FAQ
TeLOS | Linux rethought
(v. K0521)
Live usb user : ion
Live user password : ion
I. GENERAL
1. What is this?
This is an .iso file, this means a disk image file. You can use it to try or install the OS (Operating System) on your PC.
2. What OS does this .iso contain?
The file contains TeLOS Linux. TeLOS is a Linux distribution, a derivative of Debian, based on Debian's bullseye/sid branch. bullseye/sid is the testing branch of Debian. That means that this OS runs on the cutting edge of current Linux development. This is the version for amd64 (AMD64 or Intel 64 bit) PC architecture. TeLOS Linux currently supports only this specific architecture.
3. What about Desktop Environment?
TeLOS uses a carefully configured and customized minimal KDE Plasma Desktop environment, the latest version of Plasma available in Debian's testing branch.
4. What can I use this for?
You can use it for anything you normally use your PC for, be it work, education, fun (including gaming!), development, you name it..
5. Is TeLOS free?
TeLOS is free open source software (FOSS). Some applications contained use their own proprietary licences.
6. Is it safe?
It is safe and designed to be safe following the latest Linux standards. If you find any issue, please let us and the Community know.
7. Is this stable?
It is stable at the time of release. Nevertheless, since it is based on the "testing" branch of Debian, there is always a small chance that things might break. Please judge for yourself, backup your critical data and always keep your system updated.
8. Any preinstalled applications - bloatware?
We have pre-installed a reasonable set of applications to get you going on your desktop in minutes without the need of much tweaking. We really want to make it as easy as possible for new Linux users to start using their favorite apps right after their first log in. Nevertheless, most apps can be easily unistalled if they don't fit your needs or use case scenario. System services you don't need can be easily stopped or deactivated using Graphical User Interface in settings. Naturally you can install any Linux software you wish, it's your system! Flatpaks are supported out of the box. No bloatware is included here - no OS ads - no nasty tricks. TeLOS is designed to be a system open to easy change and modification according to your needs and wishes.
9. What applications are included?
We try to keep a healthy balance between free, open source software and popular applications with proprietary non-free licences.
World's most popular browser, Google Chrome, superpowered with features under development, is a focal point of TeLOS.
A pleasant to the eye and lighweight office suite, Calligra is present. The word processor app of Calligra is included by default.
Teamviewer is here for easy remote access to or from your other devices.
TeLOStore, our AppStore application to easily and safely install flatpak apps, feels at home in TeLOS.
Steam platform for gaming can be easily installed using TeLOStore. You may find that the inclusion of several vendor - made drivers in TeLOS benefits your gaming experience.
Several other popular Linux applications are pre-installed so that you can start working, studying or having fun straight out of the box, literally in minutes.
>>> Not everybody needs or likes everything. This is a free world and TeLOS, being Linux, is not a walled or fenced ecosystem. Therefore, you can easily change settings, install or unistall applications, drivers and services.
10. What are the technical system requirements?
To be able to actually make good use of this Operating System on your hardware, we suggest a minimum of 2GB RAM, 10GB of free disk (or memory card or usb) space and at least a 1GHz Pentium or Core processor or a modern Celeron processor, or the equivalents. Internet access is suggested for use, but is not necessary for installation. TeLOS will propably work with lower specs too.
11. Does TeLOS Linux use its own package repositories?
For maximum security, optimal compatibility and ease of use TeLOS uses only official Debian repositories, flatpaks or official repositories from proprietary applications. Debian Linux is a truly Universal Operating System. Therefore, by using TeLOS you will never find yourself trapped in a ecosystem and an unfamiliar ecosystem and will never regret choosing an OS that their developers failed to support properly in the long term.
12. I am not familiar with Linux. Is TeLOS suitable for me?
Absolutely! TeLOS is suitable for everybody : experienced users, new Linux users familiar with Microsoft Windows and even new PC users. No command line tools are necessary for everyday use of TeLOS and the self-intuitive GUI makes this OS suitable for everybody. There is no more learning curve here than in any other mainstream Operating System.
