Installation Overview

Welcome to the Forest OS Installation section. This landing page explains what installing means, which install path to pick, and where to go next. Forest OS installs from a live hybrid ISO (forebo.iso, BIOS + UEFI) with the forinstall guided wizard, and upgrades offline later with forupdate.

What Installing Means

Booting the live ISO/USB runs Forest OS entirely from removable media (RAM + read-only media). Nothing is changed on the host disk unless you ask.

Installing means copying the live system to a writable target so it boots on its own:

• Source: live ISO/USB (booted live session)
• Tool: forinstall installer (partition → format → copy → bootloader setup)
• Target: internal disk (HDD/SSD/NVMe) or a USB stick dedicated as an installed disk
• Result: bootable Forest OS on the target drive that works without the install media after — remove the ISO/USB, reboot, and ForeB loads Forest OS straight from the internal disk/USB.

Live session = try without touching anything. Installed system = persistent, bootable, keeps users, config, and packages across reboots.

Install Paths

Pick the path that matches your goal:

Not sure? Check Requirements first, then do a VM try via Quick-Start. Move to real hardware or full USB once you are comfortable.

5-Step Summary

The full process in five steps — each guide below expands one or more steps:

Installation Guides

All sibling pages in this section:

Related existing pages:

• Install on a VM
• Install on Real Hardware
• USB Persistence
• Bootloader Overview

Next Steps

1. Read Requirements.
2. If new: follow Quick-Start.
3. Then pick Install-Guide-BIOS or Install-Guide-UEFI for your machine.
4. Finish with First-Boot and Post-Install.
5. Stuck? See Troubleshooting and FAQ.

Contents

1. What installing means
2. Install paths
3. 5-step summary
4. Installation guides
5. Next steps
6. Detail: installation at a glance
7. Detail: requirements
8. Detail: quick-start — fastest path
9. Detail: choosing a filesystem
10. Detail: BIOS vs UEFI paths
11. Detail: filesystem setup
12. Detail: first boot and post-install
13. Detail: updates, dual-boot, removal
14. Detail: troubleshooting

1. Installation at a glance

Get image (build `make all` or download forebo.iso)
  → Verify (El Torito, MBR 55AA, ELF magic, ESP contents)
  → Write media (dd to USB, or attach ISO to VM)
  → Firmware setup (Secure Boot off, AHCI, boot order)
  → Boot live → ForeB menu → "Forest OS"
  → Run `forinstall` (23-step wizard)
  → Remove media → reboot → first boot → login

The installer is destructive by design: cancelling at the final confirmation makes zero changes; confirming formats the target, copies the kernel, initrd, base userspace, /etc skeleton and forebo.cfg, installs ForeB, runs fsck, then reports INSTALL OK. Details: Installer.

2. Requirements

Keep serial logging on (-serial stdio on QEMU) — kernel banners and forinstall errors land there.

3. Quick-Start — fastest path

# 1. Build (canonical) — kernel + userspace + initrd + hybrid ISO
cd forest/fern
./conf.sh --defconfig && ./conf.sh --generate
make all
ls -lh ../foreboots/build/   # forebo.iso (use this) / forebo.img / esp.img

# 2. VM target disk (hardware: skip to dd step below)
qemu-img create -f raw forest-disk.raw 2G

# 3. Boot installer (BIOS example)
qemu-system-x86_64 -machine q35 -cpu qemu64 -m 512 -enable-kvm \
  -drive file=forest-disk.raw,format=raw,index=0,media=disk \
  -cdrom ../foreboots/build/forebo.iso -boot order=dc,menu=on \
  -vga std -serial stdio

# 4. At the shell/login prompt:
forinstall
# Language → target disk (never cd0) → filesystem → users → ForeB → confirm

# 5. First boot from disk (detach ISO, disk first)
qemu-system-x86_64 -machine q35 -cpu qemu64 -m 512 -enable-kvm \
  -drive file=forest-disk.raw,format=raw,index=0,media=disk \
  -boot order=c,menu=on -vga std -serial stdio

uname -a
df -hT

Hardware path: write the same ISO to USB with dd (DD mode in Rufus on Windows — ISO mode breaks the ForeB sector layout), disable Secure Boot, boot the one-time boot menu, then run forinstall. Full walkthroughs: Install on a VM · Install on Real Hardware.

4. Choosing a filesystem

forinstall offers ext4 (journaling, default) and ext2 (no journaling); the manual path and mkfs also handle fat32/vfat (needed for UEFI ESPs). Kernel-side maturity differs — pick by use case:

Rule of thumb: ext4 for installed roots, ext2 for small/simple VM disks, FAT32 only for the EFI System Partition or sticks that must be read by firmware. Details: Filesystems · Disk Tools (fdisk, mkfs, mount, fsck).

5. BIOS vs UEFI paths

Both paths end in the same Multiboot1 handoff (EAX=0x2BADB002). See BIOS Boot, UEFI Boot, and Configuration.

6. Filesystem setup

Guided partitioning (entire disk) is the default; manual mode asks for root/swap/home paths. The equivalent manual commands:

fdisk /dev/hd0            # MBR table: 1 primary bootable partition
mkfs -t ext4 /dev/hd0p1   # or: mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hd0p1 | mkfs -t fat32 /dev/hd0p1
mount /dev/hd0p1 /mnt
df -h                     # keep ~100–200 MiB free after install

Never pick the installer media (cd0) as the target. If the disk is missing, check storage wiring (IDE vs AHCI vs VirtIO) and the matching ENABLE_DRIVER_* build flag.

7. First boot and post-install

1. Remove the install media (QEMU: drop -cdrom, -boot order=c; VirtualBox/VMware: disconnect ISO / put HDD-0 first). On UEFI keep the writable per-VM OVMF_VARS file — it now holds BootOrder.
2. Power on: the ForeB menu should appear from disk. Default entry boots in ~10 s.
3. Log in as the created user (or root), then smoke-test: uname -a, df -hT, ls /bin | head, ip addr (if networking is enabled).
4. Snapshot now (QEMU savevm, VirtualBox/VMware snapshot) before experimenting. Live vs persistent vs full USB installs: USB Persistence.

8. Updates, dual-boot, removal

• Updates: forupdate performs a 10-step offline upgrade from local media with manifest, pre-apply backup, and rollback (root required).
• Dual-boot: install each OS on its own partition/disk and chain via the firmware boot menu or ForeB entries; back up first.
• Remove / uninstall: wipe the Forest partitions and restore the previous bootloader (BIOS MBR or UEFI NVRAM entry).

9. Troubleshooting

Full catalog: Troubleshooting · Testing with QEMU.

See Also

• Install on a VM — QEMU/VirtualBox/VMware walkthrough
• Install on Real Hardware — USB install, firmware setup, post-install
• USB Persistence — live vs persistent vs full USB install
• Installer — forinstall + forupdate reference
• Disk Tools — fdisk, mkfs, mount, fsck
• Filesystems — FAT vs ext2/3/4 vs ISO9660/UDF status
• Boot Menu — entries, keys, themes
• Bootloader Configuration — forebo.cfg reference
• ISO Creation — hybrid ISO / IMG / ESP internals

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