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Installation for Red Star OS 3.0

Jiayuan Wen edited this page Dec 3, 2023 · 27 revisions

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Before Continuing

  • Red Star OS 3.0 has built-in anti-tamper measures, any modification to the system will result in boot-loop, system freeze, or file-system corruption. To disable these measures, we will be using RedStar Tools for Step 4-7.
  • Some steps diverge into two. You only have to follow one base on your scenario.
    • Steps labeled "a" denote steps to follow if your OS is installed on a Virtual Machine (VM).
    • Steps labeled "b" denote steps to follow if your OS is installed on a physical machine (PC).
  • If you installed Red Star OS on a PC, you need a second PC and a USB flash drive to do the work; If you installed Red Star OS on a VM, do the work on your host system.

Step 1:

Step 1a (VM):

Download the script iso and RedStar Tools iso from here and save them somewhere convenient.

Step 1b (PC):

Plug in your USB drive, download the script file and RedStar Tools archive from here and save them to your USB drive.

Step 2:

Step 2a (VM):

Skip to Step 3a.

Step 2b (PC):

Since the archives are in .7z format, you need 7-Zip to extract the files.

Step 3:

Step 3a (VM):

Boot up your Red Star OS, login, then detach control from your VM (VirtualBox is Left Ctrl, VMware is Ctrl + Alt). Mount redstar-tools.iso to your VM. Screenshots below shows how to do it for VirtualBox 7.0.

Step 3b (PC):

Boot up your Red Star and login. Then, plug in your USB drive.

Step 4:

Open up the terminal, the location is shown below:

You can create a shortcut by dragging it onto the dock:

Step 4a (VM):

Navigate into the iso with the following command:

cd /media/redstar-tools/

Step 4b (PC):

Navigate into your USB with the following command:

cd /media/<your-usb-name>

If nothing shows up, try /mnt

cd /mnt/<your-usb-name>

Step 5:

On your terminal, unlock root with rootsetting:

For the first prompt, type in your system password. For the second prompt, create your desired root password (top is set password, bottom is confirmation).


Credit: Mental Outlaw

Afterward, enter superuser mode with su command, type in the root password you created when asked. Your command prompt should change from $ to #

Step 6:

Create a folder for RedStar Tools at root's home directory

mkdir ~/redstar-tools

Copy the contents in the iso (or usb ) over

cp -r ./* ~/redstar-tools/

Now go to the redstar-tools directory:

cd ~/redstar-tools

Step 7:

Give defuse.sh permission to execute, then execute the script:

chmod u+x ./defuse.sh; ./defuse.sh

Restart the system as instructed by script.
Alternatively, you can follow instructions provided here to defuse Red Star OS manually.

You may now choose to keep or remove RedStar Tools. To remove:

cd ..
rm -rf ./redstar-tools

Back to normal user mode by typing exit, the prompt should change from # back to $.

You may now unmount your RedStar Tools iso. If you're installing via USB drive, keep it plugged in.

Step 8:

Step 8a (VM):

Now, mount your kimfetch iso:

Step 8b (PC):

You may skip to Step 9.

Step 9:

Step 9a (VM):

On your terminal, go into your kimfetch iso:

cd /media/kimfetch/

Copy the kimfetch script to home directory:

cp ./kimfetch ~/

Step 9b (PC):

Check if you are still on your USB drive with ls. If not, refer back to Step 4b:

cd /media/<your-usb-name> # Or 'cd /mnt/<your-usb-name>' if your USB is mounted to /mnt instead.

Copy the kimfetch script to home directory:

cp ./kimfetch ~/

Now, navigate to home directory yourself:

cd ~

Step 10:

Give kimfetch permission to execute:

chmod +x ./kimfetch

Test it out by running:

./kimfetch

Step 11:

We are going to edit an important script .bashrc, so make a back up for it just in case.

cp ./.bashrc ./.bashrc-bak

Append the line bash ./kimfetch to the end of .bashrc

sed -e '${s/$/\nbash\ .\/kimfetch/}' ./.bashrc >> ./.bashrc

Clean up:

Test it out by either exiting and reopening the terminal, or enter the following command:

clear; ./kimfetch

The fetch output might look odd initially due to the default size of the terminal window.

Change the window by dragging the bottom right corner:

The button to save current size is located here:

Test It Out!

You should now have a lovely neofetch like output every time you open up the script.

If you encounter any issue, post it here and I will gladly help out.

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