13. Can I use TeLOS in my language?
TeLOS currently supports 50 different languages from all over the World and you can easily choose the one that suits you during the installation process or in the Settings. Live system (.iso) uses English by default. Fcitx5 is preinstalled to support Chinese, Japanese and Korean input methods.
14. Does TeLOS offer different "flavors", like a version with more applications, a "lighter" version or one using a different Desktop Environment etc.?
TeLOS currently offers one and only flavor. You can easily "cook" your own recipe using TeLOS as the basic ingredient.
Hint : try the command "eggs mom" to discover system reproducibility features (more on this feature ---> https://penguins-eggs.net)
In the future we might consider offering different versions of TeLOS according to popular demand.
15. What about drivers? I hear Linux does not play well with my graphics / sound card / WiFi / printer / scanner/ touchscreen / touchpad / thunderbolt etc?
TeLOS tries to be as compatible as possible with all sorts of proprietary hardware and you may be surprised to find out it actually works! Using Debian testing branch repositories allows TeLOS to benefit from recent software that supports modern hardware. Please let us know about any possible incompatibilities to improve future releases or suggest fixes.
II. INSTALLATION - GENERAL GUIDELINES
16. What do I need to try or install TeLOS on my PC?
OK, now things start to look serious..
Here is the list:
- internet access to download the .iso, a medium (usb flash drive, memory card, external hdd or ssd at least 4GB in size) to write it on and a spare port to attach the medium to your PC, a little love for adventure and 10-20 minutes of your time.
- Download the .iso file. Depending on your choice of TeLOS .iso and latest release this file can be 1.3 - 3.0 GB in size. Recent releases are approximately 2 GB small.
- Write the .iso file on a usb, memory card or external disk.
- All data on the medium you choose will be erased! Backup any data you want to keep before writing on the medium.
- usb 3.0 (or later) flash drives/ports are preferrable, high speed memory cards (UHS) are preferrable, using SSD hard disks in place of the spinning ones is (as always) advisable
- some usb docks/hubs/extension cords may interfere in a negative way in the installation procedure
17. How do I write the .iso to the usb?
- do not manually extract the file, do not manually copy-paste it to the medium unless you really know what you are doing
- on Windows: use rufus application (https://rufus.ie) to burn the image on the medium. Default rufus settings (MBR - FAT32) as automatically detected will be OK. Prefer GPT partitioning choice for the usb, if you plan to install TeLOS in UEFI mode. Choose the .iso mode if asked by rufus, not the .dd one.
- on Linux: GNOME Disks has been tested to work to properly write the .iso on a usb
- wait until the writing procedure completely finishes and exits, or you might break your usb flash drive
- experienced users can alternatively write the .iso on the medium with several other command line and some other GUI apps
18. How do I boot from usb?
TeLOS Linux's core is officially digitally signed and will probably work with Secure Boot UEFI setting turned on. Nevertheless, because of the variety of available hardware configurations, you may find that you need to turn off the "Secure Boot" or other proprietary alledged security settings (like TPM for example). Make sure you have allowed your PC to boot from usb in BIOS or UEFI settings.
Shut down your PC. Attach the medium (usb, external disk, memory card) on which you have properly burned the .iso to a suitable port of your PC.
Power on.
Quickly and repeatedly Press F12, F10 or quickly press ESC button or any other button your PC manufacturer has designated to invoke the one-time boot menu.
Choose to boot from the medium you wrote the .iso on.
Alternatively you can choose to change booting order in your BIOS or UEFI settings.
19. Does TeLOS need legacy BIOS or UEFI to boot?
TeLOS can boot both in Legacy BIOS or in UEFI mode. If you have both, we suggest you prefer UEFI. If you want to perform an UEFI installation make sure you boot the usb in UEFI mode. And vice versa. If you already have some other Operating System you want to keep on the same disk you intend to install TeLOS on, make sure you boot TeLOS installation medium in the same mode (BIOS or UEFI) that has been used to install your other Operating System.
