===== Sparky Advanced Installer =====

The Advanced Installer was forked from the Remastersys Installer a few years ago, to provide a lightweight system installer.

The Advanced Installer is preinstalled as default, alongside the default [[calamares|Calamares]] installer, and provides:

**1**. A backup installer to the main one;

**2**. A lightweight installer to older machines, which can't run main installer;

**3**. Additional functionality which let you install one of many desktops of your choice ([[minimal|MinimalISO]] only);

====Two Install Modes====

1. **Graphical Mode**, the Yad based - runs from system's menu-> System-> Sparky (Advanced) Installer

or via the command line:

   sudo sparky-installer gui
or
   sudo sparkylinux-installer gui

2. **Text Mode**, the Dialog based, runs via the command:

   sudo sparky-installer
or
   sudo sparkylinux-installer

====The Advanced Installer====

1.The first Advanced Installer window asks for confirmation of your decision - install yes or no.

{{:minimal1.png?200|The first GUI window}}

(text mode):

{{:minimal1a.png?200|The first Dialog window}}

2. The live system is installed with en_US locales as default. To change it, choose ***Yes***.

{{:minimal2.png?200|Choose your locale}}

3. Now, you need to choose a disk (hard or flash) to install the system too.

{{:minimal3.png?200|Choose a disk}}

{{:minimal4.png?200|Choose a disk}}

4. After choosing a disk, you can divide/split existing partitions. You need at least:

- one **root** partition for system files (10-20 GB about)

- one **swap** partition (500MB - 1GB about)

{{:minimal5.png?200|GParted}}

- one **efi** partition (100-300MB about) (UEFI machines only)

{{:minimal5a.png?200|GParted}}

You can select an optional **home** partition for your personal files.

**Important !**

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If you would like to set a home directory (the next step) on separated, shared partition, **DO NOT** use the same **user name** as used in anther Linux distribution you might be sharing the home directory with. If you deleted other Linux distribution before and there still exist your old home directory - **DO NOT** use the same user name as you had before.

The new user name **has to be different than before** so the home directory will get different name, and that will avoid problems after the first boot.
</WRAP>

If you are not sure about the partitioning process, read the [[partitioning|Disk Partitioning Guide]]. 

5. After disk partitioning is finished, choose the partition for ***efi.image*** to be installed into (EFI machines only). If the partition already exists on your machine (other operating system/systems already installed), don't format it, just use it.

{{:minimal6a.png?200|Choose EFI partition}} 

6. Choose the **swap** partition.

{{:minimal6.png?200|Choose SWAP partition}}

7. Choose the **root** partition.

{{:minimal7.png?200|Choose root partition}}

Then choose other partitions if any (home, boot, proc, media, etc.)

8. Choose a file system to be used to the **root** partition (ext4 preferred).

{{:minimal8.png?200|File system of root partition}}

9. Choose your **home** partition if you're using a one. If not, the home directory will be installed inside the **root** partition.

{{:minimal9.png?200|Choose home partition}}

10. Enter information about your account and the machine:

  * root (admin) password (twice)
  * your full name
  * your nick name - use small letters and numbers only (no special characters, no white spaces)
  * your password - you can use small, block letters, numbers and special characters (no white spaces) (twice)
  * host name - a name of your machine - use small letters and numbers only (no special characters, no white spaces)

{{:minimal10.png?200|Personal settings}}

11. Choose a place to install the GRUB bootloader to:

  * Master Boot Record (MBR) - it's a main record displayed as '/dev/sda' or '/dev/sdb', if you have more than one hard disk - recommended to install GRUB to
  * root partition - it's a partition where you will install Sparky file system to
  * rootmbr - if you installing Sparky onto an USB disk
  * no grub - do not install GRUB at all - for advanced users

{{:minimal11.png?200|GRUB installation}}

12. Set your time zone.

{{:minimal12.png?200|Time zone}}

{{:minimal13.png?200|Time zone}}

13. Verify your settings and let the installer copy the system files to your drive.

{{:minimal14.png?200|Verification}}

{{:minimal15.png?200|Coping files}}

====Choose A Desktop Environment and/or Window Manager====

Running the Advanced installer on Sparky MinimalGUI or MinimalCLI iso image, you can choose a desktop environment/window manager to be installed. If you choose a desktop other than the drfault, the installer will use the latest versions of Sparky's desktop related packages - active internet connection required! 

{{:minimal16.png?200|Desktop's option}}

{{:minimal17.png?200|Choose a desktop}}

You can also choose a web browser to be installed too.

{{:minimal18.png?200|Choose a web browser}}

The installer asks for confermation - type: **y**

{{:minimal19.png?200|New desktop installation}}

After finishing all the operations, turn off your machine, remove the live media and enjoy SparkyLinux.

{{:minimal20.png?200|Installation finished}}

<WRAP center box 75%>
|[[install|<--- System Installation]]  |  [[start|^ Wiki Start Page ^]]  |
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