(How to) Install LastOSLinux made easy

Glenn

Glenn

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Printable document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Begz7QesgyMxXYxGMrYQ4DsMgeoUuVR0_CSHklnC63Y/edit?usp=sharing



How to Install LastOSLinux


Things you will need:

  • A x64 Compatible PC/Laptop with 4GB+ of ram and 60GB+ HDD space.
  • A USB stick with 8GB+ or larger (USB 3 if available).

  • Access to BIOS to disable SecureBoot *
* SecureBoot ~ Linux generally doesn’t work well with SecureBoot so this should be disabled in your BIOS before attempting to install Linux or install and Drives while in Linux (It can be re-enabled once it’s installed, but it’s still not recommended). To disable SecureBoot you will need to boot to BIOS when you first turn the PC on, this is achieved by pressing a key on the keyboard, usually Esc, F1 to F12 or the Del key, find SecureBoot and change it to Disabled, many PC’s will ask you to type in 4 numbers to make this change.



Where to get the LastOSLinux ISO:

First visit www.lastos.org/lastoslinux to read about this OS, feel free to click the LastOS icon on the sidebar to go to the forums where you can ask questions or get support, it may even have the answers you need in from other peoples questions.


On the page above in the Download ISO section is a Download Now button. Clicking this will open to a sourceforge link where it is hosted: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lastoslinux/files/ISOs/ if you click the latest dated ISO you will be able to download the very latest public version of LastOSLinux to either burn to DVD or make a bootable USB to install from.



Making a bootable USB:


Before you can make a bootable USB you will need the above ISO and a USB stick or portable device that is 8GB or larger.


* Note: All the data on the USB will be deleted so make sure you have any important files backed up if you need to keep any of them.


From Windows;

If you are using windows the very best option to make a Bootable USB is to use the Rufus tool, you can also use Ventoy if you're more experienced in computers and understand that making a Ventoy USB can boot from any ISO file you copy to it. Watch a youtube video or google how to use Ventoy if you need to use this method.

Rufus Steps;

  1. Download https://rufus.ie/downloads/ latest portable version (rufus-4.7p.exe at the time of creating this document).

  2. Next place the 8GB+ USB into a fast USB slot in your computer (The blue ports or the ones that say SS on them are USB3 and could prepare the USB stick a lot faster than using a standard USB2 port if the USB Stick is also USB3 compatible.

  3. Run rufus-4.7p.exe

  4. In the top drop down combo box click the down arrow on the far right, then select the USB stick you have inserted (check the size matches and the brand/name is the same as shown in “This PC”, to make sure you have selected the correct one. By default it hides internal disks, but any USB can be selected to be erased so be careful).

  5. In the next “Boot selection” press the “SELECT” combo box, browse for the downloaded ISO from above “LastOSLinux_amd64_2025-03-22_Public_Final.iso”. This step may ask to download the syslinux boot files it needs to create a bootable USB, press Yes/Allow when asked.

  6. Change the “Partition scheme” to MBR if it is set to GPT (GPT can work, but MBR is more compatible and will work with more PC’s)

  7. Press Start and follow the warning/info prompts and allow it to complete building the bootable USB.

Follow a video guide to making a Bootable USB:



Follow a video for making a Ventoy Bootable USB: (To do this in Windows you can download the windows version of Ventoy)



Follow a Video Installation Guide:



Booting from the USB stick:

  1. On the PC you want to install first turn it off and plug in the USB stick created above.

  2. Make sure SecureBoot has been disabled in your BIOS (LastOSLinux can not be installed while SecureBoot is enabled).

  3. When you first turn on the PC/Laptop start tapping Esc, F1 to F12 or the Del key to bring up the boot menu. It sometimes has which key to press to change the boot order, some people say just run your finger along all of them but this seems like it could boot the UEFI or BIOS instead of just the boot menu. If you do go into some BIOS’s it also allows you to pick the boot device one time, which can also work. If you still are unable to get it to boot, as a last resort you can change the boot order in BIOS to put the USB first, some older machines may fail to write the HDD boot file to the HDD and would make it unable to boot without the USB inserted (this doesn’t affect newer machines).

  4. When the boot menu shows pick “LastOSLinux LiveOS”, this is the OS you can start to check everything is working properly before you install the OS to your computer, it is also used to start the installer.