20. OK, I have booted into TeLOS from the usb. Now what? Does the usb save my personal configuration, files, updates, newely installed applications? Can I keep using TeLOS from the usb for normal, everyday use?
The .iso is a "Live usb" image. You can use it normally as you would use your PC, but every time you reboot changes are not being saved to the medium and the system automatically and irreversibly resets itself to its initial state. That makes the live usb very suitable for testing (the OS or any other software or hardware) or for temporary tasks like rescuing a different system already installed on your PC or even for data recovery.
These very same features also make the live usb unsuitable for day-to-day use.
It is possible to use TeLOS in so-called "persistence mode" from the Live environment to keep your changes between reboots. Use rufus "persistence" feature to easily try that. This (persistence mode in live usb) is currently not the suggested way to use TeLOS in the long run.
21. Can I use TeLOS in a Virtual Machine?
TeLOS will probably work on most Virtual Machines. Performance naturally depends on the settings of the VM software and the underlying hardware. This is another temporary way to try and test TeLOS.
Please remember that we have not tried to optimize this software for use in Virtual Machines. TeLOS Linux prefers real, ordinary users to professional testers or distrohoppers (no pun intended, we have been and still are distrohoppers ourselves!). But this is not a benchmarking game. TeLOS Linux is a real Operating System, that can be used as your daily drive on your desktop or laptop PC for work (including development!) or fun.
Therefore, if you really want to experience all available features of this distribution, you should consider installing TeLOS Linux on your hardware.
22. Can I use TeLOS on a laptop?
Yes, you definitely can! Laptop optimizations plus drivers (including vendor-specific ones) for common hardware are included.
23. Can I use it with a touchscreen?
Touchscreen is supported. Nevertheless, KDE Plasma Desktop Environment and most apps are not yet fully optimized to work with a touchscreen. Supplementary use of a mouse or other pointing device (BTW wacom tablets are supported too) is suggested for ease of use and productivity. If you only have the touchscreen available, you might want to look elsewhere until we, KDE and particularly application developers further optimize touchscreen support. Please give us some feedback concerning touchscreen use on your specific hardware to help us do our part of the aforementioned optimization.
24. How do I install TeLOS on my PC?
Installing TeLOS is optional but suggested. You can easily install it, provided your PC meets the requirements, from within the running system, that means AFTER you have booted into the "Live enviromnent". You can start the installation procedure by double-clicking the "Install TeLOS" desktop icon and following the on screen instructions. TeLOS includes the user friendly and featureful Calamares Linux installer.
25. Can I install TeLOS alongside other Operational Systems (Windows, other Linux distros)?
Yes, you definitely can and this is the most probable use-case scenario.
Before starting the installation procedure, we suggest you create a separate partition from your other Operating System (using Windows partition manager or any Linux partition manager accordingly or from TeLOS Live usb using GNOME disks. You can create this partition by allocating unallocated space or by shrinking existing partitions. Don't delete Drive C: if you have a Windows installation (but you can shrink it, if you don't have other available disk/space). The newely created partition should be at least 10GB big and will be used by Calamares installer to install TeLOS on.
Alternatively, you can install TeLOS on a whole disk of its own or even on a mere usb 3.0 flash drive attached to a matching port. You will be surprised to find out how snappy it can be on modern hardware.
III. SPECIFIC INSTALLATION ADVICE
26. Any more specific installation advice? What about disk partitioning choices during installation?
Yes! We have some for you..
TeLOS Linux installation is no different from the installation procedure and partitioning advice that applies to other mainstream Linux distributions. Consequently, this means both that experienced users might want to skip following sections and that other users might find useful when facing installation issues to search the internet for appropriate solutions addressing similar issues in UBUNTU or other Debian derivatives.
