Forest OS

A free and open source operating system, written from scratch. A Bluethefox project, hosted by Enclica.

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First Boot After Installing Forest OS

First boot from the internal disk after installing — what to expect, which boot entry to pick, login, and smoke checks.

Contents

  1. What to Expect
  2. 1. Remove-Media Check
  3. 2. Boot Entries (default / nofb / safe)
  4. 3. Login + Smoke Commands
  5. 4. Clock / Hostname Check
  6. 5. If You Get a Black Screen → nofb / safe
  7. 6. If the Kernel Panics → Serial Log + Photo
  8. 7. Done? Next Steps

What to Expect

A healthy first boot follows this sequence:

  • Machine powers on from the internal disk (install USB / ISO detached, see below).
  • ForeB menu appears (graphical forest theme, or text fallback on limited VBE/GOP hardware).
  • Selecting an entry hands off to the kernel — kernel banners scroll on serial / display.
  • Kernel mounts root, starts init, and drops you at a login prompt on display + serial TTY.

If any stage is missing, jump to If You Get a Black Screen or If the Kernel Panics.

1. Remove-Media Check

Booting with the installer still attached boots the installer, not your install.

  • QEMU: remove -cdrom .../forebo.iso, boot with -boot order=c,menu=on (disk first).
  • QEMU UEFI: keep both pflash drives attached, including the writable OVMF_VARS.local.fd (it holds the installed BootOrder).
  • VirtualBox / VMware: disconnect the ISO (Storage → remove forebo.iso) or move HDD-0 above optical in System → Boot Order.
  • Real hardware: sync, shut down, physically remove the USB stick, then power on and pick the internal disk from the one-time boot menu if needed.
  • Confirm ForeB is loading from the disk: the menu should appear with only the internal disk attached.

2. Boot Entries (default / nofb / safe)

At the ForeB menu (timeout=10; any key cancels auto-boot):

EntryCmdlineWhen to use
Forest OS (default)normalFirst try — full framebuffer + drivers.
Forest OS (no framebuffer)nofbText/VGA mode — use if the screen goes black after the menu.
Forest OS (safe mode)safeConservative drivers — use if nofb still fails, or hardware is flaky.
  • Let the countdown expire or press Enter on Forest OS for the first attempt.
  • Navigation: Up/Down move, Enter boots, Esc resets the countdown.
  • If the default entry fails, reboot and retry with nofb, then safe — do not reinstall yet.
  • Full entry reference: Boot Menu, Configuration.

3. Login + Smoke Commands

  • Log in as the user created during install (or root on root-only systems).
  • Expect: shell prompt on display and serial console.
  • Run the smoke set — every command below should succeed:
ls /
mount
df -hT
blkid
ip addr

What good output looks like:

  • ls / — shows /bin, /etc, /forebo (or install root layout); no I/O errors.
  • mount — root (/) mounted on the internal disk partition (e.g. /dev/hd0p1, /dev/sd0p1); no read-only surprise.
  • df -hT — root has free space (base system wants ~100–200 MiB free after install).
  • blkid — lists the internal disk + partitions with filesystem types (ext2 / FAT as installed).
  • ip addr — lists interfaces. A missing NIC is a missing driver, not a cable problem (see Post-Install / Troubleshooting).

4. Clock / Hostname Check

  • Check the clock — wrong time breaks pac, logs, and filesystem checks:
date
  • Check / set the hostname:
hostname
hostname forest-node-01
  • Confirm identity files exist: /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shadow, /etc/locale, /etc/hostname (as applicable to your install path).
  • If the clock is wrong after every reboot, the RTC source is suspect — note it and see Troubleshooting (PIT/HPET/RTC, VMMDev time on VirtualBox).

5. If You Get a Black Screen → nofb / safe

Serial working + display black = display-only problem. Keep serial attached (-serial stdio under QEMU) — a login prompt there proves the kernel is alive.

  • Reboot, pick Forest OS (no framebuffer) (nofb) — forces VGA-text/serial path.
  • If still black, reboot and pick Forest OS (safe mode) (safe) — conservative drivers.
  • QEMU: confirm -vga std (Bochs BGA, best support); fallback -vga cirrus. VirtualBox: use VBoxVGA, not VBoxSVGA. VMware: default SVGA is fine.
  • Confirm the build has graphics: make show-config | grep GRAPHICS → ENABLE_GRAPHICS=yes, ENABLE_FRAMEBUFFER=yes.
  • If serial shows login after nofb/safe, stop — fix display config per Boot Menu and Troubleshooting, do not reinstall.

6. If the Kernel Panics → Serial Log + Photo

  • Capture the serial log — panic text + backtrace go to serial:
# QEMU example: log to file, then inspect
qemu-system-x86_64 -machine q35 -cpu qemu64 -m 512 \
  -drive file=forest-disk.raw,format=raw,index=0,media=disk \
  -boot order=c,menu=on -vga std -serial file:/tmp/forest-firstboot.log
tail -n 50 /tmp/forest-firstboot.log
  • Photograph the screen — panic screen / framebuffer text plus the last serial lines; include the full backtrace, not just the top line.
  • Note RAM size (-m 512 minimum, retry with -m 1024), boot entry used, and BIOS vs UEFI path.
  • File or report per Troubleshooting with: serial log tail (~20 lines), photo, image verification (sha256sum, make -C foreboots check), and hardware/VM geometry.

7. Done? Next Steps

  • Smoke commands pass, clock/hostname sane, no panic.
  • Snapshot now (QEMU savevm, VirtualBox/VMware snapshot, or image copy) before experimenting.
  • Continue with Post-Install (users, drivers, networking, pac updates).
  • If anything failed, see Troubleshooting and FAQ before reinstalling.

See Also

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