System Documentation

- Profos Systems Linux 1.0 (Odin)

Preface:

Welcome to Profos Systems Linux Odin. This is the very first version of Profos Systems Linux. As mentioned in the systems section this is a fully independent linux distribution. This means all packages that you would like to install will need to be installed from source. This distribution is not meant for beginners! This is for intermediate to advanced linux users. This document has been created to walk users through installing the operating system. These instructions should work on all versions of Profos Systems Linux Odin (1.x). Keep in mind that installing a fresh operating system on a computer can render all previous data on the disk to be useless if you do not understand how your disk is partitioned. Please keep this in mind and back up any needed data on an external medium! Another reminder this version of Profos Systems Linux is BIOS only.

Downloading and Creating a Live Linux Media:

For this step you are free to use whichever live linux media you prefer. In this demonstration I will be using Ubuntu live server 22.04 but any OS will work. You will need to burn this image to a CD/DVD or USB using a tool such as RUFUS to complete this task.

Downloading Profos Systems Linux Odin:

Downloading Profos Systems Linux is very straightforward. If you navigate to the downloads tab of this site you will be taken to the organizations downloads page. You can also click here to download the OS from this page. This download will be a tar.xz file, do not extract the contents of this file. They will be extracted later on in the build process. Just put the file on a thumb drive seperate from the live CD media.

The file size for this file is 2.9 GB

The md5 checksum for this OS is: E60CCC37FF437B376C0B8455716CB73A

The sha256 checksum for this OS is: A735192A42D8F0BEEDBEF554DE3FF4576B078EF9FC2AA9782820CA504BD78844

Beginning the Install:

WARNING!!! This is the last warning about data loss. Beyond this point any data left on your building computer drive will be lost!

Now with all installation mediums created we are prepared to begin the installation of Profos Systems Linux Odin. Keep in mind some commands in these instructions may have different outcomes depending on your operating environment. This is why it is important to have experience with the Linux kernel and Unix systems before attempting this installation. For example when finding which disks are available, the command of lsblk could return the result of /dev/sda, /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, however, some other system could return /dev/nvme0n1, /dev/nvme0n1p1, /dev/nvme0n1p2. These are different types of mediums and these differences will be very common. On a side note this operating system was tested with a SATA drive not an NVME so the instructions will be written using the /dev/sdxx disk naming convention. Also this system may not be compatible with NVME although a change to how the kernel is compiled could fix this issue if that is something you would like.

Booting in to the Live System:

Insert your live linux CD/DVD or USB media into your computer and boot into the live linux environment. Make sure that your are root in the live system and insert the media with Profos Systems Linux Odin. Use the lsblk command to find which disk Profos Systems Linux Odin is on and mount this disk somewhere on the file systems. For this demonstration the disk will be mounted at /mnt.

Copying Files Over:

Now that the disk is mounted, copy the Profos tar.xz file to the primary file system. In this demonstration the file will be copied to /home/Profos/. Once the file is copied we will format the drive that is going to be used to install Profos Systems Linux Odin on to.

Formatting the OS Drive:

For the sake of simplicity this OS will be installed on two partitions. Begin by ensuring that the drive is unmounted. You will also need to run lsblk to find what the drive name is for the next steps. In this demonstration the drive will be the sdbx drive. To begin, use the command “fdisk /dev/sdb”. This will open the fdisk partitioning menu. Begin by entering “d” until all the partitions have been deleted. Create a new DOS partition table by entering “o”. Then enter “n” to add the first partition which will be the boot partition. Use the default number and first sector, set the last sector at 206,848. This will create a 100Mb partition. Enter “n” again and use all default values to complete the other partition. Make sure to enter “w” to write these changes and exit fdisk. Use lsblk to ensure the partitions have been set correctly. Now use the mkfs command to format these new partitions. The boot partition will use the command “mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sdb1”. The other partition which is the root partition will use the command “mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb2”.

Installing the Operating System:

Now the files for the operating system will need to be extracted and copied. Start by remounting the disk. Use the command “mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt”. Then use the command “mkdir -m=755 boot” to create the boot partition and use the command “mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot”. Now it is time to copy the files over. Now change directory into the /mnt directory. Run the command “tar -xpf /home/Profos/PROFOS-SYSTEMS-LINUX-1.0.tar.xz”. This will make sure all permissions are preserved and the OS is installed correctly.

Checking All Configuration Files:

Now the installation process is complete, you will need to check your /boot/grub/grub.cfg file to ensure that it is correct for your system. You will also need to ensure that the /etc/fstab file is correct for your system. Without these corrections your system will not be able to boot.

Logging In:

By default the user account is test with a password of test you can of course change this account by using the useradd or adduser command.

Closing:

In closing, hopefully your Profos Systems Linux Odin experience is good. If you have any issues or suggestions please let me know in my sourceforge page for this operating system.