Installation Guide
The installation process is fully accessible to a visually challenged user.
Before you start, please note down carefully the partitions on your hard disk, their sizes and the operating systems residing on them. You will need at least 15 GB disk space to install the Accessible-Coconut. If it is not there, you will have to delete or resize an existing partition to free the required disk space. So decide in advance which partitions you could delete or resize. Also notes for installing in UEFI enabled systems is given at the end of this guide.
Following are the major activities needed for installation
1 Downloading Accessible-Coconut,
2 Creating a Bootable USB Flash Drive (Thumb Drive, Memory Stick, Pendrive),
3 Booting to Accessible-Coconut live mode using the Flash Drive,
4 Installing the Accessible-Coconut operating system,
5 Restart and remove the Flash Drive.
Activity 1: Downloading Accessible-Coconut.
To download latest version use the link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/accessible-coconut/files/latest/download
To download a specific version, visit the SourceForge page, navigate to the folder named after the desired version,
and proceed with the download. SourceForge page: https://sourceforge.net/projects/accessible-coconut/files/
Activity 2: Creating a Bootable USB Flash Drive (Thumb Drive, Memory Stick, Pendrive).
To make bootable Flash Drive you need following things
1. A flash drive with a minimum capacity of 8 GB (will be formatted).
2. Accessible-Coconut ISO image.
3. Software for installing ISO image to Flash Drive.
Here are some popular software options that can help install Accessible-Coconut to a Flash Drive.
1. balena Etcher: Available for Windows, GNU/Linux and MacOS.
Download link: https://etcher.balena.io/#download-etcher
2. Startup Disk Creator: Available for Ubuntu flavors and Accessible-Coconut only.
sudo apt-get install usb-creator-gtk
3. USB Image Writer: Available in Linux Mint and Accessible-Coconut.
4. Rufus: Available for windows only.
download link: https://rufus.ie/en/
5. UNetbootin: available for Windows, GNU/Linux and MacOS.
Download link: https://unetbootin.github.io
Now, do the following with any of the above listed software. Note that the USB stick will be formatted during this process.
Step 1: Launch the application.
Step 2: Insert your USB stick and remove any other USB storage medium for safety.
The software will update to set the device within the Device field.
If the Device selected is incorrect (perhaps you have multiple USB storage devices),
select the correct one from the device field’s drop-down menu.
Step 3: Choose the downloaded ISO image file of Accessible-Coconut.
Step 4: Select Start.
Step 5: Enter system password if prompted.
Step 6: Wait until the process is completed.
Activity 3: Booting to Accessible-Coconut live mode using the Flash Drive.
To install, let us understand that there are two types of installations: one with UEFI mode enabled and the other with Legacy mode. Most modern computers, especially those running Windows 8 and later versions, are installed in UEFI mode, while Windows 7 and earlier versions are generally installed in Legacy mode. If the computer is installed in UEFI mode, we should boot and install Accessible-Coconut in the same mode; likewise for Legacy mode. Attempting installation in the other mode will result in the operating system being installed but not detected by the computer.
Insert the Installation medium (Bootable Flash Drive) and restart the computer. For a visually impaired he/she may change the BIOS option to boot from Flash Drive in advance. If one has not done so in advance, seek the help of a sighted guide for the following. Looking at the screen a message indicating the button for entering boot options menu will be displayed at the top or bottom. The button may vary from system to system. It may be Del or F2 or F9 or F12. Keep pressing the appropriate button while the system is starting. This will bring up the boot options menu. Select the option to boot from the Flash Drive and press Enter.
Here, one should select the Flash Drive with ‘UEFI’ in brackets if the previous operating system is installed in UEFI mode. If your computer is already configured to boot from Flash Drive when one is loaded, this step is not required.
Note 1: In the BIOS, adjust the boot order by selecting items using the arrow keys. Use F5, F6, or the plus (+) and minus (-) keys to move items accordingly.
Note 2: If your Flash Drive is not listed in boot priority list check the Hard disk priority.
Note 3: In UEFI-enabled systems, accessing the BIOS or boot options by pressing keys is not possible. Details on how this can be achieved are provided at the end of this document.
Activity 4: Installing the Accessible-Coconut operating system.
Step 1: After the Accessible-Coconut is in live mode and also welcome to orca is heard, one should press installer launcher on the desktop.
Step 2: Now, on the first page, the default language is English. If necessary, change the language, and finally, press the ‘Continue’ button.
