===== Installing TLD Linux =====

The easiest way to install TLD Linux is to use [[https://cri.tld-linux.org|Chroot Rescue & Installer]] or [[https://github.com/PirxDevs/lds|Linux Deployment Script]]. Below is a short howto describing the installation using CRI.
==== Storage preparations ====
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Before proceeding with the installation, you must prepare your target devices. CRI does not provide wizards for managing storage devices, so you will have to do everything by hand.

Start by partitioning your drives with cfdisk, fdisk, gdisk or parted. If you have devices larger than 2TB, be sure to choose a utility that supports GPT partition tables.

Once your partitions are ready, you may want to create RAID, LVM, or LUKS volumes. The following are quick guides to some basic commands.

=== RAID volumes ===
Partitions for RAID devices must be of type FD or FD00 (raid auto-detect).

To create a RAID array, you must specify the array device, the RAID level, the number of RAID devices, and a list of partitions to be used as RAID devices. For example, to create a RAID 1 mirror /dev/md0 with two devices /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1, run the following command:

  mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1

To manually assemble an existing RAID array, for example, RAID 5 array /dev/md1 with three devices /dev/vda3, /dev/vdb3, and /dev/vdc3, you must run the following command:

  mdadm --assemble /dev/md1 /dev/vda3 /dev/vdb3 /dev/vdc3

You can also try to automatically assemble all existing arrays if for some reason they were not assembled at boot time:

  mdadm --assemble --scan

=== LVM ===

To create a new LVM volume, you must first create physical volumes for your LVM configuration. You can do this with the 'pvcreate' command:

  pvcreate /dev/md1

The next step is to create LVM volume groups using the 'vgcreate' command:

  vgcreate lvm_storage /dev/md1

Once the volume group is created, you can create logical volumes within it. For example, to create a 10 GB volume for the root filesystem and 20 GB for /home:

  lvcreate -L 10G -n root lvm_storage
  lvcreate -L 20G -n home lvm_storage

If you have an existing LVM configuration, you can activate it manually if it wasn't activated automatically during the boot process:

  vgchange -a y

=== LUKS ===

To create an encrypted LUKS volume, use cryptsetup's luksFormat command:

  cryptsetup -v luksFormat /dev/md2

To access the contents of the LUKS volume, you must use cryptsetup's luksOpen command:

  cryptsetup -v luksOpen /dev/md2 encrypted_raid

Your encrypted device will be available as /dev/mapper/encrypted_raid.
==== Formatting and mounting filesystems ====
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When your devices are ready, create file systems of your choice. For example:

  mkswap /dev/lvm_storage/swap
  mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0
  mkfs.ext4 /dev/lvm_storage/root
  mkfs.ext4 /dev/lvm_storage/home
  mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/encrypted_raid

You are almost ready to install your chosen Linux distribution. Please mount all your target devices to some directory. For example:

  mount -t ext4 /dev/lvm_storage/root /chroot
  mkdir /chroot/{boot,crypt,home}
  mount -t ext4 /dev/md0 /chroot/boot
  mount -t ext4 /dev/lvm_storage/home /chroot/home
  mount -t xfs /dev/mapper/ecrypted_raid /chroot/crypt

==== Network configuration ====
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For network-based installations, you will need to configure your network devices. You can easily do this with the ''%%netconfig%%'' command. It is a simple wizard that will help you configure ethernet and wireless interfaces. It also supports the creation of VLAN, bonding and bridge interfaces.

==== Installation ====
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After that, run the installation procedure using the ''%%sysinstall%%'' command. Specify the directory path (where the system will be installed) as a parameter, e.g:

  sysinstall /chroot

You will be prompted for basic system configuration such as hostname, timezone, root password, first user account, boot loader installation, etc. After that, you need to select the installation source and the system and/or version you want to install.

That's it. Confirm the installation and wait patiently for it to finish.
==== Finishing ====
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Once the installation is complete, CRI will take care of all the actions required to make your system bootable, and you'll be presented with the results of the system initialization. If everything went well, you'll just need to umount all file systems and reboot.