus USB on it’ll be easy. Download it here.
Plug in a USB flash drive to your PC. It has to be at least 2 GB in size because the Solus ISO file is 1.2 GB. You should also download the latest version of Solus. Go to the release page, and choose a release of the OS that suits you the best. Currently, there is Solus Budgie, Solus Gnome, and Solus Mate.
Open up the Etcher USB tool and click the “select image” button. Use the file browser UI to open up the Solus OS image on your PC. Then, move on to the next step in the process.
In the next step, you’ll need to select the USB stick to flash to (if the program doesn’t do it for you automatically). When that’s all sorted out, click the “Flash” button to start the flashing.
Making a live USB stick takes a bit of time. When it completes, keep the USB plugged in. Restart your PC. As your PC boots up, press the correct button on your keyboard to open up BIOS. In this area, change the boot order around so that the USB stick loads before anything else.
Installing Solus
When the Solus live disk first starts up, you’ll see a desktop. It is entirely usable, so feel free to try it out before installing. After trying out the Solus desktop, look for “Install OS” on the desktop and double-click on it to open up the install program.
Inside “Install Solus,” there are many options to go through. The first part of it is to select a language. Look through the menu and click on your native language. When you’ve found it, click “Next” to move on.
On the next page, you’re required to tell Solus your location. Don’t worry, “automatic location” is only so that the OS can more easily apply location-based settings. If you don’t feel comfortable, don’t click “find my location.”
Next, in the process, you’ll set a keymap. The selection process is usually automatic (if you allow automatic location), so it’s enough just to press “next.” On the next page, it’s time to set the time-zone. Click on your location and set the correct time, then click “next” to move on to the “disks” portion. In disks, you’ll need to select a hard drive to install Solus. Click the drop-down menu, and look for the hard drive you’d like to install Solus to.
Underneath the hard drive selection menu is information about partitioning. By default, “Automatically partition” is selected. Selecting automatic partitioning is an excellent option to choose, especially if you’re a beginner. If you’re also using Windows, select the dual-boot option (this option installs Solus alongside Windows).
Note: skip over the Advanced installation options page, as it is not necessary.
With the partition layout selected, installation is almost ready. Now all that’s left is to setup the hostname, create a user, and assign a password. To set the hostname (aka the name of your PC on the network), click in the box that says “type the hostname here” and write out something. Keep in mind that this is a unique identifier that allows other PCs to communicate over the network. Name it something you’ll recognize, and click “next.”
Under “Who will use this device,” go through and fill out “Username,” “Real name,” “Password,” and “Confirm Password”. Select “Add now” to add the new user, when done.
On the last page, you’ll see a summary of precisely what Solus will do during the installation. Look at it and see if everything looks alright. If everything seems good, press “Install” to start the installation process.
Solus will show a message saying “You may now exit the installer.” Reboot your PC, and remove the USB flash drive used to install. When your PC loads back up, Solus OS is ready to use!
2 Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Somehow I can’t Solus installed on my laptop. I want to replace Ubuntu by Solus. No EFI partition” keeps coming up and the laptop won’t start anymore 🙁
So that’s just Solus, not Solus Linux. There’s a reason for that too for calling it Solus as well and that is that the name Linux is a registered trademark of Linus and special permission was not granted to use Linux in the title. Just a little FYI 😉