Brown CS: CS Home Edition: How to Download and Install

(Note: the video above shows the installation of a previous version of Home Edition using an older version of Virtualbox.)

Before You Start

During the install, you will be asked a few questions. Here's what you need to know:

How much memory can you spare? When it's running, your VM will use system memory. The more you give it, the faster it will run, but the less memory the rest of your system will have. Between 25% and 50% of your system memory is a reasonable choice. Linux will run better with more than 2G.
How much disk space can you spare? Home edition needs at least 32G, but you will have more room to work if you give it more. Your choice will depend on the size and usage of your system disk.
Choose a hostname for your VM (you can use letters, numbers and dash - no whitespace)
Create two new passwords (do NOT use your Brown password!):
- A password for logging into your account (at least 8 characters, with upper case and/or numbers)
- A passphrase to encrypt your ssh key (at least 8 characters, with upper case and/or numbers)

Step 1: Download

Other images

Step 2: Initial Setup

Please follow the instructions below for the type of virtual machine or hardware on which you intend to run CS Home Edition.

Step 3: CS Home Edition Installation

The Home Edition installer skips many of the questions normally asked during a Linux installation, but there are a few:

Select Graphical install
Select Yes on the Partition disks step, when it asks "Write the changes to disks?"
The base system install takes several minutes...
- If installing on hardware (not a virtual machine), remove the USB drive before the next reboot
Select the system disk on the Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk step
The system reboots and kicks off the CS system update. This can take up to an hour or more...
When that is finished, the system reboots again.

Step 4: Final System Boot

At this point, the system is fully installed. As it boots for the second (and last) time, a web browser will appear displaying Brown's login page. Enter your Brown credentials as you normally would. The home edition installer will then create your local account, an ssh keypair, and upload your public key to the CS department servers. There will be no local root account, but you can use sudo.

When the login screen appears, the system is ready for use.

Step 5: Further Resources and Help

To see more resources about Home Edition, visit this page here!

Boot Loop on Virtual Box

- If you have installed CSHE and your VM is stuck in a loop trying to install it again. You can try changing your settings: make sure that you are booting from the Hard Disk first instead of the CD.