Putting it on a computer
Write the image to a USB stick, start the computer from it, and try Trindle before you change anything on the disk. When you are ready, the Trindle Installer asks four things and does the rest.
Trindle is a whole operating system, and the image is the only way to install it. It cannot be added to a Debian you already have.
Try it from the stick for as long as you like, and think twice before making it the only system on a computer you depend on. Installing replaces everything on the disk you choose, or makes an existing partition smaller to make room beside it, and that cannot always be undone.
For 64-bit Intel and AMD computers. Trying it in a virtual machine first? Set the machine up properly, or you will be judging the machine.
What you need
From the image to a running desktop
Five steps. Nothing on the computer changes until you press Install on the installer's Ready page, and then once more to confirm.
- Download the image.One .iso file. Coming soon: Trindle is in beta testing, and the image will be on the download page once it is out of beta.
- Write it to a USB stick.With Impression, balenaEtcher or dd, below. Everything already on the stick is replaced.
- Start the computer from the stick.Plug it in, switch on and hold the key for the boot menu: F12 on most Lenovo and Dell machines, F9 on HP, Escape or F11 elsewhere. Trindle has not yet been tried with Secure Boot on. If the computer will not start from the stick, turn Secure Boot off in the firmware settings.
- Try Trindle.It runs from the stick, with the ring, Apps and Settings all working. Nothing is written to the computer's own disk. Open the ring, look round, and decide.
- Press Install Trindle.It is the main button on the welcome window, and it sits among the favourites in the ring too. This is the Trindle Installer, and it still changes nothing until you press Install on its Ready page.
Impression
On Linux, the simplest of the three, from Flathub. Choose the .iso file, choose the USB stick, press Write and type your password when it asks.
balenaEtcher
On Windows, macOS or Linux. Flash from file, select target, Flash. It checks what it wrote afterwards, which is worth the extra minute.
dd
On Linux, if you would rather use the terminal. Run lsblk first, to be certain which device the stick is.
sudo dd if=IMAGE.iso of=/dev/sdX \
bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync/dev/sdX is the stick itself, not a partition on it. Getting this wrong wipes the wrong disk.
What the Trindle Installer asks
Four questions, then a summary written in sentences. The mark rolls one stop along its line for each step, so you can always see where you are and how much is left. Back works until the install starts, and nothing is written until you press Install on the Ready page and then press it again to confirm.
Language
Choose it once and the keyboard and the time follow it, each still changeable. There is a box to type in so you can check the keyboard is really the one you meant before you rely on it for a password.
The disk
Use the whole disk, replacing everything on it. Or keep what is there, Windows or another Linux, and share the disk: a slider chooses how much room each side gets, and it says in plain words how much is left for what is there now and how much goes to Trindle.
Each disk is named by what is on it, so on a computer with two you pick the right one.
A swap file
Offered the size of the computer’s memory, on to begin with, and only made where the disk has plenty of room to spare. It is room to hibernate, keeping everything open with the power off, and somewhere to turn when memory runs short. It is kept out of the snapshots.
If Secure Boot is on, the installer says plainly that this computer can’t hibernate, and that the swap file still helps when memory runs short.
Whether to encrypt the disk
A password you type before anything else appears, or this computer's TPM chip, which unlocks the disk itself so that, after the first start, nothing is typed at start-up. The first start still asks for the password once, while the chip learns the computer. The installer says which of the two this computer can do. Or leave it unencrypted. The password is asked for twice and there is a button that suggests a passphrase.
At each start the password is typed on the keyboard you chose under Language, and the box has an eye to show what you typed; Tab does the same.
You
Your name, the name you sign in with, a name for the computer, and your password twice. Then a Ready page that says the whole plan back to you in sentences, and nothing has been changed yet.
Dual boot
If there is a Windows partition, or a Linux one of the ext2, ext3 or ext4 kind, with room in it, the installer offers to keep it and share the disk. It makes that partition smaller, leaving a margin of free space inside it, and puts Trindle in the space that opens up. It shares the boot partition that is already there; a disk with no boot partition to share cannot take Trindle beside what is on it, and the installer says so rather than guessing.
Afterwards both systems are in the boot menu, and the computer starts whichever you choose. With Trindle on its own, the menu stays out of sight, since there is nothing to choose; press Esc while the computer starts to see it.
The first ten minutes afterwards
What to do once you are logged in and looking at the desktop and nothing else.
Pick some apps
The Welcome offers common apps. Pick what you want and press Install the chosen apps. Almost nothing is installed to begin with, and that includes a web browser.
Join the Wi-Fi
Open the ring, click the Wi-Fi icon in the middle, switch Wi-Fi on, press Connect beside your network and, if it asks, type the password and press Join.
Set the screen size
Settings, Display, Size. If a change looks wrong, do nothing and it puts itself back after fifteen seconds.
Switch locking on
Settings, Power. Locking is off to begin with. Once it is on, your password unlocks, or a four-digit PIN if you choose one as well.