Get Parabola Testing

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1 About Parabola GNU/Linux-libre Release Images and Installers

Just as with all software packages in the Parabola repositories, the Parabola GNU/Linux-libre release images are cryptographically signed by a member of the Parabola project. Check-sums are also provided to quickly verify that the downloaded file itself, is not corrupted; but the signature is most significant. Any of these files may be obtained from sources other than directly from the Parabola project or Parabola mirrors. Only a valid signature, confirms that the ISO file was received in the pristine state, as provided by the Parabola project.

The signature can be verified by importing the "Signing Key", noted beside each release image. Verifying signatures is beyond the scope of this article; but the Parabola developers signing keys are published on the Parabola website.

It is strongly recommended that you keep a Parabola LiveISO ready to use at all times. It will save you much time and trouble, if ever the system becomes un-bootable, or otherwise needs repair.

Notes on the different editions and variants:

  • The 'Net Install' ISOs are fully usable "live" operating systems for system recovery, or for simply exploring a Parabola system before you install it. Installation from a 'Net Install' ISO requires an active connection to the internet.
  • The 'Complete' ISOs are equivalent to their 'Net Install' counterparts, except that they contain everything necessary to install a complete Parabola system, very quickly, with or without a connection to the internet.
  • The 'CLI' and 'Talking' ISOs boot into a command-line environment, and do not include an automated installer. Installation is entirely manual, and so requires some basic familiarity with using the command-line. Installation from a 'CLI' ISO requires 1GB of disk space.
  • The 'LXDE' ISOs boot into the LXDE desktop environment and include the user-friendly Calamares installer. Installation from a 'LXDE' ISO requires 9GB of disk space.
  • Parabola LXDE and the Parabola LXDE live environment requires 512MB RAM; but the graphical installer requires 1GB RAM (or swap space) during install. A command-line install script is included in the live user's home directory, that can install the same full desktop or command-line Parabola system on computers with less the 1GB RAM.
  • All of the installers perform a full standard clean chroot install, just the same as running the low-level 'pacstrap' program manually. Unlike many distro installers, they will not reuse the frozen "Live" state; but will install a fresh pristine system, just as one might do on the command line. The ARM tarballs however, are the exception, in that they are not transient "live" environments, and do not include any installer. Those are intended to be cloned bit-for-bit, directly to the target system main storage. This is not the idiomatic "arch-way" of installation; but they are more practical for installing to most hobby/dev boards, which are typically lacking in peripherals.
  • Note, that all Parabola LiveISOs are capable of installing any variant of Parabola system to the target disk, regardless of the init-system or graphical environment of the live system. For example, any of the Parabola SystemD LiveISOs can be used to install an OpenRC system and vice-versa; and any of the Parabola LiveISOs (CLI or graphical) can be used to install any WM/DE, such as Gnome, KDE, and many others, or none at all.


2 Migrating to Parabola from an existing Pacman-based Distro

If you are currently using another pacman-based distro (e.g. ArchLinux{,32,ARM}, Artix, Manjaro), there is no need to download a Parabola image. Simply follow one of the Migration Guides to set your running system "Free as in Freedom".


3 Release images for x86_64 and i686 architectures

The Parabola ISO images can be burned to a CD/DVD, written to a USB stick, booted directly from GRUB, or booted directly by a virtual machine (see the the installation guide). If you have an existing Parabola GNU/Linux-libre system, and a Parabola LiveISO ready for emergencies, then you should not need to download another LiveISO. An existing Parabola GNU/Linux-libre system can always be updated with pacman -Syu.

