How to Install Parrot OS

 I have installed Parrot OS, but despite the Calamaris installer, it ended up not being a simple event. I attempted to install the MATE security edition on a virtual Gnome Box machine. The installation went fine until when it was about 93% of the way done, it stopped and sat on the following command: /usr/sbin/sources-media -u. It sat on it until the 600 seconds was up. I tried installing it with different settings, and still it would hand up at that spot, only to force me to close the installation and failed to install the operating system.

While on the Live installation of the system, I decided to take a look at the file. I discovered that it was a script file, and that the -u switch caused it to go into an update. The switch activates the following commands:

if [ "$1" = "-u" ]; then
    umount $CHROOT/$MEDIUM_PATH
    rm $CHROOT/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-live-media.list || true
    chroot $CHROOT apt-get update
    exit 0
fi

The fourth line updates the new system, which can be done equally well either before or after you install the system. However, the reason it was hanging is because as of today, it required almost 1700 updates, which alone would go beyond the 600 seconds it allows it to finish. However, it also ask several questions and requires user interaction to finish. Which means that was why it was hanging up. With no movement as it sat there and waited for my input in vain since the system didn't provide a way for me to do that, naturally it would time out. And since there wasn't any provision made for that in the install process, it ends the installation with only 7% more to go. Also, due to the big amounts of updates, you can't update it before you start the install because there isn't enough room on the "USB", virtual though it may be, to do it.

So with the only option left to update after the install, I had to disable the update in order to finish the installation. So I commented out the update command line in the file by putting a "#" at the beginning of that line so that it now showed:

#    chroot $CHROOT apt-get update

That allowed it to bypass the update and finish the install. Then I was able to do the giant update manually. Here are the commands to do this.

To edit the file, use your favorite text editor to comment out the line as described above. My favorite is nano from the command line BEFORE you start the install process from the live boot up.

sudo nano /usr/sbin/sources-media

Once you boot up into your new system, you can start the upgrade process using the following commands from the terminal, which I recommend you use instead of the GUI interface to update this many files.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Then check on it every once in a while because it will wait for your interaction at points. (Note: when you get to the section right after it downloads all the files and displays the change log to you with a ":" waiting for your input, you can just press enter until it tells you you can press "q" to exit it.)

Then enter the following command to remove unneeded files:

sudo apt autoremove

Once you've upgraded all the files, you're good to go!