Install Locai OS

Flash Locai OS onto a machine to make it Locai One. You download the image on a laptop, write it to a USB stick, then boot that stick on the target. That erases the target’s internal disk. You do not need GitHub or a container registry.

Prerequisites

• A laptop (macOS, Linux, or Windows) with about 30 GiB free. Do not download onto the target.
• A USB 3 stick of 64 GiB, or the smallest that holds the image. The installer clones the whole stick. A larger stick makes the copy slower and needs a larger internal disk.
• The HTTPS download link and SHA-256 from Locai Labs. The link expires. Do not use an image from another source.
• A target machine that meets the hardware below. Use only a machine meant for Locai One.

Hardware

Locai Labs builds and tests against this minimum. The installer does not check core count or RAM itself.

	Minimum
Firmware	UEFI and TPM 2.0
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (16 cores) or stronger
Memory	64 GB
GPU	One NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 (32 GB) or stronger
Storage	One blank NVMe, 4 TB or larger. Fit only that drive during install. Add a second drive afterwards.

Without TPM 2.0 this is not a ship path.

1. Download on the laptop

Open a terminal. Replace the URL with the HTTPS link from Locai Labs.

mkdir -p ~/Downloads/locai-os
cd ~/Downloads/locai-os
curl -L --fail -o locaios.raw.gz 'YOUR_DOWNLOAD_URL'
ls -lh locaios.raw.gz

The file must be many gigabytes. A few kilobytes is an error page, not the image.

Check the checksum. It must match the SHA-256 Locai Labs sent, exactly.

macOS

shasum -a 256 locaios.raw.gz

Linux

sha256sum locaios.raw.gz

Windows

In PowerShell, from the folder that holds the file:

Get-FileHash .\locaios.raw.gz -Algorithm SHA256

2. Decompress

Stay in ~/Downloads/locai-os. This writes locaios.raw next to the .gz file.

gzip -dk locaios.raw.gz
ls -lh locaios.raw

On Windows, extract locaios.raw.gz with 7-Zip (or equivalent) so you have locaios.raw in that folder.

3. Find the USB stick

Plug the USB stick into the laptop. Do not write to the laptop’s own disk.

macOS

diskutil list

Find the external, physical USB disk, for example disk4. It is not disk0 (that is usually the laptop). Use your identifier below.

Linux

lsblk -d -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN

Find the row with TRAN of usb, for example /dev/sdb. It is not /dev/sda if that is the laptop disk. Use your device below.

Windows

Use balenaEtcher (or another whole-disk imager). It lists removable drives. Choose the USB stick, not an internal disk.

4. Write the image to the USB stick

This destroys everything on the stick. Do not copy files onto a FAT-formatted stick. This is a whole-disk image.

macOS

Replace disk4 with the identifier from step 3.

cd ~/Downloads/locai-os
diskutil unmountDisk disk4
sudo dd if=locaios.raw of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=4m
sync
diskutil eject disk4

/dev/rdisk4 is the same stick as disk4. It writes faster. macOS dd prints nothing until it finishes. That can take tens of minutes.

Linux

Replace /dev/sdb with the device from step 3. Unmount any partitions first.

cd ~/Downloads/locai-os
sudo umount /dev/sdb* || true
sudo dd if=locaios.raw of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync
sync

Then unplug the stick, or eject /dev/sdb if your system has it.

Windows

1. Open balenaEtcher.
2. Flash from file: choose locaios.raw (not the .gz).
3. Select the USB stick.
4. Flash. Eject the stick when it finishes.

5. Install on the target machine

1. Fit one blank NVMe. Connect a display and keyboard.
2. Put the USB stick in the target. Power on. Open the firmware boot menu (often F12, F11, or Esc). Boot the stick in UEFI mode.
3. The Locai dial appears. Press Esc to watch the log. The installer copies the stick onto the internal disk. Do not power off. On a large stick this takes tens of minutes. Read the progress figures.
4. When it finishes, power off, remove the stick, and boot from the internal disk.

Install and first boot work with no network. First boot is then slower. That is expected. You still need a network later to open the Admin Console from another computer.

If install stops, read the message:

Message	What to do
refusing to guess which is internal	Leave one NVMe fitted, install, then refit the other
already has a filesystem/partition signature	Use a blank disk, or wipe a spare disk first
target … is smaller than source …	Write the image to a smaller stick
no non-removable internal disk found	Seat the drive. Some RAID modes hide NVMe

Nothing is written to the internal disk in those cases.

Do not share the download link or image. Do not turn off disk encryption or Secure Boot after install. Locai One will not start. You would have to flash again, and stored work is gone.

After install

Continue with Quickstart to open the Admin Console and create the first administrator.

To let users reach Locai OS from the internet, turn on the public domain: see Set up public access. It works without opening inbound ports.