Installing Sinty OS

Sinty OS is installed from a bootable image onto a machine that meets the requirements. The installer lays down the full system: the signed boot loader, the verified system slots, and an encrypted data area.

The target disk is erased

Installing Sinty OS writes a fresh partition layout to the target disk. Everything on that disk is lost. Back up anything you care about, and prefer a spare machine or a virtual machine while Sinty OS is pre-release.

What you need

• A machine that meets the requirements: UEFI with Secure Boot, an x86-64-v2 CPU, and a TPM 2.0.
• The Sinty OS installer image, written to a USB stick (or attached to a virtual machine).

The install, step by step

1. Boot the installer. Start the machine from the Sinty OS installer media. You may need to pick it from the firmware boot menu.
2. Choose the disk. The installer shows the disks it can use and asks which one to install onto. This disk will be erased.
3. Let it write the system. The installer creates the GPT layout (EFI partition, the signed system slots, the encrypted data area), copies the signed image into the active slot, and installs the boot loader that verifies each boot.
4. Reboot into Sinty OS. When it finishes, remove the installer media and reboot. The first boot walks you through setup.

The very first boot is where you set your PIN and are shown your recovery code. That is covered in First boot and your PIN.

After installation

• The system boots through a signed loader that checks the image before running it, so a tampered or corrupted system will not silently start.
• Updates arrive as whole signed images and roll back on failure. See Updates and rollback.
• If the machine ever ends up unable to boot, Recovery mode can repair or reinstall it over wifi.