Installing TeLOS (included in TeLOS and accessible from Live usb environment) is easier than it sounds.
Note: This short guide does not aspire to cover all possible boot/partition table type/dual-boot scenario combinations for the multitude of existing hardware worldwide. You may find this advice useful particularly when combined with your knowledge and common sense. Please refer to the internet for more specialized info or consult a specialist.
A. GENERAL ADVICE
- Make sure the medium you plan to install TeLOS on is unmounted before you start the installation procedure
- Calamares will scan your PC to confirm you meet minimum requirements for a successfull installation
- Choose a language you understand for the installation procedure
- Choose your location to define timezone and other default settings. Choose the desired language/keyboard layout. You will be able to change those settings after you have booted into your newly installed system
- Carefully choose the medium you install TeLOS on from top drop-down Calamares installer menu. A mistake at that step may result in data loss or possible inability to boot into other previously installed Operating Systems
- If you install TeLOS alongside other Operating System(s) make sure you leave at least 10GB for TeLOS's files
- The "erase disk" option has been found to be unreliable. We will update this documentation for potentially more stable future releases of Calamares to be included in newer TeLOS versions.
- If you decide to dedicate the whole installation medium for TeLOS, we suggest you "manually" partition it during installation. Sometimes it's even better to format and partition the disk even before initializing installation (for example using GNOME disks, gparted or KDE partition manager) and afterwards only choose appropriate partitions mount points and set flags during Calamares installation procedure.
B. SOME MORE SUGGESTIONS
---> Please remember that if you want an UEFI installation you have to boot the Live usb in UEFI mode. And vice versa.
---> If you already have some other operating system on same disk installed in UEFI mode, choose booting the live usb in UEFI. And vice versa
---> You might have to temporarily disable Secure boot UEFI feature to boot the Live usb. TeLOS is digitally signed, therefore after it has been successfully installed you will be able to boot with secure boot on.
---> If you have a recent Windows installation on your system, you might have to disable Bitlocker disk protection
---> You might have to disable "fast/quick boot" or TPM/SRT or any other proprietary and vendor or Windows - specific UEFI settings
ATTENTION : Following advice applies to UEFI installations: If you install TeLOS alongside some other Linux distribution, you most probably already have on the same disk or any other disk permanently attached to your PC a functional EFI partition formatted as FAT32 and GRUB bootmanager that controls the booting procedure of the Operating System on your PC. DO NOT format this partition!! GRUB will detect TeLOS that will be installed on a separate ext4 partition and add all necessary information in the EFI partition, so that you will be able to also boot TeLOS from your existing grub menu. In that case you should only choose to install TeLOS on a separate partition (filesystem=ext4, mount point= / ) and flag as boot, choose to keep and NOT format the preexisting EFI partition. In case after the installation your grub menu is not automatically populated with TeLOS Linux option, you can easily run sudo update-grub command from your other Linux distribution and you will find TeLOS boot option next time you restart your PC.
BIG FAT WARNING : Don't delete Windows EFI partition!
GRUB can handle Windows boot manager and show it as a boot option to enable you boot Windows.
C. EVEN MORE THINGS TO CONSIDER
>>>GENERAL PARTITIONING INFO FOR INSTALLATION<<<
Carefully choose installation drive.
We covered before how easy it is to install TeLOS on a separate partition in cases where you already have a different Linux distribution and GRUB bootmanager/grub bootloader installed. In that case we suggest you just shrink an existing partition to make room for TeLOS or allocate some unallocated space to create a new partition (with filesystem ext4) for TeLOS. Install TeLOS on that partition and mount it at /
Run update-grub from other distro. Reboot and choose to boot into TeLOS Linux. End of story.