LiveOS/Install:


Once the LiveOS starts you should be on the desktop with an Icon “Install LastOSLinux”. Before you start this install, go to the Network/WiFi icon near the clock and log into your network so you have internet. Try adjusting the volume and listen if the sound is working. If you can see, hear and use the internet then you should be right to proceed with the installation.


  1. Double click the “Install LastOSLinux” icon on the desktop, this may take a couple of minutes to begin.

  2. First check the Location is set correctly by clicking the map or manually selecting it from the named places.

  3. Pick the correct Keyboard layout for you, usually it will best guess the keyboard from the location - which is incorrect when using Australia as your Location, we use the US keyboard layout so you will need to change from “English (Australian)” to “English (US)” before you press Next.

  4. Next is the partitioning of the internal HDD’s to where you will be installing the OS, this is custom for each person depending on your needs, explained below *

  5. * User / Owner - would set the Name to the full owners name
* Login Name - usually the first name or first initial and last name or a nickname (all lowercase with no capital letters or spaces or special characters)

* Computer/PC Name is shown on the Network (usually the first name with pc or a number written after it (do not use special characters or spaces)

* Set a password for the user account (you can use a very simple password for home users if you do not have important documents and they are backed up separately off the computer, especially if you have enabled 2FA for any banking or important tasks), I generally set the password to “x” on my installs and let the user change them once they receive their PC back.


Press Next and a summary screen will be shown, confirm you are happy and proceed with the installation.


* To Partition your computer HDD (best practices);


Many people will often just pick Erase and use the whole HDD for their installation, this has the downside of making any future OS installations require you to backup any important settings and documents before you reinstall, it also means you are not able to properly run a “TimeShift” backup without extra work excluding it from being backed up as well. To make things easier I instead make the OS separate to the Home folder (Users Documents and Settings), allowing you to reinstall/restore/recover any Linux OS without having to backup/restore your files - this does not mean you do not have to keep external backups, just that you won’t have to restore from your backups after a clean installed PC.


  1. Pick Manual partitioning

  2. Check the disk it has selected up the top right is the correct disk for your OS

  3. If you are starting with a fresh configuration you are best to remove all partitions from the disk by pressing “New Partition Table”, if you are reinstalling you can just set the mount points from your previous Linux OS and make sure “Format” isn’t selected where you do not wish it to remove files from that partition.

  4. Starting from a fresh Partition Table (or picking existing partitions), Create and set the first partition to be 1.6GB (Change “File System” to “fat32”) then you need to tick the “boot” option from the flags list below it. The last step is you set the mount point to “/boot/efi”, this makes the UEFI work, if your PC is older (no UEFI) then just do NOT set a mount point at all in the boot partition! It is enough to just set the “boot” Flag for it to be used.

  5. Create and set the next partition to be 60GB for a 128GB HDD, or 90GB if 256GB HDD or bigger, the OS will usually never grow to be above 40 or 50GB, but it doesn’t hurt to have a little space for it to do updates/upgrades etc, if you have even bigger disks you can make it 120GB to make it fully future proof. Set “File System” to “ext4” and change the Mount Point to “/” a single forward slash, this is the root of the main OS and if you do nothing else and use all of the HDD space left it will be the same as a “Erase” install not a “Custom” install. Do NOT pick any flags for this partition.

  6. As we want the Home / Users files off the main OS Partition we Create another partition with the remaining space, Change “File System” to “ext4” and set the Mount Point to “/home” (Make sure the Format option isn’t selected unless you want it to erase the user files already on that partition!

Once your OS has successfully installed it will ask if you want to reboot, at this stage you can remove the USB from the PC and LastOSLinux will continue once it first boots to the desktop - everything it needs is pre-copied off the USB during the initial setup.


LastOSLinux is designed to layer on top of the underlying Operating system base, this means it will be able to be upgraded the same as the Vanilla (original) OS, currently only Linux Mint is used for LastOSLinux ISO’s but in the future this will include Nobara, Fedora, BigLinux and others as I find the best methods to do so.


Linux Mint Base: https://linuxmint.com/
Upgrade Help: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrade.html


Run LLStore to install extra Apps and Games or apply tweaks:


Running LLStore from the Desktop/Menu or the USB you are able to pick what you want to install extra to the OS, many of the items included will run on any Linux Distribution, the Windows based ones can be installed through Wine or even in Windows, I made LLStore fully portable and able to be ran on most OS's




TimeShift Backups:


You can use the included Tool named TimeShift to take incremental Images of your running OS to restore from the LiveOS, you can also hold shift as your PC tries to boot and access the Advanced - Recovery environment to restore any of these images back over the top.


