Legacy installation guide - for 22.04 and older (x64)

Note

This is the Installation guide for OS2borgerPC Kiosk 22.04 and older. We instead recommend installing our newer 24.04 images. The installation guide for the newer images can be found here.

Install OS2borgerPC Kiosk image

Get the most recent OS2borgerPC Kiosk image as provided by Magenta, or build one yourself according to the instructions in the image directory.

Copy the image to a USB or DVD and boot the target computer with it. One cross platform program for this purpose is “Rufus”.

The image will work with UEFI boot, but legacy boot is also supported.

The installation procedure will not ask a lot of questions. First of all, it will ask you to specify the disk you will install on, as shown below:

If you’re installing on a normal setup with only one hard disk attached, the defaults will be fine - in that case, hit TAB until you reach “Done” and hit ENTER. Otherwise, specify disk and partitions according to your needs.

OPTIONAL: You can activate disk encryption by checking the option “Encrypt the LVM group with LUKS” (hit TAB or use the arrow keys to highlight the relevant line then press ENTER) and then entering a passphrase. If you activate disk encryption, it will be necessary to enter the chosen passphrase during every startup of the computer. Entering the passphrase will require a physical keyboard.

As the installation will destroy all data on the disk in question, you will now be asked to “Confirm destructive action”. To proceed, select “Continue”.

Warning

This step will destroy all data on the disk you install on.

The system will now install - this will take some time.

Remove the installation media and reboot.

Note

If you chose to activate disk encryption, the computer will ask for the passphrase shortly after the reboot.

The login screen may contain output related to the upstart process:

This is not a problem and you’ll be able to login as the user superuser with password superuser.

Danger

Please change this password immediately after deploying each server!! There’s a script in OS2borgerPC Admin to do this.

Getting internet access

If you installed with an Ethernet cable and a DHCP-enabled network, the computer is already online. If you need to set up wireless network or configure a static IP, you must first install basic wireless capabilities - these are not installed by default. You don’t need a network connection, just enter the command:

sudo wifi_setup

Note

If you don’t need to use a wireless connection or do any other special network setup like setting up a static IP address, there is no need to execute this command.

Note

If what you want to connect to is a hidden SSID, see Configuration and advanced topics.

With this in place, enter the following command:

nmtui

You navigate within nmtui via the arrow keys, Enter and Escape.

To connect to a new network choose “Activate a connection” in the menu. If everything works as it should and the computer has a wireless card, you will see a list of wireless networks (if any exist, of course).

Once you’ve found and selected the desired Wi-Fi from the list, you will be prompted for its password.

If you need to connect to a WPA2 Enterprise network, it may not work from nmtui. In this case we suggest, if possible, that the machine is installed over another Wi-Fi or a LAN, and subsequently moved to the WPA2 Enterprise Wi-Fi. We have a script in the admin system for this purpose.

If you’re already connected, e.g. through Ethernet, choose “Edit a Connection”. You can now setup static IP, etc.

Note

In some cases, the wireless cards will not work properly unless the computer is connected through Ethernet during installation. We recommend that you install with an Internet-enabled Ethernet connection, though in some cases it will also work without it - it depends on your specific wireless card.

Connect to OS2borgerPC-admin (our admin system)

Once you’re connected to the network, enter the command:

sudo os2borgerpc_kiosk_setup

This will install all dependencies for the OS2borgerPC client.

Note

This may take some time.

Finally you’ll be prompted for information to register the machine with our admin system:

  • name: Give the computer any valid name you like.

  • site: If hosted by us: Use the site name we should’ve e-mailed you. If self-hosting or developing: Create a site, and specify its name here.

  • server: If hosted by us: Just press enter. If self-hosting specify the domain of your server. For development its likely some port on localhost.

Configuration and advanced topics

For the next steps, showing how to configure it to run OpenStream or Chromium, see: Configuration and advanced topics