Step 3: The following page is for selecting the keyboard layout. If necessary, change the layout, and finally, press the ‘Continue’ button.
Step 4: The next page allows you to choose between a normal installation and a minimal installation. You can opt for the minimal installation if you don’t need all the software that comes with Accessible-Coconut.
Step 5: On the next page, under ‘Update and Other Software,’ there is an option labeled ‘Download updates while installing.’ Do not check this option because the upstream version may or may not be accessible.
Step 6: The most important step in the installation process is partitioning, during which you determine the location on your hard disk where the Accessible-Coconut will be installed. There will appear ‘Installation Type’ page with three or more radio buttons from which one can choose how to install Accessible-Coconut. One can navigate through these radio buttons by using up and down arrow.
Option 1: Installing alongside Windows or an existing operating system is the simplest method. This option installs Accessible-Coconut within the available free space or by shrinking existing partitions to accommodate it. It’s advisable to create a minimum of 30 GB of free space on the hard disk before initiating the installation process to ensure smoother operation. This free space can be created using Disk Manager for Windows or GParted for GNU/Linux. To duel boot Accessible-Coconut with Microsoft Windows ‘Alongside Windows’ option is recommended.
Option 2: ‘Erase and Use the Entire Disk’ is also straightforward, but BEWARE: THIS WILL DELETE ALL EXISTING OPERATING SYSTEMS, APPLICATIONS, AND DATA FROM YOUR HARD DISK. It will create a single partition occupying the entire disk and will install Accessible-Coconut.
Option 3: ‘Erase Ubuntu and Reinstall’ will delete existing Ubuntu and install Accessible-Coconut.
Option 4: To have enough control on the installation process, choose the last option namely ‘Something else’, select the ‘Continue’ button, Then a table appears, to navigate through this table one can use arrow keys. In the first column the ‘Device’ of the partition is shown and in the second column the ‘Type’ of each partition and in the Fifth column the ‘Size’ of each partition and in the sixth column the ‘used space’ is shown and in the seventh the ‘Operating System’ is shown. Select the partition to be deleted using the arrow key and press the delete key so that free space will be created.
The minimum partition required for the installation process is the root partition. To create it, select the free space and press Enter. This will bring up the ‘Create New Partition’ window. Then, press Shift+Tab twice to reach the mount point. Press the Down Arrow key once, and Orca will announce ‘slash.’ Now, Tab until you hear ‘Okay,’ and press Enter.
If you’re installing in UEFI mode, it’s necessary to create a partition with the type ‘EFI System Partition’ and a size of 100 MB. This can be done by selecting ‘EFI System Partition’ from the ‘Use as’ combobox in the ‘Create New Partition’ window.
Step 7: Now the system is ready for installation. Press tab till you reach ‘Install now’ button and press enter and the installation will start.
Please note that one can revert the installation process by selecting ‘revert’ or ‘back’ button or quit the installation process entirely by selecting ‘quit’ button. However once the ‘Install now’ button is selected the installation process will start.
Step 8: The next page is for selecting the timezone. You can select the timezone by typing the first few characters and then selecting the appropriate option.
Step 9: On the ‘Who Are You’ page, enter your username, password, etc., and choose to enable automatic login if you don’t require a password prompt at startup.
Activity 5: Restart and remove the Flash Drive. Installation may take ten to fifteen minutes, and the installer will prompt you to restart the computer upon completion. Now, click the ‘Restart Now’ button, and after one minute, remove the Flash Drive and press Enter to restart.
Note 1: UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.
Note 2: Accessing the BIOS or boot options in UEFI-enabled Windows 8/10/11:
So one has to do following steps
Step 1: From windows, go to restart option and press Shift key and then Enter to restart.
Step 2: From the next window select ‘Troubleshoot’
Step 3: Select ‘Advanced Options’
Step 4: Select ‘UEFI Firmware Settings’
Step 5: Select ‘Restart’
Step 6: Now open Bios using Delete key, F2, F12 depends on system.
Note that in some laptops, one has to hold the function key before pressing these keys.
Note 3: Determining if the computer boots from the HDD/Flash Drive in UEFI mode or not:
Method 1: If there are no BIOS shortcut hints and the system boots directly to Windows,
it indicates UEFI mode.
Method 2: Confirm the existence of the ‘/sys/firmware/efi’ directory in your
GNU/Linux system; its presence indicates UEFI mode.
Note 4: If no partitions are listed, use ‘Fixparts’ located in the System Tools menu within the application menu.