After the download of its ISO image the Live System of Starbuntu (64 bit) which was built by means of Systemback can be burnt on a DVD or written on a USB memory stick and then can be booted from there (user name: benutzer; password: starbuntu). In this way you can test the Ubuntu distribution Starbuntu without modifying the contents of the internal hard disk, and possibly install it on a storage medium.

In case you want to test the Starbuntu Live System more intensely you could store it on the internal hard disk and make it bootable by inserting a GRUB menu entry into the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom. The entry could have the following text:

menuentry "Starbuntu Live System" {

set root=(hd0,N)   # N = Partition number; see below: boot process gets stuck: items 2 and 6

set isofile="/Starbuntu-xx-04-y-z-amd64.iso"   # e.g. /Starbuntu-24-04-1-12-amd64.iso

loopback loop $isofile

linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live fromiso=/dev/sdaN/Starbuntu-xx-04-y-z-amd64.iso live-media-path=/live quiet splash --

initrd (loop)/live/initrd.gz

}   # End of the menu entry

Subsequently you have to execute the terminal command sudo update-grub. From now on the menu item "Starbuntu Live System" appears in the GRUB Boot Table which you can select and boot.

Installation instruction:

1. The partition intended for the installation should have a size of at least 32 GB.

2. After having inserted the DVD resp. the USB memory stick or chosen the grub entry 'Starbuntu Live System' and booted the computer from there, either in the initial menu or on the live system desktop you choose the item "System install" resp. "Starbuntu Installation".

3. A window pops up in which you insert the user name, the user's login name, the user password and the root password, every password twice. The advice that Ubuntu doesn't recommend to set a root password becomes less important thinking of the case when you, logged in as a user without the possibility of gaining root privileges (user who doesn't belong to the sudo group), want nevertheless to eventually execute system commands. Then you still set the hostname and click on "Next".

4. In the next window all internal and external storage media are displayed including their partitions. Here you define the medium and partition to use for the installation. In case you first want to delete some partition you mark it and then you click on "!Delete!". In case the storage medium designated for the installation doesn't have any partitions you have to create one by marking the place of it and then clicking on the green arrow on the right. Then you mark the partition desired for the installation, set the Mount point on the right, usually '/', and confirm it by clicking in this box and pressing Return. You can gracefully accept the default settings of "Filesystem" and "Format".

5. In the lower part of the form you choose either an automatic or a manually defined setting of the boot loader. If you choose the manual setting you will usually set that storage medium on which you want to have the installation. Doing this you have two possibilities: usually the boot menu shall be written into the Master Boot Record which is located at the beginning of the storage medium, that means before any of its partitions. In this case you choose for the regarding medium the "head alternative", that means for instancee /dev/sda. Only in case after the installation there are several file systems on the medium, you might instead choose the boot sector of the partition desired for the installation, that means for instance /dev/sda2. In this case, however, you ought to write a GRUB2 selection table for the regarding partitions into the Master Boot Record. A detailed instruction for doing that is provided here.

6. Above the boot loader section you find a small check box which you tick if you want to include not only the configuration of the user "benutzer" but also his files into the installation. This is naturally the case installing Starbuntu.

7. Finally you should have a last thorough look on the defined settings, because after once havíng clicked on "Next" a further window pops up having indeed a "Back" button, but sadly not offering, as usual, any final compilation of the defined settings. After clicking "Start" the installation will hopefully be executed without problems until the end.

During the boot process of your freshly installed system a language selection box appears with the alternatives English, German or Italian. Please select your preferred language. After the system has changed to the selected language the desktop screen appears.

In case the boot process of the freshly installed file systems should get stuck please act as follows:

1. Once more, boot the Starbuntu Live System.

2. Launch the terminal, type the command lsblk -o KNAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,UUID and note for your freshly installed file system the output of KNAME and UUID.

3. Reboot your computer.

4. As soon as the GRUB selection table appears press the key 'c'.

5. The GRUB prompt appears and waits for manually typed commands which have to be confirmed with Return. Please be aware that in this moment of the boot process your keyboard is still English and thus some keys don't match their labels:

6. Type set root=(hdm,n). Here m is equal 0 if the third letter of the output of KNAME is 'a', otherwise equal to the number of the external storage medium, so mostly 1, and n is equal to the final digit of the output of KNAME.

7. The next command is linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=<noted UUID> ro .

8. Now type initrd /initrd.img .

9. Finally start the boot process by typing boot .

Good luck!

Update Starbuntu:

After having installed Starbuntu successfully you should update the distribution from time to time. This is the case when the installed Starbuntu version (see /etc/lsb-release: DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Starbuntu <installed version> LTS") doesn't match any longer with the newest one (see www.die-starfingers.de/Starbuntu). In this case you download the newest version as Debian package and then you install this package e.g. by means of gdebi.

If you use the Starbuntu program upgrade which reminds you every 8 days of a new system upgrade this checkup is executed automatically and Starbuntu gets updated on request.