ELEMENTARY OS

Ditch Windows with this open-source OS

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A REASON to switch to Linux, Elementary OS is a compelling distro to try. It’ll appeal to both Mac and Windows switchers looking for a slick, intuitive desktop. It’s built on rock-solid foundations, forked from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, so you can leverage your existing Linux expertise and embrace it in the knowledge that anything that works with Ubuntu should also work with Elementary.

The latest version of Elementary—version 5.1, codenamed Hera—is the best yet. In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to install it alongside your existing OS—whether Windows or macOS. You’ll set up a shared data partition, giving you access to your key docs, photos, and other files from both OSes. We’ll give you a quick tour of the basics, get everything working correctly, and introduce you to its core elements.

Before diving in, though, we recommend taking Elementary OS for a test drive, which can be done one of two ways: Either set up a virtual machine for an extended trial, or choose the “Try” option from the installation media, to give the user interface a test run. Once you’re happy you’d like to install it permanently, read on. –NICK PEERS 1

SET UP SHARED DATA DRIVE First things first: If you’re going to share a data folder between Elementary and your existing OS, you need to create a dedicated data drive. This can be a separate (preferably internal) hard drive, or you can partition your main system drive if it’s big enough—typically 250GB or larger. 250GB would give your existing OS and data partitions 100GB each, leaving 50GB free space as a comfortable minimum for Elementary.

>> We’ll assume you know the basics of partitioning—taking the example above, Windows users should shrink their system drive by 150GB, then create a 100GB NTFS partition for their data [ Image A], leaving 50GB free. Mac users can’t leave any empty space, so start by creating a 100GB data partition using HFS+ (Mac OS Extended—no journaling). Once done, create a further 50GB partition as a placeholder for Elementary—make this FAT for easy identification later.

>> Once you’ve created your data partition, you need to move your personal folders to it. Windows users can simply move each personal folder in turn via File Explorer: Right-click the folder and choose “Properties > Location tab,” then select a folder on your newly created partition, moving the data across when prompted, so Windows knows where to look.

>> Mac users can choose to relocate their entire user folder to the new drive—copy it across, then open “System Preferences > Users & Groups.” Click the lock to make changes, then create a new Administrator “rescue” account—this ensures you can boot into macOS if anything happens to your data drive. Once done, right-click your current user account entry, and choose “Advanced Options.” Click “Choose” next to “Home directory” and point this to your newly copied folder on your data drive. Once selected, reboot and check everything’s now pointing to the data drive. Once you’re happy it’s working as expected, you can delete the original user folder on your startup volume. 2

CREATE BOOTABLE MEDIA AND START INSTALL Go to https://elementary.io— type 0 into the “Custom” box to download Elementary OS for free. Choose the “Download” button when prompted. After saving the ISO file to your “Downloads” folder, use a tool such as Balena Etcher ( www.balena.io/etcher/) to create a bootable USB flash drive or DVD as required. Mac users need to perform an additional step to create a boot menu that allows them to install (and later select) Elementary OS—the “Mac Dual-Boot Considerations” boxout reveals what you need to do.

>> We also recommend turning off Fast or Quick Boot in Windows—this enables you to properly shut down your computer and reboot into either operating system

without problems. To do this, go to “Settings > System > Power & sleep,” and click “Additional power settings.” Click “Choose what the power buttons do” followed by “Change settings that are currently available” to uncheck “Turn on fast start-up (recommended).” Click “Save changes.”

Once your partitions are in place, and your boot media has been created, you’re ready to start installing your new OS. Connect the Elementary installation media, then reboot your PC or Mac—Windows users need to bring up the boot menu (typically by tapping a key such as F11), then choose the USB drive (UEFI if offered); Mac users need to select the “Boot EFI\boot\ grubx64.efi” option from the boot menu. If the Elementary logo appears, press Enter.

Once the main “Install” menu appears, simply click “Install Elementary.” The process is practically identical to installing Ubuntu, upon which Elementary is based. Work your way through the initial setup screens: First, you need to select your keyboard language and layout, connect to your Wi-Fi network if prompted, then check “Install third-party software for…” before clicking “Continue.” 3

CHOOSE WHERE TO INSTALL The trickiest part of the whole process is choosing where to install Elementary. Make sure you select “Something else” under the “Installation type” screen, then locate where you plan to install Elementary—it’ll be free space if you partitioned in Windows, or FAT32 if you followed our advice on the Mac. Mac users should highlight the FAT32 partition (be very sure it’s the correct one), then click the “–” button beneath it to remove it and leave free space in its wake.

Now select the free space—first create a swap file by clicking “+” and then set the swap file to 4096MB and its location as “End of this space.” Click the “Use as” drop-down menu and choose “swap area.” Click “OK.” Now select the remaining free space and click “+” again. Leave everything as it is—including “Ext4 journaling file system” as the “Use as.” Set the “Mount point” to “/” [ Image B]. Click “OK.”

The only remaining consideration is where to set the GRUB boot loader—in most cases, the default

“dev/sda” (first internal hard drive) should be correct. Click “Install Now.” Read the warning, then click “Continue.” 4

COMPLETE INSTALLATION Two steps remain: First, pick your time zone (start with your city, then try state if it doesn’t show up), and then set up your computer name, and create a user account. If you plan to share a data partition with macOS, it’s crucial that this is identical (username and password) to your macOS account for file and folder permissions purposes. More on that later.

Once set, click “Continue,” then sit back and let Elementary OS finish installing. After being prompted to restart now, unplug the install media, then restart. Windows users should see the familiar GRUB menu, offering a choice of which OS to boot into [ Image C]— jump to step 5.

