॥ श्री ॥

Pre-Installation Setup

Installation 2026-08-28

BIOS/UEFI Configuration

Configure your firmware before installation (typically accessed via F2, F10, Del, or Esc during startup):

  1. Enable UEFI Boot — Disable legacy/CSM mode. Shanios requires UEFI.
  2. Disable Fast Boot — Fast Boot can interfere with USB boot and Linux installation.
  3. Secure Boot can stay enabled — Shanios's installer media is pre-signed with its MOK (Machine Owner Key). If Secure Boot is on, firmware will launch MokManager automatically the first time you boot the USB, letting you enroll the key from disk before the live environment starts. If you'd rather skip that extra step during installation, disable Secure Boot temporarily and enroll the key later — the installer stages MOK enrollment for the installed system automatically (see First Boot).
  4. Set SATA Mode to AHCI — Ensures optimal disk performance and compatibility.
  5. Enable Virtualization — Enable Intel VT-x or AMD-V for container support.

Downloading & Verifying the ISO

Download the Shanios ISO from shani.dev (primary, served from Cloudflare R2). SourceForge mirrors the base images and past releases.

COSMIC, Kiosk, and Server profiles are available as base images (.zst send-streams) only — they do not have signed install ISOs. See Cloud Images Beyond AWS for how to deploy these profiles.
There is no separate "Server" ISO. A server image profile exists but is only built as a cloud image (AWS AMI via the packer pipeline), not as installable install media.

Always verify before writing. Every Shanios ISO is SHA256 checksummed and GPG signed. Verifying the checksum confirms the file downloaded completely and hasn't been tampered with. Place the .iso, .sha256, and .asc files in the same directory before running the commands below.

Linux / macOS — Verify SHA256 + GPG

# GNOME edition — substitute the Plasma filename for that edition

# 1. Verify checksum
sha256sum -c signed_shanios-gnome-2026.05.18-x86_64.iso.sha256

# 2. Import the Shanios signing key (once)
gpg --keyserver keys.openpgp.org --recv-keys 7B927BFFD4A9EAAA8B666B77DE217F3DA8014792

# 3. Verify GPG signature
gpg --verify signed_shanios-gnome-2026.05.18-x86_64.iso.asc signed_shanios-gnome-2026.05.18-x86_64.iso

SHA256 expected output: signed_shanios-gnome-2026.05.18-x86_64.iso: OK. GPG should report Good signature from "Shani OS". Any other result means the download is corrupt or tampered — delete it and re-download.

Windows (PowerShell) — Verify SHA256

Get-FileHash signed_shanios-gnome-2026.05.18-x86_64.iso -Algorithm SHA256

Compare the output hash against the contents of the downloaded .sha256 file — they must match exactly.

Writing to USB

  • Recommended (all platforms): Balena Etcher — select ISO, select USB, flash.
  • Windows alternative: Rufus — use DD image mode, not ISO mode.
  • Linux with dd:
# Find your USB device first — confirm the target before proceeding
lsblk

# Write (replace /dev/sdX with your actual USB device, e.g. /dev/sdb)
sudo dd bs=4M if=signed_shanios-gnome-2026.05.18-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress oflag=sync
Do not use Ventoy. Ventoy's ISO mounting method conflicts with Shanios's bootloader and will cause installation failures. Use Balena Etcher or Rufus instead.

See Also