Getting started with PaganOS

Hello! If you are reading this page, you probably want to try PaganOS. Great — below is everything you need to get started. No filler, just the important details.

Getting the system

You can find the ISO on the project homepage, under Downloads. The official image is built for the x86_64 architecture.

After downloading it, write the image to a USB drive. You can use Ventoy, balenaEtcher, Rufus or the standard dd command:

sudo dd if=paganos-<version>.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

Be careful with /dev/sdX — it must point to the USB drive, not a disk containing your data. Check the device twice before running the command. dd permanently overwrites the selected device.

You can inspect the available devices before writing the image:

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN,MOUNTPOINTS

After writing the image, flush pending data:

sync

Try the live system first

PaganOS can be started in live mode without installing it or modifying the internal disk. This is a good way to test:

network hardware and internet access,
sound,
keyboard and layout,
graphics and Xorg,
the XFCE desktop.

In live mode, the system runs from the ISO image and system memory. Changes made during the live session are not intended to be permanently stored on the internal disk.

The minimum memory requirement for the live session is 2 GB RAM. 4 GB or more is recommended for comfortable use.

Installation

After starting the live system, open Calamares from the desktop icon or run:

calamares

Follow the installation steps:

choose the language and keyboard layout,
set the time zone,
select the disk and partitioning method,
create a user and password,
review the summary,
start the installation.

GPT, UEFI and BIOS

GPT is the default and recommended partition table. When using the automatic Erase disk option, Calamares creates a GPT partition table.

In UEFI mode, the installer automatically creates a FAT32 EFI System Partition and mounts it at /boot/efi.
In BIOS + GPT mode, manually create an unformatted bios_grub partition of at least 8 MiB and enable the BiosGrub flag.
A bios_grub partition is not needed on a UEFI system.

After the installation finishes, reboot the computer and remove the USB drive, or select the installed system from the boot menu.

Updating the system and installing the first packages

After the first boot, refresh the repository indexes and update the system:

sudo pag sync
sudo pag update
sudo pag upgrade

pag is the PaganOS package manager. It supports package installation, updates and removal, dependency resolution, GPG signatures, SHA256 checksums and transaction rollback.

For example, install a package with:

sudo pag install nano

List available packages with:

pag list

What next?

The best way to learn is to use the system. If you need help, check the documentation. Missing packages and bugs can be reported in the project repository.

The source code, recipes and build tools are available at git.paganlinux.eu, so you can also inspect how the individual parts of PaganOS are built.