Watch Video of TimeShift capture and a restore:

 
Last edited:
Excellent write up!

As I mentioned before, whenever I use Rufus to make the USB, I cannot get it to boot. If I use Balena Etcher (Windows or Linux), it'll give a "missing partition table" error, I hit continue, let it make the USB, and it works just fine. We've talked about this before but for you you don't have any issues, so. I don't know! But I don't know if you want to add Balena instructions also.
 
I'll do up a how to make a bootable USB with Ventoy as I prefer that method myself. Belana and other image writers make the USB read only, meaning you can't copy your LLStore folders to the USB to make you not have to have a 2nd USB inserted with the apps and games on it to save downloading them each install.

 
I couldn't get this to work.

I followed the video but I get the steps of creating partitions fine but no Bootloader menu at bottom (I tried all the usb port of my system and even tried a different flash drive)

If I proceed without that option it does install but when system reboots its stuck on grub screen.
 
You need to pick Manual Partitioning, once you make your drives, do NOT press next, then down the bottom you'll find the Boot Disk to use.
 
On a more practical note, you should always use the boot menu key and not switch the order in the BIOS. If you having troubles it may actually be ventoy because it mounts the ISO it then thinks the original drive is a boot disk (which it is), but as you say, not the right one.

Oh and you don't have to reinstall to fix this, just boot to the Live OS off the USB and pick BootFix from the menu, this allows setting a new boot drive/partition.
 
here are the more common bios boot keys

biosbootkeysasus.png
 
# BIOS / BOOT KEYS FOR (MOST) PC BRANDS
| BRAND | BIOS KEY | BOOT MENU |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| ACER | DEL / F2 | F12 / ESC / F9 |
| APPLE | DEL / F2 / F9 | OPTION KEY |
| ASUS | F2 | F8 / ESC |
| COMPAQ | F10 | ESC / F9 |
| DELL | F2 | F12 |
| HP | F10 | ESC / F9 |
| INTEL | | F10 |
| LENOVO | F1 / F2 | F12 / F8 / F10 |
| NEC | F2 | F5 |
| PACKARD BELL | F1 / DEL | F8 |
| SAMSUNG | F2 | F12 / ESC |
| SONY | F1 / F2 / F3 ASSIST KEY | F10 |
| TOSHIBA | ESC / F1 / F12 | F12 / ESC |
 
Tip: remember your wifi ssid and password

if you use gmail remember your email address and password that allows resyncing of bookmarks etc
 
Glenn said:
You need to pick Manual Partitioning, once you make your drives, do NOT press next, then down the bottom you'll find the Boot Disk to use.
Click to expand...

I did select manual and then created them as the instructions mentioned.

I watched the video as well to make sure copying it step by step the boot loader bit doesn't appear.

System is Hp Elitebook 8470p.


unnamed.jpg
 
Because you only have the one SanDisk drive it probably doesn't offer a choice as you only have 1 option, that means, if you were to double click on the Fat32 Booting that the flag down the bottom called boot should have been ticked.

If it's still not booting it means you have secure boot on in the BIOS and would have to use GPT as the Partition table type, else it will not boot. UEFI can not use MBR, it needs to be GPT, so unless your legacy boot is disabled in BIOS, it should be working ;)
 
Glenn said:
Because you only have the one SanDisk drive it probably doesn't offer a choice as you only have 1 option, that means, if you were to double click on the Fat32 Booting that the flag down the bottom called boot should have been ticked.

If it's still not booting it means you have secure boot on in the BIOS and would have to use GPT as the Partition table type, else it will not boot. UEFI can not use MBR, it needs to be GPT, so unless your legacy boot is disabled in BIOS, it should be working ;)
Click to expand...

I have multi drives sandisk is ssd and have a hdd as well in the drop down plus it shows the usb stick.

Secure boot is disabled and system is in Hybrid mode if I switch to Legacy or UEFI pure cant get it to work either wont boot or freezes on lastos logo.

I tried with hybrid mode (secure boot disabled) on other linux builds mint/cachyos both installed and run fine.
 
