07

CometOS

Try CometOS in a virtual machine or from a USB stick, then install it on your computer.

CometOS is the CipherOS Project's desktop. You can try all of it before it touches your computer, and nothing changes until you choose Install. See the CometOS page for what you are installing.

1. Download CometOS

Get the ISO from the CometOS page. It is about 3.0 GB. A .sha256 file is published next to it on SourceForge; check the download against it before going further.

shell
sha256sum cometos-*-x86_64.iso
Compare the output with the .sha256 file

2. Try it in a virtual machine, recommended

The easiest way to meet CometOS. Nothing on your computer changes, and you can throw it away when you are done. These steps are for VMware Workstation or Fusion; VirtualBox and QEMU work the same way, and CometOS carries guest tools for all three.

  1. Create a virtual machine from the ISO. For the guest operating system, choose Linux, then Other Linux 6.x kernel 64-bit.
  2. Give it at least 4 GB of memory, 2 processors and a 30 GB disk.
  3. Under Display, turn on Accelerate 3D graphics. Without it CometOS still works, but turns its glass off to stay smooth.
  4. Under Options, then Advanced, set the firmware to UEFI. BIOS works too.
  5. Start the machine and choose Start CometOS. The Setup Assistant says hello, asks for Light or Dark, and shows the terms.
  6. Choose Try CometOS to look around, or Install CometOS to install it inside the virtual machine.

3. Install it on your computer

When you would rather have CometOS for real, put it on a USB stick and start your computer from that. The easiest way to write the stick is with balenaEtcher or Fedora Media Writer, on Windows, macOS or Linux: pick the ISO, pick the stick, write.

On Linux you can also write it from a terminal.

shell
sudo dd if=cometos-*-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync
Run it in the folder you saved the ISO to, with your stick in place of /dev/sdX
  1. Back up anything on the computer you want to keep.
  2. Plug in the stick and restart. Open the boot menu, usually with F12, F11, F8 or Esc as the computer starts, and choose the USB stick.
  3. Choose Start CometOS. In the Setup Assistant, pick Light or Dark, agree to the terms, then choose Install CometOS and create your account.
  4. The installer opens. Choose your location and keyboard, then the disk to install on. Tick the option to encrypt the disk if you want it protected with a password.
  5. Check the summary, then Install. A short tour plays while it works.
  6. When it says All done, restart and take the stick out. Your computer starts into CometOS with the account you made.

If something goes wrong

  • The screen stays black after Start CometOS: restart and choose Start CometOS (safe graphics) instead.
  • You want to see what it is doing: Start CometOS (show boot messages) prints the start-up log on screen.
  • Still stuck: ask on Telegram, with what you tried and the computer you tried it on.

Keeping it up to date

Comet Settings, then General, then Software Update installs a newer CometOS when there is one, and keeps your files, accounts and settings. Between releases, the pacman package manager brings rolling updates: sudo pacman -Syu updates the whole system in one go. App and firmware updates are in the App Store.

Undoing it

A virtual machine is deleted like any other. If you only started CometOS from the stick, restart without it and your computer is exactly as it was. If you installed it, put your previous system back from its own installer, the same way you put CometOS on.