If you only have Windows installed on your hardware and no GRUB, don't format the EFI partition, keep it, mount it as boot/efi (dropdown menu in Calamares) and flag it as boot (box ticking in Calamares installer menu options). You will install TeLOS on another partition, with filesystem ext4, at least 10 GB big with mount point / (choose that from the dropdown menu inside Calamares), no flags for this particular partition.
If you plan to use only Linux distributions on your system it is possible (but not necessary or advisable) to have more than one EFI partitions. Don't try this if you want to dual boot Windows. If you want to dual boot Windows, even having multiple EFI partitions on different disks can be a problem.
If you plan to dual boot with Windows using Legacy BIOS, MBR partition table type is required.
To dual boot with modern Windows 64-bit using UEFI mode, GPT partition table type is required.
Always use GPT partitioning for UEFI installations.
As mentioned, using GPT for Legacy BIOS is a perfectly valid choice as long as dual-booting Windows is not required on the same system.
If you have a choice, prefer GPT partitioning.
UEFI systems typically need an EFI system partition.
BIOS systems partitioned with GPT require a BIOS boot partition (1MB size will do), filesystem=unformatted, flag=bios-grub at the beginning of the disk.
As a matter of fact both in MBR and GPT partitioning schemes it is for various reasons at least beneficiary (even when it is not an actual prerequisite) to keep 1MB of unformatted disk space both at the beginning and at the end of the drive. Most partitioning tools, including Calamares, will usually do this automatically when required.
What if you want to install TeLOS on a clean, new drive with no other Operating System installed or with an OS that you don't want or don't need anymore?
In that case you will have to use an existing partition table (if it contains suitable partitions) or most probably create a new partition table with default settings. EFI installation and GPT partition table type are preferred, if available.
Don't worry! In case of installation not succeeding in EFI mode, you can always try installing again in Legacy BIOS mode, which is still available in most modern hardware. This will make no difference in performance. BIOS mode will work with an MBR parition table, but can also work with a GPT one. As a matter of fact, Legacy (BIOS) boot mode and GPT partioning is a combination that has been found to be successful and reliable.
Installation steps on new/newly formatted drive with GPT partition table and no other hard drives:
Use some free space, for example unallocated space or preallocated space for preexisting partitions that are of no use to you anymore.
for BIOS mode: Create an unformatted (dropdown menu in Calamares) 1MB partition, flag it as bios-grub
for UEFI mode: Create an unformatted (dropdown menu in Calamares) with no flags 8MB partition
only for UEFI mode: Create a 550 MB filesystem=FAT32 partition with mount point /boot/efi/ and flag it as boot by ticking the appropriate box
both for BIOS AND UEFI mode: Create an ext4 partition at least 10 GB big, with mount point / and no flags.
Naturally, if you have more space available, make sure you allocate enough space to use your new system on and accomodate your apps and files.
No harm (and no good) done yet.. You will have the chance to confirm your choices before any real changes are applied.
- There is no need to create a separate swap partition, particularly if you use an SSD disk. You can create a swap partition at a later stage, providing you have some space on your disk available or you can just create a swap file after installation, if you need it or if you want to. The latter solution, a swap file for an ssd disk, is suggested.
- Nevertheless, if you want to create a separate swap partition now, use linuxswap as filesystem and flag it as swap. 1GB size for swap is OK, but, hey, this is your PC!
Other suggestions from the internet concerning swap partition size: If you only have 1 GB RAM, assign 2GB for swap partition. If you have 2GB or 4GB RAM, make a 4GB swap partition.
-If you want to be able to use hibernation feature you have to create a swap partition as big as your RAM + 10%
- It is not necessary and therefore it is not suggested to create separate partitions for /root , /home, /boot etc. Nevertheless, this is supported and experienced users that may under specific circumstances benefit from this kind of partitioning, can naturally choose to do so.
- If you have enough space, it's always a good idea to create a separate partition at the end with filesystem NTFS to use it as storage of files, that will be accessible from several Operational Systems - including TeLOS, other Linux distributions and Windows. This last step is fully optional.