3.1 Parabola CLI Edition

3.1.1 Parabola OpenRC CLI ISO

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre LiveISO images for installation and recovery, with the OpenRC init/service manager.
(Command-line Edition)
Parabola OpenRC Edition GRUB screen-shot
Architecture Init System Desktop Install File Size Packages Kernel Download Checksums
Dual (i686 and x86_64) OpenRC CLI Net Install ~880 MB i686 x86_64 5.4.12_gnu Torrent Magnet Web SHA512SUMS Signature Signing Key


3.1.2 Parabola SystemD CLI ISO

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre standard LiveISO images for installation and recovery.
(Command-line Edition)
Parabola SystemD Edition GRUB screenshot
Architecture Init System Desktop Install File Size Packages Kernel Download Checksums
None available at this time


3.1.3 TalkingParabola

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre LiveISO images for installation and recovery, with text-to-speech and braille enabled.
(Command-line Edition)
Parabola Talking Edition GRUB screen-shot
Architecture Init System Desktop Install File Size Packages Kernel Download Checksums
Dual (i686 and x86_64) SystemD Net Install ~960 MB i686 x86_64 5.4.12_gnu Torrent Magnet Web SHA512SUMS Signature Signing Key


3.2 Parabola Desktop Edition

3.2.1 Parabola OpenRC LXDE ISO

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre LiveISO images for installation and recovery, with the OpenRC init/service manager.
(LXDE Desktop Edition)
Parabola OpenRC Edition GRUB screen-shot
Parabola OpenRC LXDE Edition screen-shot
Architecture Init System Desktop Install File Size Packages Kernel Download Checksums
Dual (i686 and x86_64) OpenRC LXDE Net Install ~2 GB i686 x86_64 5.4.12_gnu Torrent Magnet Web SHA512SUMS Signature Signing Key


3.2.2 Parabola SystemD LXDE ISO

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre standard LiveISO images for installation and recovery.
(LXDE Desktop Edition)
Parabola SystemD Edition GRUB screenshot
Parabola SystemD LXDE Edition screenshot
Architecture Init System Desktop Install File Size Packages Kernel Download Checksums
64-bit (x86_64) SystemD LXDE Complete ~1.8 GB x86_64 5.1.6_gnu Torrent Web SHA512SUMS Signature Signing Key


4 Release tarballs for armv7h architecture

The Parabola-ARM release tarballs can be extracted directly to an SD-Card, or to a virtual machine image (see the ARM installation guide). Note that there is currently only a single configuration available, and that it does not include a boot-loader. This may change in the future, if enough demand is expressed for other configurations.

This section also contains raw virtual disk images, which are bootable by Qemu and possibly other virtual machine emulators.

4.1 Parabola CLI Edition

4.1.1 Parabola SystemD CLI Tarball and VM Image

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre standard tarballs for bootstrapping and VM images for experimenting.
(Command-line Edition)
Architecture Init System Desktop Install File Size Packages Kernel Download Checksums
32-bit SBCs (armv7h) SystemD CLI VM Image ~975 MB armv7h 5.5.1_gnu Torrent Magnet Web SHA512SUMS Signature Signing Key
32-bit SBCs (armv7h) SystemD CLI Tarball ~560 MB armv7h 5.5.1_gnu Torrent Magnet Web SHA512SUMS Signature Signing Key


5 Preview/Beta Releases

This section is an exhibit of new features, software, and desktop environments currently in the experimental, testing, or pre-release development stages. Theses are works in progress; but most normal functionality is expected to behave properly.

Please do try them out and report any bugs that you may find to the "Installation Media" bug tracker.

5.1 Various

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre preview/experimental images.
Architecture Init System Desktop Install File Size Packages Kernel Download Checksums
None available at this time


6 HTTP Mirrors

All of the current Parabola release images and software packages are duplicated on each of the official mirror sites listed below. If ever there is a problem with the download sources noted above or the packages manager, you should be able to get what you need manually from one of these mirrors.

Host Location
dotsrc.org Aalborg, Denmark
cyberbits.eu Roubaix, France
grapentin.org Falkenstein, Germany
isacdaavid.info Amsterdam, Netherlands
jeweet.net Volendam, Netherlands
uwaterloo.ca Toronto, Ontario
yandex.ru Moscow, Russian Federation
infania.net Borås, Sweden
linux.pizza Skövde, Sweden
acc.umu.se Umeå, Sweden
fsf.org Boston, Massachusettes
freedif.org Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam