How to install SolydXK Linux

SolydXK is a Debian-based Linux operating system. It sticks very close to the Debian philosophy: open source and stability. In addition, it boasts that it has excellent security features, and offers users unique, customized XFCE and KDE Plasma 5 desktop environments.

Getting SolydXK working is similar to installing Debian. To get it working on your Linux PC, you’ll need a few things.

1. You will need a computer with at least 2 GB of RAM and a decent sized hard drive.
2. You will need a reasonably large USB flash drive (2GB or larger). A blank DVD also works.

Gather the 2 items on the list and get ready to learn how to install SolydXK Linux!

Download SolydXK

To download a copy of SolydXK, you need to go to the official website. Once you’re there, look for the “Downloads” button at the upper right-hand portion of the page and click on it with the mouse.

On SolydXK’s download page, you’ll see a list of different editions to download. As of now, there’s SolydX 64-bit and SolydK 64-bit, as well as Community Editions. Look through and click on the link to the edition that matches the use-case you are going for on your Linux PC.

Note: X is the XFCE edition, and K is the KDE Plasma edition.

After selecting the SolydXK release, you’ll be taken to a new page with download links. There are a few download links available, including mirrors and Torrents.

For best results, download with Torrent. It’s fastest, and it saves the SolydXK people money, as the BitTorrent protocol doesn’t cost precious bandwidth.

When the SolydXK ISO file is done downloading on your Linux PC, move on to the next step of the installation process.

Make bootable USB installer

Installing SolydXK on a computer means creating a bootable USB installer. There are many different ways to accomplish this, considering USB installers are common when it comes to Linux.

In this guide, we will focus on creating a bootable USB installer with the Etcher application mainly because the app works on Mac, Linux, and Windows and has an identical user-interface. So, even if you only have a Mac or Windows computer available, you can still make the SolydXK USB disk the same as you would on Linux.

To start the USB creation process for SolydXK, head over to the official Etcher website. Then, on the SolydXK website, click on the download button to grab the tool for the platform you are making the bootable USB on.

With the Etcher application done downloading, open up the app on your PC, plug in the USB flash drive in, and click on the blue “Select image” button.

Upon clicking the “Select image” button, Etcher will bring up a file browser window. Use this window to find your SolydXK ISO file and load it into the app.

After loading in the ISO file to Etcher, it should automatically detect your USB flash drive. To start the process, click “Flash!”

Flashing SolydXK to a USB drive may take a long time, depending on your Computer’s hardware. When the process is done, reboot and configure your BIOS to boot from USB.

Install SolydXK

As you boot up the SolydX or SolydK live USB, you’ll be presented with a desktop. On this desktop, there’s only one shortcut icon. This icon is labeled “Install” and has the blue XK logo. To start the installation, double-click on the icon with the mouse to open up the distribution installer app.

The first page you’ll see in the installer is the Language one. On here, you’ll be presented with several different language choices. Go through the list and choose your native language. Then, click “Forward” to continue to the next page.

Following Language is Timezone. On this page, click on your location on the map to set the time. When the timezone is set, click “Forward” to continue.

After you’ve set your Timezone, you must set your keyboard layout. Usually, the installation tool will detect it automatically. If it doesn’t, look through the list to select your preferred keyboard layout. When done, click “Forward” to move on.

With the keyboard set up out of the way, it’s time to set up a user account. Using SolydXK’s user page, fill out your full name, desired username, password and hostname. You can also check the “log in automatically on system boot” box if you want your system to auto log in. Once your user info is filled out, click “Forward” to move to the partitioner page.

In the SolydXK partitioner, select the “Edit partitions” button. From there, do the following:

• Right-click on the /dev/sda1 partition in Gparted and select “unmount.” If you have multiple partitions, be sure to do this with each of the ones on the list.

• Click the “Device” menu item, followed by “Create partition table.” Set the table to “msdos” if you use BIOS. Set it to “gpt” if you use UEFI.
• Right-click on the unallocated gray space in Gparted and select “New”. Then, create the following partitions.
  • Create a 512MB Fat32 partition with the label of “boot” if you plan to use UEFI. BIOS users should skip this one.
  • Create a small partition 4096 MB in size. Set it to “linux-swap” for the filesystem, and label it “swap”.
  • Create an Ext4 partition using the remaining space on your hard drive and label it “root”.
• Click the checkmark icon to apply the new partitions in Gparted.
• After applying changes, right-click on the Swap partition and select the “Swapon” option in the menu to activate Swap.

Now that your partitions are configured in Gparted, close it and return to the SolydXK installation tool. Select the “Refresh” button to load up your newly created partitions.

Using the partition window, find Root and check the box next to it (in the Grub column) to tell the installer to set up Grub on this partition. If you are using UEFI, check the Grub box on the Fat32 partition instead.

Once the Grub box is checked for the installer, right-click on the “root” partition and select  “Assign to /” to set it up as the system partition. With all of the partitioning taken care of, click “Forward” to move to the next page.

Note: If you are using UEFI, you must also right-click on the “boot” partition and select “Assign to /boot/efi.”

On the page after the partitioning setup, SolydXK will present you with a list of actions it’s about to perform. Read through the list on the screen to understand what the installer will do. When you’re done reading the brief, click “Apply” to initiate the installer.

When the SolydXK installer is done, a message pops up that says “Installation is now complete. Do you want to restart your computer to use the new system?” Click “Yes” to reboot. Upon logging back in, your SolydXK PC will be ready to use!