WolframOS Installation

From Knowledge Base

Hardware requirements

Specification Minimum Recommended Notes
Chipset BIOS UEFI
CPU 1.5 GHz × 2 cores 2.0 GHz × 4 cores 64-bit x86 only (32-bit x86 or ARM will not work)
Memory 4 GB 8 GB
Storage 100 GB HDD 128 GB SSD
Network interface 100 Mb/s Ethernet 1000 Mb/s Ethernet
Internet connection Not required1 100 Mb/s down For downloading updates
USB ports 1 1 For installation and backups

1 Offline installations require OnTakt Daemon 1.0.3 or later to install updates.

Installation instructions

  1. Download the WolframOS ISO (you might have to right click the hyperlink and select "Open in New Tab")
  2. Use Etcher (or another ISO image writer) to write it to a USB flash drive that is at least 2GB. Anything else on the flash drive will be erased!
    1. Formatted USB flash drives are needed, ensure the USB is formatted in FAT32 or exFAT)
  3. Make sure the IPC is powered off. Unplugging it is an easy way to do this and will not hurt anything because we are about to wipe it anyway.
  4. Insert the flash drive into the IPC. DO NOT leave this flash drive plugged into any other PC. Rebooting a computer with this drive plugged in can erase its hard drive with very little time to stop it.
  5. Connect IPC to network and then power. A monitor and keyboard are optional, but the IPC must have a network connection for the OS installation to succeed.
  6. Boot from the flash drive. For new PCs, this will usually happen by default. If it doesn't, check your PC's manual for instructions for booting from USB devices. This may involve a keypress during boot to select a temporary boot device, or changing the BIOS configuration.
    1. Edit: It is good practice to have a monitor and keyboard accessible, because you can see if there are any errors with the USB or the boot-up process
  7. Wait about 20 minutes. When the installation stops, the system will shut down. If this takes longer than half an hour, connect a monitor to the IPC to see if there are any error messages. Sometimes trying the installation again can fix them.
    Example of successful WolframOS install on IPC
  8. The IPC is now ready, but shut down. Remove the flash drive.
  9. Continue to first-time setup (not needed if Wolfram is conducting initial IPC set-up)

Virtual machine support

These instructions should also work for deployment as a virtual machine. VirtualBox and VMware ESXi have been tested and found to work. Keep in mind the necessary port forwarding settings when setting up the virtual machine.