- The installation procedure deletes the live user (username ion) from the system and creates a new user with the username and system name of your choice. Choose a memorable password for your new user account, confirm it and write it down. The user you create will have adminstrative privileges (will be included in the "sudoers" group).
- Create a password for the root account. Choose a different password, not the same password you just chose for the user.
- We suggest you tick the box for automatic log-in for convenience.
- We prefer physical security of the system over disk encryption, but disk encryption is there for you to choose, if you wish so. No guarantee it will work though..
- Carefully review your partitioning choices before proceeding.
- Click the appropriate button and let Calamares installer do its work.
- Installation procedure will last 5-15 minutes depending on your hardware and will remove live user (ion) and create the user with the credentials of your choice.
- You can continue to make light (resource-wise) use of your Live system during the installation procedure. This is not adviseable, particularly for PCs with lower specs. In that case, just wait, grab a coffee (or tea), call your spouse, your dad or your long-standing bf/gf.
ATTENTION! This is not the best time to call your crush or your best friend, or you might soon find yourself in an awkward dilemma.
- Reboot when you are prompted to.
- If you have only installed the system (and not GRUB), first boot into your other Linux system and run sudo update-grub from your terminal. Reboot again to find the option to boot into TeLOS Linux from your usual grub menu.
- In UEFI systems with pre-installed Windows make sure you configure your UEFI settings accordingly to boot with grub (it is suggested to do so permanently from UEFI settings, since grub can also handle Windows boot manager and show it as an option in its own (GRUB's) menu. Optionally you can choose to use grub to boot with as one-time boot option by pressing F12, F10 or ESC key or any other OEM-specifically assigned key).
>>>>> Common problems and easy alternative solutions in case you recently installed TeLOS and you are unable to boot :
1. if you have some other Linux distribution you can boot into, run sudo update-grub to update the configuration or sudo grub-install /dev/sdX
# Example: sudo grub-install /dev/sda (mention the disk you want to install grub to-NOT a specific partition) to reinstall GRUB
2. use the live usb of TeLOS to reinstall grub ---> follow these instructions https://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair-restore-reinstall-grub-2-with-a-ubuntu-live-cd
3. use the excellect rEFInd boot manager from your other running Linux distro or directly from TeLOS live usb. To do so connect to the internet, open Konsole and run sudo apt update && sudo apt install refind. Authorize (password=ion for the Live usb). Accept all prompts. Reboot.
- After you boot into your newly installed TeLOS Linux system you will be able to create more (standard or administrator) users, if you wish so, change language, keyboard settings or input methods and so on.
- Download some apps from TeLOStore or Discover, create files or migrate your preexisting ones to TeLOS Linux, use your new Operating System as you wish.
Live usb user : ion
Live user password : ion
root user password in Live system : ROOT
user/root password after installation : the passwords you chose during the installation
Enjoy Linux!
What does "TeLOS" stand for?
+ TeLOS = tele (far) + OS (Operating System) --> TeLOS can do so much more than browsing, but browsing the web on TeLOS is a particularly enjoyable experience
++ TeLOS is very suitable for remote work or distance learning
+++ TeLOS in ancient Greek means end but also means purpose
**LICENCE - LEGAL DISCLAIMER**
TeLOS Linux is free open source software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the EUPL License as published by the European Union Institutions. TeLOS Linux is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the License for more details.
Proprietary applications included (contained) in TeLOS Linux are downloaded and updated from the official software repositories of their respective vendors and are not being redistributed herewith. Before using such applications, you are advised to read the respective apllications' Licenses and abide by their terms.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, TeLOS Linux and the developers or distributors of TeLOS Linux will not be liable for any loss, damage, liability or claim whatsoever suffered or incurred by any person arising directly or indirectly out of the use of TeLOS Linux software or reliance on the information contained within TeLOS Linux or within this or similar informative documents.
last update May 09 2021
