Installation

pmbootstrap runs on pretty much any Linux distribution with python3, openssl and git installed. It uses Alpine Linux chroots internally to avoid installing software on the host machine. If you don’t run Linux on your PC, see On other operating systems.

On Linux

From package manager

Alpine Linux, postmarketOS:
# apk add pmbootstrap
Arch Linux:
# pacman -S pmbootstrap
Debian:
# apt install pmbootstrap
Fedora:
# dnf install pmbootstrap
Void Linux:
# xbps-install -S pmbootstrap
Gentoo:
# emerge -va app-eselect/eselect-repository
# eselect repository enable guru
# emaint -r guru sync
# emerge -va dev-util/pmbootstrap
Nix/NixOS
# nix run nixpkgs#pmbootstrap

Note

Fixed release distributions, i.e. Debian, may freeze pmbootstrap version. Consider installing it from git if you want the latest features and bug fixes.

From git

Follow this section if your Linux distribution doesn’t have pmbootstrap packaged, or its version of pmbootstrap is too old, or you would like to change the code. Run the following to clone and install pmbootstrap from git.

$ git clone --depth=1 https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmbootstrap.git
$ mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
$ ln -s "$PWD/pmbootstrap/pmbootstrap.py" ~/.local/bin/pmbootstrap
$ pmbootstrap --version
2.1.0

If this returns something like pmbootstrap: command not found instead of a version number, ensure that ~/.local/bin is in your PATH. For example by adding the following to your ~/.profile (zsh: ~/.zprofile) followed by source ~/.profile to update your environment.

PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Then open a new terminal and try again.

On other operating systems

Running pmbootstrap on other operating systems than Linux is not supported. If you run another OS, consider setting up a virtual machine with Linux.

Some people also made it work with WSL, see the Windows FAQ in the pmOS-Wiki. But again, it’s not officially supported - we recommend getting some sort of Linux install instead and running it there.