1. REQUIREMENTS

Slint can be installed on a machine meeting following requirements.

Architecture: x86_64 only

Available space on the drive where Slint will be installed:
1) in Manual installation mode: at least 20G for the system itself, not
including user data
2) in Auto mode: at least 28G.

Memory (RAM) size: at least 2G.

2. FEATURES

All features described here are available using slint64-14.2.1.4.iso
vailable at time of writing in these directories:
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/iso/
https://packages.azlux.fr/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/iso/

The Slint installer provides new features in the 'guided' mode, enabled typing
'auto' when proposed at the beginning of installation.

All existing features are preserved when typing 'setup' or 'pxesetup' instead
of 'auto'.

The installer remains fully accessible with Braille and speech, but in addition
should be more "beginner friendly": in the the 'guided' mode users do not have
to type Linux commands, instead they just answer questions. According to their
answers the installer prepares the drive where Slint will be installed, installs
the packages and configure the system as required.

We will now describe the installation in 'guided' mode.

The installer first lists the drives on which Slint can be installed, if several
lets the user choose which one to use.

The if possible the installer lets the user choose among several possibilities:
_ dedicate the drive to Slint.
_ use the free space at end of the drive to install Slint (allowed for a drive
  with a GPT having booted in EFI mode)
_ shrink the last partition of the drive to make room from Slint (allowed for a
  drive with a GPT having booted in EFI mode)

The restriction in the latter cases are to make sure that exiting OS will still
boot after having installed Slint.

The installer can shrink the last partition of a drive if it has a file system
of type ext, commonly used for Linux partitions. In case of a partition of type
ntfs used by Windows, the user need to  shrink it from Windows before installing
Slint. Instructions to do so are provided in the document FreeSpace.

When the last partition of the drive has been shrunk the user can still choose
between dedicating the drive to Slint and installing Slint in the freed space.

If the drive is not dedicated to Slint all data previously stored in it are
preserved, including existing OS. This allows to set up a multi-boot
installation and also to install Slint on a drive previously used only for data
storage.

If the drive is dedicated to Slint and is connected through USB the user can
choose to make it portable, allowing to use it on any computer able to boot off
an USB attached drive.

If the drive is dedicated to Slint the installer can optionally encrypt this
drive. Then the GRUB  boot loader asks the passphrase registered during
installation before displaying the boot menu. The Slint system partition is
encrypted and also the optional additional partition. This is a protection
against the theft of data in case of loss or theft of the drive or computer.

According to the size of the available space on the drive the user can choose
the size of the main Slint partition, and if it remains enough free space
allocate part or all of it to an additional partition of which the user also
chooses the size.

In case of installation on an eMMC drive or a SD card, f2fs file systems that
fits these kinds of devices will be used to format the partitions.

When all done, a summary of these choices is presented to the user who can
accept or change them before the installers put them into effect.

If available a wired internet connection is used, else if possible a wired one
is set up, the user indicating which network to use and the associated
passphrase or password. This allows to install directly from mirrors of
Slackware and Slint packages more recent than the ones found on the ISO, case
occurring.

If available, the Internet connection is also used to propose the timezone
associated the machine's location according to its network address.

When preparing the drive the installer creates a swap file on the system
partition instead of a swap partition. It also installs a script that will
create a swap space on zram at each boot, with a higher priority than the swap
file. This minimizes the writes on disk, thus the wear out of flash drives, and
also increases the usable RAM size multiplying it by around 1.75 by default.

At end of installation, users tell if they will use a braille devices on Slint.
If speech was used during installation it will also be available on Slint.

The user chooses to start Slint in console or graphical mode. This can be
changed after installation, as well as the desktop used in graphical mode, Mate
by default.

The user is also proposed to make of an USB flash drive a rescue boot stick.

The GRUB boot manager is used in all contexts (BIOS or Legacy as well as EFI)
and a "generic" kernel associated to an initrd installed.

The GRUB boot menu always include a "rescue" boot entry to detect and boot
almost any installed operating system.

When installation is finished and before rebooting the user can display a
preview of the GRUB boot menu that will be displayed at next boot.

Last updated: 13 April 2021