I have no advice, I've not had the issue your having so I can't begin to guess why it's happening. The calamares installer is universal and shouldn't be any different to when it's used in other distro's, to me it sounds like you've done everything right.

Your option is - remove all other drives except the one you plan to install to. Write LastOSLinux ISO using Rufus to a USB so it directly boots and doesn't use ventoy or other multi boot methods. If it is still failing then it must be incompatible hardware at the BIOS level. Like I said, I've not had anything close to what you say it's doing for you. I have 6 internal HDD's/SSD's/M.2 drives and 5 USB ones as well as the USB stick I boot from and I managed to get it to install without any issues.

The only way to figure this out would be using an AI chatbot and feed all the information into that as it's got a lot more experience than we would have so could point you into the right direction to fixing it. it may not be worth it as LLStore can be installed into any OS and ALL the tools, tweaks apps and games will install fine from it. so instead of trying to use the simple AIO solution I built on hardware it doesn't want to work with, just bypass the issue and do it with the LLStore. same results, just more steps. Sorry this happened to you, if you have a spare laptop or old PC to play with it on, it may be worth you doing it on that to see what I mean. you can install vanilla mint to get it going and then LLStore.

BTW, mint has recently released a ISO with the HWE for newer PC's:

HWE ISOs - Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system.
www.linuxmint.com www.linuxmint.com

My PC is older, like 2021 old. so it may be relating to the Kernel or new hardware. might be worth a play, I know LastOSLInux uses the 6.17 kernel too, but it was built on top of the older 6.14 release, I might have to attempt to build a new ISO based on the HWE for this issue to be fixed for you. I am just too new at it all to give you solutions and until I come across problems myself, I can not solve them.

Good luck and I hope some of the other stuff helps make your Linux journey interesting.
 
I use ventoy with the iso file copied to the flashdrive
then pressing the bioskey and getting into bios i then select the bootmenu in my case F8 this alllows selection of which drive to boot from
after booting the flashdrive it goes through the normal process
after installing it boots up the installed os
 
PaulC said:
I use ventoy with the iso file copied to the flashdrive
then pressing the bioskey and getting into bios i then select the bootmenu in my case F8 this alllows selection of which drive to boot from
after booting the flashdrive it goes through the normal process
after installing it boots up the installed os
Click to expand...
That's the problem, his isn't doing what everyone else's does. If there was some sort of output to break down why it's failing to boot then it would make more sense.

I really thought if he booted to the Live USB again and used bootfix it would fix it, but it's seemingly not helped either? that might have more output we can trace why it fails?
 
First thing, do a backup of important data and maybe do an image of your PC with TeraByte image or any cloning/backup software you like!


If you can, best to have a separate drive that is easy to identify.

Install windows first!

You boot from the USB - the Live Linux, then pick install from icon on the desktop.
When you get to the partitioning screen you pick manual install, make a 600mb fast32 partition on the new disk and set the mount point to /boot/efi and make it bootable, then make a 100GB ext4 partition and set the mount point to /, finally make the remaining space ext4 and set the mount point to /home. pressing next and it should work. if not then you can boot back to the Linux from USB and use boot repair, this will scan for all OS's and make the boot menu grub and work.

If you only have one drive, you resize the partition (I use Partition Wizard as it's never let me down (like other have corrupted data). once the disk is resized you can then boot the Linux USB and pick install alongside, this will find the free space and do all the rest of the work it needs to itself, the problem may be that windows defaulted the efi partition to 100mb, so it may or may not figure it out for you, a fresh win 11 install makes it 600mb or more, to fit the rescue PE on it too, so it's not as simple as you would want.


If you are starting fresh, do the following partition layout (I use Partition Wizard or gparted to pre partition before windows)

150MB EFI Fat32 (this space allows you do delete it later and have windows create it's efi, or linux create it's own (I think 8mb or was it 50mb) EFI partition, anyway, it gives you options ;)
1.5GB Fat32, set to bootable,
100GB for Windows NTFS
100GB for Linux Ext4

Then split the home and data drives however you'd like.

Install windows and set the Data disk (using my settings tool)

Then install linux and you'll need to set the /boot/efi / and /home manually.


There is so many options and once you learn you'll know what your doing more, that is why the image and backups are most important until you do.


Once you have linux installed, I recommend picking Time Shift from the menu or system tray and do a backup of your linux, this allows you to restore it from the Live Linux any time in the future.
 
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