Mac users will find that rEFInd (and the ability to boot into macOS) has vanished. To bring it back, follow the tour in the next step, then open Epiphany to download the same rEFInd binary zip file as outlined in the boxout above. Open ‘“Applications > Files” and navigate to “Downloads,” right-click the zip file, and choose “Extract Here.” Open the newly created “refind-bin” folder, then

right-click inside the “Files” window and choose “Open With > Terminal.” Finally, type this command:

$ ./refind-install

Enter your account password when prompted and a series of messages should appear, confirming that rEFInd is the default boot manager once more. Restart and you can now switch between macOS and Elementary. 5

TAKE A TOUR A short welcome tour accompanies your first boot, including links to online help and support. Take the time to run through it—you can enable location services, plus switch on Night Light to prevent eye strain when using Elementary late at night. There’s also a Housekeeping section with options to automatically clean temp files and the trash after 30 days. You’ll also be prompted to get more apps via AppCenter and open System Settings—skip both to complete the tour.

The annotation on the previous page reveals the key elements of the Elementary desktop—as point-and-click experiences go, it’s very slick and reminiscent of macOS, but under the hood it’s Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. If necessary, click the Wi-Fi icon to connect to your wireless network, then keep an eye on the AppCenter icon in the dock—you should see it’s got updates to install, so first step is to open this and switch to the “Installed” tab where, after a short pause, you should see what’s available. Click “Update all” and enter your password when prompted, then wait while Elementary brings itself up to date. 6

GET MORE APPS One area where Elementary has traditionally exhibited more control over users is through its app support. Start your search, naturally, in the AppCenter—you can browse or use the search box to try to track down your chosen app. Apps are split into two categories: curated and non-curated. Curated apps are more vigorously tested, but non-curated apps should work in most cases, and you’ll find popular apps such as LibreOffice, VLC Media Player, and the GIMP image editor here.

You’ll notice some apps appear to come with a price tag attached—this is a suggested donation that you can change by clicking the down arrow next to the price to alter the amount (set it to “0” to skip this).

If you can’t find an app, take a trip to https://flathub. org in your web browser of choice (Epiphany comes preinstalled, but both Firefox and Chromium are available through the AppCenter). Find your app here and you can simply click the “Install” button to open it using a brand new helper app called SideLoad. This provides

some useful information and asks you to confirm you wish to continue [ Image D] before clicking “Install Anyway.” These Flatpak apps then appear in AppCenter, where you can update and remove them easily as you see fit.

>> Techies looking for more sources of apps—individual repositories, or support for installing software packaged as .deb files—will find Elementary less accommodating. However, it’s simply a case of installing the relevant packages: sudo apt install software-properties-common to trigger support for

add-apt-repository and sudo apt install gdebi for .deb files. 7

MASTER FILES Navigating your filesystem is a crucial part of any OS, and Elementary is no different. To this end, it supplies the Files app—which you won’t find on the dock by default. Instead, click the “Applications” shortcut in the top-left corner of the desktop. Here you can browse by application, switch to a categories view, or use the search tool to find what you’re looking for.

Files is basically identical to its Ubuntu counterpart, with one key consideration: Folders and files are opened with a single click rather than a double-click (see the tweaking box on the right if this is a problem). You should see your shared data partition appear in the list under “Devices.” If it’s an NTFS partition, you should find you can access your Windows user folders with no problems, but Mac users must jump through additional hoops.

First, you need to change your Elementary user’s ID to match your Mac’s. In most cases, your Mac user account will be set at 501 or 502 (if you’re not sure, open “System Preferences > Users & Groups,” click the lock to make changes, then rightclick your user name, and choose “Advanced Options” to verify it. Boot back into Elementary and then open “System Settings > User Accounts.” Create a temp user with Administrator credentials, then log off your own user profile, and log into the temporary one. Now open a Terminal window and issue the following commands:

$ sudo usermod --uid 501 yourusername

$ sudo chown -R 501:yourusername /home/ yourusername

Substitute your Elementary username for “yourusername” and “501” with the same ID as your Mac user. Next, you need to ensure your user profile remains visible on the logon screen:

$ sudo nano /etc/ login.defs

Scroll down and locate the “UID_MIN” entry, then change it to your new user ID (501 or 502). Save the file (Ctrl-O) and close nano (Ctrl-X). Restart Elementary and boot into your own user profile—you should now have read and write access to your Mac’s user folder. You can delete your temp user via User Accounts or a Terminal command ( sudo userdel -r tempuser ). 8

LINK USER FOLDERS The final stage of integrating your data folders is to link the folders in your Elementary user’s home directory to your data partition. You don’t need to do this with all folders—it makes sense to keep “Downloads” separate, for example—but you can easily do it with folders such as “Documents,” “Pictures,” and “Music.”

The simplest way to do this is through Files. Open it to your “Home” folder, then delete the existing (and presumably empty) “Documents” folder. Now click “+” next to the folder name to open another tab, then navigate to the folder containing your shared “Documents” folder. Right-click this and choose “Copy as Link.” Switch back to the original folder and choose “Paste Link.” You should see the tell-tale arrow on the folder icon indicating it’s a link—click it and you’ll see it now points to the shared folder. Repeat for any other folders you wish to link in this way [ Image E].

One final tweak—you’ll notice that deleting the original folder also removes its shortcut from the Personal sidebar. Simply drag the folder on to the sidebar to add back its shortcut.