Make a USB stick

You need a USB stick of 8 GB or more. Everything on it will be erased, so copy off anything you want to keep first.

No public download yet

Wild OS is in early alpha. When the first release is out, the links below will start working. Leave your email and we’ll send one message on the day.

1. Download

• The ISO: wildos.io/download/iso
• Its checksums: wildos.io/download/checksums, the file SHA256SUMS, with its signature SHA256SUMS.sig alongside

The ISO is a little over 3 GB.

2. Check the download

Checking proves the file is the one we published and that nothing was damaged or changed on the way.

On Linux, open a terminal in the folder you downloaded to and run:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

It should print wildos-amd64.iso: OK. On a Mac, use shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS instead.

On Windows, open PowerShell in the download folder and run:

Get-FileHash wildos-amd64.iso -Algorithm SHA256

Compare the long code it prints with the one in SHA256SUMS. They must match exactly.

SHA256SUMS is itself signed with the Wild OS key, the same one that signs every update. To check the signature too, import the Wild OS key and run gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.sig SHA256SUMS.

3. Write it to the stick

On Windows, with Rufus

1. Download Rufus and run it.
2. Device: your USB stick. Boot selection: the Wild OS ISO.
3. Partition scheme: GPT. Target system: UEFI (non CSM).
4. Click Start. When Rufus asks how to write the image, choose Write in DD image mode. It copies the stick byte for byte, which is the most reliable way, and the stick then starts on UEFI and older BIOS PCs alike.

On Windows, macOS or Linux, with balenaEtcher

1. Download balenaEtcher and open it.
2. Choose Flash from file and pick the ISO.
3. Choose the USB stick, then Flash.

On Linux, from a terminal

Find the stick’s name with lsblk (for example /dev/sdb). Be certain it’s the stick, because this erases whatever you point it at.

sudo dd if=wildos-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

Next: start your PC from the stick.