TurnKey Linux Virtual Appliance Library


TuxSax's picture


Here's a dumb question, perhaps this has already been answered, but I'm in a hurry so if you can help me answering it or rather pointing me to the already existing answers I'll be more than gratefull

I downloaded the JEOS iso and booted a virtual machine with it, now I are at the command prompt asking myself how could I make this minimal system be permanently installed on the hardisk and I frankly don't know where to start at.

Do any of you have an idea of how can I make this live system permanently installed on the disk?
Is there a how to somewhere?


Jeremy's picture

Sorry scratch that...! :(

When booting from ISO you need to select 'Install to Hard Disk' (or words to that effect - ie hit the down button) on the boot splash screen. Otherwise it will boot to a live system (like it sounds you are now...).

I just downloaded it to test it out and realised that the option isn't to install, it's to boot from hard drive - as you no doubt already realised... Sorry about that, I'll have a bit of a play and see...

Jeremy's picture

Just been having a play...

And IMO I think you'd be better off installing Core and stripping what you want out. Or just do a normal minimal Debian server install.

I'm certainly no Debian guru or anything but the only way I can see to do it would be to muck around installing a heap of packages and you'd end up with something that it basically a minimal Debian Server install anyway... Someone with more knowledge than me, please feel free to tell me I'm wrong...

Drew Ruggles's picture

Or go live USB?

I'm pretty sure I used something like Unetbootin to create a live USB of a TKL machine iso (LAMP in my server, but it should work with all the TKL instances). From there, just follow the instructions.

TuxSax's picture

Isn't it the same?

Live USB? Isn't it the same than booting from ISO?

It will give me a live system, and what I want is a hardisk install

Two things I love: Linux and my sax

Drew Ruggles's picture

Install to HD via Live USB

Use Unetbootin (or other favorite tool) to create your Live USB, plug it in, reboot to the Live USB, follow the instructions on how to install to the hard drive. Reboot, remove Live USB, and now you're running from the newly installed server OS. That's how I did my bare metal install of the LAMP appliance.

Jeremy's picture

JEOS doesn't include an installer

So whilst your advice applies to all the other appliances, the JEOS image is only available as a Live ISO (which doesn't include the option to install).

Drew Ruggles's picture


Hmmm.... I didn't realize you couldn't do that with the JEOS image. Unless the Tuxster is doing a Raspberry Pi install, I don't get it. Just start with Core and forgettaboutit...

Jeremy's picture

Yes UNetBootin will give you Live system

However IIRC it does allow for the creation of a 'persistent' file (like a virtual FS that mounts on boot) which could theoretically acheive the same ends (although not strictly speaking an 'installation').

Only thing is though I'm not sure it that'll work with the new Debian based appliances as I think it relies on Casper (which AFAIK is Ubuntu specific).

Couple of other thoughts:

Going back to my idea of rebuilding from scratch, you could collect a list of all the installed packages in the JEOS (like this) and either from a vanilla Debian install or Core, whittle it back down.

Another thought (which I'm not sure whether it would work or not...) is to use some sort of tool like RemasterSys (which AFAIK is now defunct, but Debian has packages that acheive the same ends) to create a new ISO based on the Live JEOS (which would hopefully be installable... although not sure...). I know that somewhere here on the forums, someone has posted how to 'remaster' an installation which may be worth a try, but be blowed if I can find it ATM...

TuxSax's picture

I could try to do something

I could try to do something similar to what I did long time ago when I've installed a stage 3 gentoo.

I think I can partition the hardisk, mount it to a temporary mountpoint, copy the contents of the live system, fire it up using debootsrap and preparing everything to be permanent and bootable

I'll try to find some time to experiment with it and report back

Two things I love: Linux and my sax

Alon Swartz's picture

You can use the installer, you just need to install it first

Sorry for the very late reply. I took a needed vacation after the TurnKey 12.0 release and enjoyed meatspace with little to no internet access traveling around Switzerland with the family.

Anyway, to the issue at hand, TurnKey Bootstrap (aka. JEOS) doesn't include any TurnKey developed components - such as the di-live installer. But you can install it in the live system and use it to install the system to the harddisk.

The process goes like this:

apt-get update
apt-get install di-live
di-live # in the partitioner, select 'use entire disk' as there is no LVM support

Note that the root account has a blank password, so just hit enter to log in, then change the password immediately.

That said, I still recommend using TurnKey Core instead of Bootstrap, and remove what it not required. TurnKey Bootstrap is more of a proof-of-concept and not designed for production out of the box.

Jeremy's picture

Awesome thanks Alon

Not that i have any use for it right now (I'd be inclined to use Core) but handy to know! :)

& Switzerland!? Nice! Hope you and yours enjoyed! :)

TuxSax's picture


Hi Alon,

I hope you had a great time in your vacacions.
I was interested in the bootstrap version exactly because of the fact it's only a proof of concept.

I did something similar with CentOS, a very slim installation that has only the barebones.
I used anaconda kickstart customized settings to strip down most of the stuff.
This brought me to a fully functional base where I can install just the minimal components and get a nice VM running on as low as 833Mhz CPU, 64MB RAM (50% free on idle) and this little system runs a MySQL server, and a couple more. This was something I did specifically for a certain project where I was forced to use CentOS as it's the only distribution that was supported by the remote agent I had to install.
But I love Ubuntu better, so I was thinking to do something similar when I have time.
But now that I've found someone else already did something similar, I preferred to use it and save myself some time and get a nice minimal base to start from.

Thanks for your help!

Two things I love: Linux and my sax

JERasmussen's picture

How did it work out?

Hi Ziv,


If you don't mind, please share your experiences with this project.  I'm doing what amounts to the same thing and I would appreciate any feedback you could give. 



James Rasmussen

TuxSax's picture

Feedback about what?

Hi JERasmussen,
I didn't understand what project experiences do you want me to share with you, the CentOS one I did or the JEOS?
I didn't have time to keep messing around with the JEOS anymore, and the CentOS is something I did a year ago and it's still working fine.
I have a VM image I can clone machines out of it and use when needed.
But I'd still like to know how is it possible to make a disk installation of JEOS, I just lack the time to play around with it now...

Two things I love: Linux and my sax

JERasmussen's picture

About jeOS



Mainly wanted to know what your process was to manage/export jeOS based VM's, but it sounds like you've moved on.

No worries, thanks for the quick reply!

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