Download

Not sure which desktop? Compare them. They're all the same system underneath.

Start your computer from the USB stick and Jiggity, the installer, asks you everything up front: language, keyboard, network, time zone, your account, which disk, and which desktop. Then it installs, and you restart into your new system. Read Before you start first. What's new.

What you need

a 64-bit PC from roughly the last 12 years (BIOS or UEFI both work)
2 GB of RAM, 4 for GNOME, KDE Plasma and Cinnamon, 8 for Play
a USB stick of 2 GB or more
an internet connection while you install, by cable or Wi-Fi. Jiggity downloads the desktop you pick, so how long it takes depends on your connection.

Secure Boot has to be turned off for now.

Before you start

Jiggity doesn't touch your disk until the last step, when you've seen what it's going to do and said yes. Still, before you install:

Back up your files to an external drive or a cloud service. Chamesle is still an early release.
Keeping Windows? If it uses BitLocker (most new laptops do), get your recovery key first, from aka.ms/myrecoverykey or a printout, or turn BitLocker off.
If you're not sure about any of this, ask on the board first.

Making the USB stick

This wipes the stick, so copy anything you need off it first.

On Windows or macOS

Get balenaEtcher, pick the ISO, pick the stick, click Flash.

We haven't been able to test this on Windows ourselves yet. If something looks different or doesn't work, tell us on the board.

On Linux

Etcher works here too. Or from a terminal (check the device name with lsblk first, getting it wrong will wipe the wrong disk):

sudo dd if=chamesle-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

Ventoy

If you already use Ventoy, just copy the ISO onto the stick.

Installing

Plug the stick in, restart, and open the boot menu. It's usually F12, F11, F8 or Esc right after you power on, depending on the computer. Pick the USB stick, then Install Chamesle (or safe graphics if the screen stays black). Jiggity asks, in this order:

Language and keyboard
Network: a cable just works, for Wi-Fi pick yours and type the password
Time zone
You: your name, a username, a password and a name for the computer
Disk: a whole drive, or the free space next to Windows, and encryption if you want it
Desktop: Xfce, MATE, Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, Astro, Ranni, Play, TTY, or Server with no desktop
Summary: check it, then Install

From there it needs nothing from you. When it's done, take the stick out and restart, and you're signed in to your new desktop. Changed your mind about the desktop later? Add another one any time, for example sudo chamesle-desktop kde, and pick it on the sign-in screen.

Checking the download

If you want to be sure the file isn't broken, compare its checksum with the one next to the download:

sha256sum -c chamesle-x86_64.iso.sha256

On Windows, certutil -hashfile chamesle-x86_64.iso SHA256 in a command prompt does the same.