`dd` : Start the dd command to write DVD/CD iso image. `if=AlmaLinux-8-x86_64-Live-GNOME-Mini-beta-1.iso` : path to the input file. `of=/dev/sdc` : path to destination USB disk/stick. status=progress: display a progress bar while writing the image to the USB stick such as `/dev/sdb`. That’s all! You now have ready Live AlmaLinux on a USB stick.
The cross-platform tool balenaEtcher is used to write images on macOS. It is simple too. Open banlenaEtcher, choose the image and the USB, press Flash.
More details and information about AlmaLinux Live Media can be found on Live Media SIG.
1. When starting up AlmaLinux for the first time you will be granted with a welcome screen. Here select your language and keyboard type. Click **Continue**
3. Select User Creation: Create a user and assign that user a strong password. Make sure both `Make this user administrator` and `Require a password to use this account` are checked. Click **Done**
4. Software Selection: For this instance we will select Minimal Install. Click **Done**
5. Security Profile: We will highlight DISA STIG and click on `Select profile` It will issue some errors, you can disregard them as we will correct it in the next section. Click **Done**
* By default, the system will save the keys to C:\Users\your_username/.ssh/id_rsa. You can use the default name, or you can choose more descriptive names. This can help distinguish between keys, if you are using multiple key pairs. To stick to the default option, press Enter.
* You’ll be asked to enter a passphrase. Hit Enter to skip this step.
* The system will generate the key pair, and display the key fingerprint and a randomart image.
* Open your file browser.
* Navigate to C:\Users\your_username/.ssh.
* You should see two files. The identification is saved in the id_rsa file and the public key is labeled id_rsa.pub. This is your SSH key pair.
fapolicyd starts in protection mode. We need to set fapolicyd to permissive mode to allow us to build the necessary rule sets for our individual systems.
```sh
cd /etc/fapolicyd/
sed -i 's/permissive = 0/permissive = 1/g' fapolicyd.conf
systemctl restart fapolicyd
```
See <ahref="https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/security_hardening/assembly_blocking-and-allowing-applications-using-fapolicyd_security-hardening">RHEL: Blocking and Allowing applications with fapolicyd</a> for more information on building rules.
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<!-- CLOUD -->
## Optional Cloud Configurations:
`cloud-init`: Cloud images are operating system templates and every instance starts out as an identical clone of every other instance. It is the user data that gives every cloud instance its personality and cloud-init is the tool that applies user data to your instances automatically.
```sh
dnf install -y cloud-init
```
`cloud-utils-growpart`: Provides the growpart script for growing a partition. It is primarily used in cloud images in conjunction with the dracut-modules-growroot package to grow the root partition on first boot.
```sh
dnf install -y cloud-utils-growpart
```
`gdisk`: GDISK command is used to partition the drives of your system. Works with cloud-init for partition resizing.
