Since BackTrack 4 Pre-Release does not contain an installer you can follow these steps to install BT4 quickly and easily. The assumption is that you are installing BT4 on an empty disk (/dev/sda in this tutorial).
Boot to BT4 DVD (download BackTrack 4 ISO – make sure to get the BT 4 Beta and not the BT4 Pre Release). Enter commands in bold.
1. Start by creating 3 partitions on the disk, one each for boot, swap and root. Note, since your disk size is probably different than mine the number of cylinders will likely be different.
root@bt:~# fdisk /dev/sda
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 19457.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-19457, default 1): <enter>
Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-19457, default 19457): +128M
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (18-19457, default 18): <enter>
Using default value 18
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (18-19457, default 19457): +1024M
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 3
First cylinder (150-19457, default 150): <enter>
Using default value 150
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (150-19457, default 19457): +16000M
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 2
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 2 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris)
Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
root@bt:~#
2. Format the file systems, mount them and copy over the directory structure. Chroot into new environment.
root@bt:~# mke2fs /dev/sda1
root@bt:~# mkswap /dev/sda2
root@bt:~# swapon /dev/sda2
root@bt:~# mkreiserfs /dev/sda3
root@bt:~# mkdir /mnt/bt
root@bt:~# mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/bt/
root@bt:~# mkdir /mnt/bt/boot
root@bt:~# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/bt/boot
root@bt:~# cp –preserve -R /{bin,dev,home,pentest,root,usr,boot,etc,lib,opt,sbin,var} /mnt/bt/
root@bt:~# mkdir /mnt/bt/{mnt,tmp,proc,sys}
root@bt:~# chmod 1777 /mnt/bt/tmp/
root@bt:~# mount -t proc proc /mnt/bt/proc
root@bt:~# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/bt/dev/
root@bt:~# chroot /mnt/bt/ /bin/bash
3. Configure /etc/lilo.conf to reflect your setup.
lba32
boot=/dev/sda
root=/dev/sda3
# bitmap=/boot/sarge.bmp
# bmp-colors=1,,0,2,,0
# bmp-table=120p,173p,1,15,17
# bmp-timer=254p,432p,1,0,0
# install=bmp
# delay=20
prompt
timeout=50
# map=/boot/map
vga=0x317
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=”BT4″
read-only
initrd=/boot/splash.initrd
append=quiet
4. Fix first line in /etc/fstab, and remove unnecessary mount lines. Add the swap partition to the fstab so it gets loaded at boot time. Your fstab should look similar to this:
/dev/sda3 / reiserfs defaults 0 0 # AutoUpdate
/dev/sda2 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 # AutoUpdate
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 # AutoUpdate
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 # AutoUpdate
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 # AutoUpdate
5. Execute lilo and reboot!
root@bt:/# lilo -v
LILO version 22.8, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2006 John Coffman
Released 19-Feb-2007, and compiled at 14:08:06 on May 15 2008
Ubuntu
Reading boot sector from /dev/sda
Using MENU secondary loader
Calling map_insert_data
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz
Mapping RAM disk /boot/splash.initrd
Added BT4 *
Writing boot sector.
Backup copy of boot sector in /boot/boot.0800
root@bt:/# exit
exit
root@bt:~# reboot
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