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stable 0.2.0

First boot

The first start does a little setup work that never happens again. It takes seconds, and then you are at a desktop.

What the system does

The very first time Immos boots from a freshly written image, three things happen before you see the desktop:

  1. The data partition grows to fill the disk. The image ships a small data partition so the download stays small; on first boot it is expanded to the end of the physical disk, whether that disk is a 32 GB stick or a 2 TB NVMe drive. A machine installed by the installer skips this — it sized the partition up front.
  2. A machine ID is generated. Every install gets its own identity, written to the writable configuration layer.
  3. The desktop starts and logs in. Images written directly autologin as a preconfigured user, so evaluation in a VM or from a stick takes no setup at all. An installed machine starts at an ordinary login screen with the account you created.

None of this repeats. Later boots go straight to the login.

About the built-in account

Because the raw image doubles as live media, it ships with a ready-made account instead of asking you to create one. The installer removes it as part of installing. If you wrote the image directly, change the password on any machine you intend to keep, and add your own account if you prefer.

What you will see

The Immos mark animates from the moment the firmware hands over — one continuous pulse through the boot splash and the login screen, so there is no flash or mode change on the way to the desktop. On most hardware this is a few seconds; a spinning disk or a slow USB 2 stick is slower on the first run because the data partition is being expanded.

Getting online

Networking is handled by NetworkManager, with the network applet in the system tray. Wi-Fi credentials you save are stored in the system wallet and unlocked at login, so you connect once.

First things worth doing

  • Check for updates. Open a terminal and run immos-update check. See updating your system.
  • Install your apps. Open Discover and install from Flathub — installing apps.
  • Set your accent and theme. System Settings → Appearance. Ten accents, light and dark.

If it does not reach the desktop

A machine that fails to reach a working desktop three times in a row is rolled back automatically to the previously working image. On a brand-new install there is nothing to roll back to, so if the very first boot fails, the usual causes are Secure Boot still being enabled, the firmware being in legacy BIOS mode, or a pre-Turing NVIDIA card. See known limitations.